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The Effects of Poverty
on Teaching and Learning
Challenge:
Diversity
The
rise in the number of children in poverty has contributed to making our
nation’s classrooms more diverse than ever before. This, indeed,
makes both teaching and learning more challenging.
This issue can remain a challenge for teachers, as opposed to becoming
a problem, if focus is placed on student learning as opposed to teaching.
Teachers
need to be tuned in to the culture of poverty and be sensitive to the
vast array of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom. Social contexts have a significant impact on
the development of children. The
social world of school operates by different rules or norms than the social
world these children live in. Focus should be placed on finding a harmonious
relationship between the cultural values of students and values emphasized
in school. Considering that so
many different cultures are represented in our society, we often encounter
students who belong to more than one cultural group.
They may be poor in addition to being non-English speaking or of
an ethnic/racial/religious minority group (Bowman, 1994; Marlowe and Page,
1999).
High-mobility
is a symptom of poverty and its surrounding social factors. Children of
poverty may live in places that rent by the week or even day. They may move from town to town as their parent searches for work
or runs from problems (such as an abusive spouse, criminal record, financial
responsibilities). They may live
in homeless shelters or battered women’s shelters that only allow
brief stays. They may live on
the streets. The conditions they live in and their day-to-day life experiences
can have a significant effect on their education and achievement. Moving is a very emotional event for children.
Combine this issue with the multitude of other issues faced by
mobile and homeless children and the impact on their emotional, social
and cognitive development can be overwhelming.
School
attendance is often irregular. Transfer to a new school becomes the norm. Aside from the differences from the general
school population due to other aspects of their poverty, mobility compounds
the difficulty these children have making friends. They may behave hostilely
or be totally withdrawn due to past attempts to make friends. With regard
to both the academic and social aspects of school, they may figure, “Why
bother? I’m just going to move again.” They also often come
to school with no records from their previous schools; and it may be difficult
for schools to track the records down.
Teachers have no idea what these students have learned. It is challenging
for schools to place these children in classrooms and get them additional
services they may need. Even if placement is successful, these children
will likely move again within the school year. It is also challenging to help these students
to learn at least something of value while they remain in our classrooms.
Children
become aware of social and economic status differences at a very young
age. They also grow increasingly
aware of both their own social status and that of their peers, developing
class-related attitudes during their years in elementary school. Teachers can help children to develop caring
and sensitivity toward different cultures including social classes. Activities
and lessons should be based on how children perceive themselves and the
world at the various stages of development.
For example, children who are in the age range of 7-12 years are
less egocentric. They focus on internal characteristics or traits of people
as opposed to external, observable social class differences. They also recognize similarities and differences
among groups. At around age 11,
children can consider causes and solutions to poverty.
Taking
into account a spiral curriculum, at earlier ages children can become
acquainted with social class and other cultural differences. During the latter years, the topic can be revisited
for deeper understanding. This
is a great opportunity to include community service learning projects
in the curriculum, such as volunteering as a class in a soup kitchen.
It is important that these activities be followed with both group
discussion and individual reflection to help children think critically
about their experiences (Chafel, 1997; Gomez, 2000).
As
teachers, these aspects of poverty make planning and preparation absolutely
critical. Content needs to be related in varying ways to meet the needs
of the diverse students in the classroom.
We have to consider the cultural values of these children as we
arrange their learning. Constructivism
is a key concept in that it respects student differences and allows students
to use their own prior knowledge and experiences to make connections and
learn. It affords students the opportunity to become
active learners by questioning, hypothesizing and drawing conclusions
based on their individual learning experiences. If there is limited foundation for children to draw upon, we need
to help them develop a base of knowledge and experiences so they have
somewhere to start.
By
providing emotional support, modeling, and other forms of scaffolding,
teachers can help students use their strengths, skills, and knowledge
to develop and learn (Marlowe and Page, 1999). Learning experiences and
problem solving based on real-life problems can help them deal with some
of the issues they may be faced with in their lives. Learning by doing
gives students the opportunity to be active and imaginative problem solvers
(Bassey, 1996). Thus, diversity actually presents us with
a chance to enhance the quality of education for all our students and
provide them with a variety of opportunities to develop into productive
citizens. As our schools and nation become more diverse, the need for
understanding and acceptance of differences becomes more important. Our challenge is to provide children with an effective multicultural
education that will foster awareness, respect, and acceptance.
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