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McKay School of Education > News > Overcoming Deficit Theory-Putting a Face on ESL

Overcoming Deficit Theory-Putting a Face on ESL


"Maria," an American-born Latina preteen, is struggling in school. She is not unintelligent; she is actually quite bright. She is fluent in Spanish, speaks English with no accent, enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and tries hard in school. Her teacher, however, treats her differently because of her Hispanic background, and the way he treats her affects her performance in school.

Maria is suffering from the negative effects of deficit theory, an approach some teachers maintain towards second language learners--an assumption that minority students necessarily come into the classroom with deficits. Teacher may treat ELL students as if they were on a lower intellectual level than the rest of the class.

MSE scholars Ramona Cutri and Stefinee Pinnegar, along with graduate student Cary Johnson, recently studied an intervention to improve the attitudes of preservice teachers towards their ELL students, using interactive technology to introduce future teachers to these students and their situation. The researchers presented their findings at a recent conference in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"Our research looked at positively impacting attitudes of preservice teachers toward English language learners," Cutri said, explaining that an effective way to change teachers' attitudes toward English language learners is to help them identify with these students. "We need to put a face on the label of English language learners," she said, adding that coming to know students and their families allows a teacher to establish this identification, thereby fostering compassion and understanding, which in turn can overcome judgmental or negative attitudes.

Dr. Ramona Cutri

Dr. Ramona Cutri

"We saw a big need to identify with the students, not dehumanize and categorize them," Cutri stated. She quoted Elder Marlin K. Jensen's comments in a recent Deseret News article: "Meet an undocumented person. Come to know their family." These ideas led the three colleagues to develop an opportunity for preservice teachers to come to know Maria.

Cutri and her colleagues performed their study using an interactive CD-ROM titled "A Day in the Life of an English Language Learner," developed at the McKay School by Valerie Hales, Betty Francis, Stefinee Pinnegar, and Frances Hauser. The CD focuses on Maria and her family, describing their situation, their family setting, etc.

As preservice teachers learned about Maria's needs and lifestyle, Cutri and her team collected data about what participants noticed most about Maria and her family, and what they found most surprising. "Our data showed that teachers coming to know this little girl and her family, even for the brief space of one hour, even by video, showed positive attitude development that very much contradicted deficit theory attitudes," Cutri explained.

8 December 2008