An Overview of the Culture of Poverty

August 16, 2011

This month’s guest blog post is from ICAN’s Youth Program Manager, Heidi Harlow. She gives a brief overview of the Culture of Poverty and how it’s used for ICAN youth programs… Part of the training that all ICAN staff receive is on the “Culture of Poverty”.  This theory, made popular by the book A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne, suggests that the different socioeconomic classes operate under a specific set of hidden, or unspoken rules, that are essential for survival in that class.  ICAN incorporates many of the beliefs into policy and practice in the following ways…

• Students need to be taught the hidden rules of middle class – not in denigration of their own but rather as another set of rules that can be used if they so choose.
• Many of the attitudes that students and parents bring with them are an integral part of their culture and belief systems. Middle class solutions should not necessarily be imposed when other, more workable, solutions might be found.
• Support systems need to include the teaching of procedural self-talk, positive self-talk, planning, goal-setting, coping strategies, appropriate relationships, options during problem solving, access to information and know-how, and connections to additional resources.
• Students from poverty need to have at least two sets of behaviors from which to choose – one for the street and one for the school and work settings.
• The purpose of discipline should be to promote successful behaviors.
• Teaching students to use the adult voice (i.e., the language of negotiation) is important for success in and out of school and can become an alternative to physical aggression.
• Structure and choice need to be part of the discipline approach.
• Discipline should be seen and used as a form of instruction.

Taken from http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Framework_for_Understanding_Poverty%2C_A