Poor Learners, Poor Parents, Poor Equity: Media Representations of the Poor and Their Encounters with Education

Abstract

This study seeks to unpack, problematize and re-imagine media discourse of poor families and their encounters with (formal) education, using a postmodern, feminist lens, and drawing on work and theory across education, journalism and political science. The critical discourse analysis conducted for this study draws from a (deliberately) broad source of mainstream newspaper reportage, as part of a two-pronged approach to culling discourse themes. Specifically, the analysis includes newspaper reportage of the poor and their encounters with education during two five-year periods (2002 to 2006 and 2009 to 2013), which coincide with (partially cover) the rollouts of two national education reform agendas — the No Child Left Behind law, put in motion by the Bush administration, and Race to the Top, unveiled by his Democratic successor and considered a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s education legacy. While reportage is not the only source of our knowledge about the poor (and our meaning making around poverty and policy), it is certainly central to discursive formation(s) of truth and reality. Using critical discourse analysis of newspaper stories and reader comments, this study explores how education reportage focusing on poor children and families: perpetuates other-ing and dominating stereo-scripts associated with poverty, including discourses of dependency and deficiency; disappears or ignores poor lives and poor voices; and feeds into (particular educational and social safety net) policy decisions.