Evolution of Deficit Thinking

Deficit thinking refers to the notion that students, particularly low income minority students, fail in school because they and their families experience deficiencies that obstruct the leaning process (e.g. limited intelligence, lack of motivation, inadequate home socialization). Tracing the evolution of deficit thinking, the authors debunk the pseudo-science and offer more plausible explanations of why students fail. Chapter 1 Conceptualizing the Notion of Deficit Thinking, Richard R. Valencia; Chapter 2 Early Racist Discourses: The Roots of Deficit Thinking, Martha Menchaca; Chapter 3 Genetic Pathology Model of Deficit Thinking, Richard R. Valencia; Chapter 4 Deficit Thinking Models Based on Culture: The Anthropological Protest, Douglas E. Foley; Chapter 5 Cultural and Accumulated Environmental Deficit Models, Arthur Pearl; Chapter 6 Contemporary Deficit Thinking, Richard R. Valencia, Daniel G. Solórzano; Chapter 7 Democratic Education as an Alternative to Deficit Thinking, Arthur Pearl; Chapter 8 Epilogue: The Future of Deficit Thinking in Educational Thought and Practice, Richard R. Valencia, Arthur Pearl; contrib; Notes on Contributors; Author Index; Subject Index;