Achievement Gap Ideology
It’s important to clarify that the term “achievement gap” stems from the deficit ideology itself. As Gloria Ladson-Billings has incessantly urged, the term “education debt” is much more fitting. This term allows us to conjure long term solutions for inequities that have historically accumulated. However, as mentioned before, the literature on the disparity of academic performance, is still debated between the two main groups of the deficit ideology and the education debt. We will take a closer into each one.
The deficit ideology puts a heavy emphasis on the individual. It reasons on meritocracy; if a student of color isn’t performing well, they simply have to work harder. Consequently, there is a blame on the student for their low performance. …show more content…
This issue is internalized oppression. I conceptualize this term as the student of color accepting the deficit ideology as an explanation for their low academic performance. This is an important concept to develop and explore because if it gets brushed over during the battle of oppression, and is replaced with only resistance (Pyke 2010), I do not believe the minds of the oppressed can be fully liberated. As Paulo Freire explains, true liberations stems from the oppressed. I think it’s important to further explore and understand how internalized oppression plays into the academic performance of students of color. Furthermore, I seek to answer whether there is any correlation with students of high academic performance and the acceptance of either the deficit ideology or sociological imagination. I hope my proposed research can begin to unravel where internalized oppression stems from, how it infiltrates our minds and why. Although it may seem problematic to focus on internalized oppression because it has the potential to place the blame on the individual for the internalized racism (Pyke 2010), I think it is an influential topic that needs to be explored further. As Pyke explains, there is a fixation on the resistance work against racism and not its further
The deficit ideology puts a heavy emphasis on the individual. It reasons on meritocracy; if a student of color isn’t performing well, they simply have to work harder. Consequently, there is a blame on the student for their low performance. …show more content…
This issue is internalized oppression. I conceptualize this term as the student of color accepting the deficit ideology as an explanation for their low academic performance. This is an important concept to develop and explore because if it gets brushed over during the battle of oppression, and is replaced with only resistance (Pyke 2010), I do not believe the minds of the oppressed can be fully liberated. As Paulo Freire explains, true liberations stems from the oppressed. I think it’s important to further explore and understand how internalized oppression plays into the academic performance of students of color. Furthermore, I seek to answer whether there is any correlation with students of high academic performance and the acceptance of either the deficit ideology or sociological imagination. I hope my proposed research can begin to unravel where internalized oppression stems from, how it infiltrates our minds and why. Although it may seem problematic to focus on internalized oppression because it has the potential to place the blame on the individual for the internalized racism (Pyke 2010), I think it is an influential topic that needs to be explored further. As Pyke explains, there is a fixation on the resistance work against racism and not its further