Internalised deficit perspectives: positionality in culturally responsive pedagogical frameworks

Abstract

By showing that deficit thinking can manifest in an internalised sense among historically minoritised students, this paper examines the significance of ‘positionality’ in (re)conceptualising culturally responsive pedagogies (CRPs). Drawing from a study that explored the lived experiences of students participating in a culturally and linguistically diverse context, I demonstrate that whilst some students’ dispositions towards their home cultures and languages align with the anti-deficit and anti-racist agendas of CRPs, some dispositions present a counter-narrative and can be supportive of the status quo. I refer to these dispositions as ‘internalised deficit thinking or perspectives’. To capture this concept and, in a more general sense, the diverse subjectivities students used to navigate Westernised schooling arrangements, this paper advances the notion of positionality. Bringing ‘positionality’ into conversation with CRPs means confronting the relations of power, embodied by students of diverse backgrounds, in fostering socially just educational experiences.