What is Deficit Thinking

1.

Viewing a sociocultural and environmental context with a lens that judges the context in weaknesses or what is missing. Learn more in: Establishing Asset Thinking With Preservice Teachers: Community-Engaged Learning With Young Children From Public Housing

2.

A set of beliefs that assumes that marginalized populations experience struggle due to their own weakness, decisions or intrinsic work ethic. Learn more in: Story Shaping Ideology: Majoritarian Stories of English Learners

3.

The act of conceptualizing students from a place of lack and inferiority and framing people with disabilities as having inherent problems and inequalities that they are responsible for remedying. Learn more in: #DeleteDeficitThinking: Strategies to Name and Challenge Deficit Thinking in Universal Design for Learning

4.

A legacy of colonization that negatively impacts First Nations student educational success. Learn more in: When Intentional Design Creates Inclusion: Uncovering UDL Principles in a Pre-Tertiary Course for First Nations Students in Australia

5.

The notion that students, families, and communities, particularly historically marginalized and communities of color are at fault and responsible for the challenges and systemic inequalities they face. Learn more in: Community Cultural Wealth: Uncovering Assets Through Community Mapping