Reflection on identities

Educationist and researcher Delpit (n.d.) questions the effectiveness of some progressive approaches to pedagogy regarding power. She discusses the difficulties students face who are not part of the “culture of power”.  Delpit proposed five aspects of power as follows:

1. Issues of power are enacted in classrooms. These issues include: the power of the teacher over the students; the power of the publishers of textbooks and of the developers of the curriculum to determine the view of the world presented; the power of the state in enforcing compulsory schooling; and the power of an individual or group to determine another’s intelligence or “normalcy.” Finally, if schooling prepares people for jobs, and the kind of job a person has determines her or his economic status and, therefore, power, then schooling is intimately related to that power.
2. There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power”. The codes or rules I’m speaking of relate to linguistic forms, communicative strategies and presentation of self (i.e., ways of talking, ways of writing, ways of dressing and ways of interacting).
3. The rules of the culture of power reflect the rules of the culture of those who have power. This means that success in institutions – schools, workplaces, and so on – is predicated upon acquisition of the culture of those who are in power. Children from middle-class homes tend to do better in school than those from non-middle-class homes because the culture of the school is based on the culture of the upper and middle classes – of those in power. The upper and middle classes send their children to school with all the accoutrements of the culture of power whereas children from other kinds of families operate within perfectly wonderful and viable cultures, but not cultures that carry the codes or rules of power.
4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. In my work within and between diverse cultures, I have come to conclude that members of any culture transmit information implicitly to co-members. However, when implicit codes are attempted across cultures, communication frequently breaks down. Each cultural group is left saying, “Why don’t those people say what they mean?” as well as, “What’s wrong with them, why don’t they understand?”
5. Those with power are frequently least aware of – or least willing to acknowledge – its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. For many who consider themselves members of liberal or radical camps, acknowledging personal power and admitting participation in the culture of power is distinctly uncomfortable. On the other hand, those who are less powerful in any situation are most likely to recognize the power variable most acutely.

You can read the full article from Lisa Delpit on Power and Pedagogy.