Jerrie Cobb Scott LITERACIES AND DEFICITS REVISITED

This article identifies two factors that contribute to the recycling of deficit pedagogy in programs designed for what Rose calls "students on the bounda1y." The first factor is traditional, technocratic definitions of literacy, viewed here as a mechanism for importing deficit theories into the content of instructional programs and accounting partially for the "missed" education of marginalized students, including students in basic writing programs. Shifting the focus to the "mis-education" of teachers, the discussion explores the second factor: "uncritical dysconsciousness," defined as the acceptance, sometimes unconsciously, of culturally sanctioned beliefs that, regardless of good intentions, defend the norms, superiority, and privileges of the dominant group. The paper challenges basic writing professionals to move to a higher level of critical consciousness in designing and implementing a pedagogy of success, thereby eliminating recycling deficits into programs designed for marginalized students. Why do we continue to revisit the issue of deficit pedagogy, particularly in programs designed for what Rose calls "students on the boundary?" It is reasonable to assume that we have either failed to get to the root of the problem or refused to accept the explanations offered. In this discussion, I identify two factors that Jerrie Cobb Scott, dean, College of Education and director, Center for Studies of Urban Literacy at Central State University, Wilberforce, OH, was formerly professor of English and linguistics and director of composition at the U of Florida, and teacher and administrator in Detroit public schools. A founder and national director of the African American Read-In Chain, a literacy campaign sponsored by NCTE's Black caucus, she has developed programs that combine traditional and nontraditional approaches to literacy instruction. Her recent publications include: Mission 2020: Validating Passports to the Land of Equal Opportunity (Central State U, 1992), "The Silent Sounds of Language Variation in the Classroom," in Hynds and Rubin, eds. Perspectives on Talk and Learning (NCTE, 1990), and "Deficit Theories, Ethnic Dialects and Literacy Research," plenary address, in 41st Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (1992). She has coauthored a forthcoming book, "Classroom Environments: Multidirectional Relationships Between Theory and Practice," that details the Literacy Across Disciplines program she designed for CSU (Boynton). ©journal of Basic Writing, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1993