Outside the Box: A Multi-Lingual Forum - Volume 9, Issue 1 Summer, 2019
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ISSN 1883-7409 (print)
ISSN 1884-0184 (on-line)
Outside the Box:
A Multi-Lingual Forum
Volume 9, Issue 1
Summer, 2019
Articles
Deficit Thinking in Pre-K Education: A Case of a Federally-Sponsored Pre-K Teacher 7
Fashial Zakaria
Every Contact Leaves a Trace: A Literary Reality of Locard’s Exchange Principle 18
Jeroen Bode
Revisiting Karl Haushofer at 150 – A Critical Look at the Most Recent Biography 23
Christian W. Spang
How Reliable is Wikipedia 18 Years after its Establishment? A Comparative Look at Various Language
Entries on Karl Haushofer 35
Christian W. Spang
国際結婚の成功例に見られる共通要因 功例 [Common Factors Found in Successful International
Marriages] 48
Ron Crosby
Language Learning and Teaching
The iPad at 10: Literature on Its Use in the Classroom 66
Jackie Talken
Eiken Picture Description Practice: A Sequence of Tasks 73
Norm Cook
Shakespeare in an American Movie: An American Way of Interpreting British Classics 81
Sho Kubota
2
The OTB Forum: A Multi-Lingual Forum
Volume 9, Issue 1
June 30, 2019
Copyright 2019 by The OTB Forum Editorial Board.
This material may be reproduced and stored in any retrieval system in any
form, but we ask that readers give credit where due and thus cite the OTB
Forum properly.
www.otbforum.net
ISSN 1883-7409 (print)
ISSN 1884-0184 (on-line)
3
Call for abstracts: The next issue of the OTB Forum is planned for the winter of 2019. The
review process is ongoing, so authors are encouraged to submit a short abstract (about 200
words). Please send abstracts to editor@otbforum.net
Share your experiences, thoughts and From the Editor
opinions on language, teaching, and
Welcome to another issue of Outside the Box: A Multi-Lingual
learning! Where? A good place is right Forum, or, in short, the OTB Forum. We are pleased to again
here at Outside the Box: A Multi- offer a variety of articles on various topics and from various per-
Lingual Forum. We welcome contri- spective. The OTB Forum focuses on language learning, teaching,
butions from both students and teach- and practical applications thereof, but the breadth of the journal is
much wider. If you are considering sharing something with us,
ers, young and old, inside and outside
please check the “Call for abstracts” above; you will also find the
the university community, and—as the publication’s goals in the column immediately to the left.
title suggests—in the language of your The first section of this issue, Articles, features three works. In
choice. The Outside the Box Forum is the first, Faishal Zakaria provides an in-depth look at the nature
a publication which pertains to all as- and implications of deficit thinking in pre-K education case
pects of language learning, other lin- study. The second article features the work of Sherlock Holmes
expert Jeroen Bode on ‘traces’ of the writing of Arthur Conan
guistic topics, your research, your ex- Doyle which exist in the work of Edogawa Ranpō. Christian W.
periences as a language learner or Spang again graces our pages with a pair of articles. The first ex-
teacher, reviews, tips, procedures, and amines the treatment of German Haushofer in a new book, find-
interesting places in cyberspace or the ing that recent scholarship is lacking. The second article ventures
real world. Given the eclectic nature of into cybersphere with a detailed look at how Wikipedia entries on
Haushofer vary by language. In the final piece in this section,
our contributions, we strive to preserve
Ron Crosby examines factors that influence the success of inter-
the unique voices of the individual au- national marriages.
thors. Thus, certain contributions may In the Language Learning and Teaching section, we are
represent versions of English. Ideas, pleased to offer three manuscripts. In the first, Jackie Talken
questions, techniques, creative writ- provides an overview of literature on iPad use in the classroom.
Norm Cook then addresses the nature of Eiken picture descrip-
ing—let your imagination and your
tion, which he likens to a series of tasks. Finally, Sho Kubota
creativity be your guide to creating a offers an interesting perspective on one American interpretation
dynamic and polyphonic space about of Shakespeare.
language. As always, we invite you to join us online at
http://otbforum.net
As the heat of summer slowly wanes, we would like to wish
our readers the very best as autumn awaits.
編集者より
Outside the Box: 多言語フォーラム、略してOTBフォーラム
へようこそ。今号も、多種多様なトピック、そして様々な
視点からの論文を発表することができ、嬉しく思います。
OTBフォーラムは言語学習、教育、そして実践応用などに
焦点を当てていますが、この雑誌の扱う分野はさらに広範
4
です。もしご寄稿をお考えであれば、上記の 文は、サイバー空間を使った研究で、Wikipedia
“Call for abstracts”をご覧ください。その左の欄 におけるHaushoferに関する記述の異言語間での
に、この出版物の目的についての記載もござ 相違について深い考察を試みました。そして
います。 このセクションの最後の論文では、Ron Crosby
氏における国際結婚の成功に関係する要因に
今号の最初のセクションは論説で、三本の
ついて検討しています。
論文を掲載しております。最初の論文はFaishal
Zakaria氏によるケーススタディで、幼稚園年 言語学習と教育のセクションでは、三本の
少（Pre-K）における「deficit thinking」（マイ 著 作 を 掲 載 し て い ま す。一 つ 目 の 論 文 は、
ノリティや移民が劣っていると考えること） Jackie Talken氏がiPadを授業で使用することに関
についてその本質について深い考察を発表し する文献研究を発表しています。次の論文で
ています。二本目の論文は、シャーロック は、Norm Cook氏が英検における絵の説明課題
ホームズの専門家であるJeroen Bode氏による、 の本質について解説します。最後に、Sho Ku-
江戸川乱歩の作品に出てくるアーサー・コナ bota氏の興味深い視点、一人のアメリカ人の観
ン・ドイルの著述についての「足跡」につい 点からのシェイクスピア解釈を発表していま
て紹介します。その後の作品はChristian W. す。
Spang氏の素晴らしい二本の論文です。一本目
OTB Forumをぜひインターネットでもご覧く
はGerman Haushoferの新しい本における扱いに ださい:
ついて考察する論文で、近年の学術的検討が
http://otbforum.net
不足していると論述しています。二本目の論
5
Articles 6
Deficit Thinking in Pre-K Education
A Case of a Federally-Sponsored Pre-K Teacher
Faishal Zakaria
Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: To meet the needs of marginalized students within US schools, many educational programs have
been devised and implemented, but such programs are sometimes grounded within the notion of deficit think-
ing, which basically blames the failures or inferior performance of those marginalized students (e.g. colored
or poor students) on the defects or deficits they were born with. Studies (e.g. Simone, 2012; Pitzer, 2014,
2015) have highlighted the complexity of deficit thinking discourse and simply trying to “fix” the deficit stu-
dents will never be a satisfactory solution because the acts of “fixing” can further perpetuate the notion of
deficit thinking. This study aims to investigate how a federally-funded classroom teacher perceives the stu-
dents and parents’ participation in relation to the notion of deficit thinking/perspective. The findings suggest
that deficit thinking is very likely to arise in educational institutions where marginalized students are present.
We should not take the seemingly neutral practices for granted but begin to critically question such practices,
so we might not continue perpetuating practices that would marginalize minority groups. Educators need to
be aware of the such deficit thinking and actively find ways to dismantle it in their everyday practices. Also,
student-teachers who come from minority groups should be aware of deficit thinking in education for disman-
tling the model of thinking that have discriminated against them in the first place.
T here are of course many challenges faced by
teachers and administrators in America’s
schools. One of the challenges is that the teachers
ginalized students (e.g., colored or poor students) on
the defects or deficits they were born with.
Many deficit thinkers have suggested that they
and administrators are working hard to meet the work hard to help those marginalized students per-
needs of marginalized students. Existing laws such form better so that they can catch up with better-
as the No Child Left Behind Act has have ensured performing students coming from dominant commu-
the right of every child to education. Authorities or nities despite the fact that they are actually perpetu-
school/education boards throughout the US has ating the negative stereotypes/deficit discourse
have implemented many programs to make sure that against the students they said they are trying to as-
no child is left behind. For instance, bilingual/ sist. Ruby Payne’s (2013) A Framework for Under-
multilingual students who are believed to be strug- standing Poverty: A Cognitive Approach, for exam-
gling with English in US mainstream schools are ple, seemingly offers a beneficial framework for
often times provided with additional English les- those working with poor students, but her frame-
sons because they need “help”, and children from work has been under fire for years because Payne’s
low socio-economic backgrounds can still get their works seem to focus on individuals rather than lar-
pre-K education through the federally-funded Head ger education system, overgeneralize people living
Start Program. Such programs or policies look very in poverty, and/or focus on perceived weaknesses of
promising, but sometimes they are grounded within poor people (van der Valk, 2016).
the notion of deficit thinking which basically It may not be possible to precisely trace when the
blames the failures or inferior performance of mar- term deficit thinking was actually devised, but it
seems to have been coined by a number of scholars
who in the 1960s attacked orthodoxy, under which
Zakaria, F. (2019). Deficit thinking in pre-K educa-
viewed poor and colored people were viewed as the
tion: A case of a federally-sponsored pre-K teacher. actual causes to their very own problems (Valencia,
OTB Forum, 9(1), 7-17. 1997). In the United States, the notion of deficit
7
thinking might possibly go back as far as early lead teacher, Ms. Anna, of a Head Start site of a mid
European settlements and slavery. The then racial- -size college town in a Midwestern state.
ized beliefs viewed non-whites and other minority This study seeks to answer the following research
individuals as less superior than the inferior to questions:
whites (Menchaca, 1997). In the 1800s, there were 1. How does the teacher perceive the student and
even groups of people (polygenists) who believed
parent participation in a Head Start Program?
that “God had created the non-whites in the same
manners that He created the rest of the animal king- 2. How does the teacher construct her teaching
dom” (Menchaca, 1997). Thus, it was not an im- and interact with students and others involved in
moral act to enslave non-whites because they were her class?
not much different from animals. Such early en- 3. What kind of discursive deficit thinking, if
tranced racist views might explain why racialized any, is being constructed by the teacher?
views or deficit thinking still exist up until today.
Some recent studies (e.g., Pitzer, 2014, 2015; Literature Review
Simone, 2012) have highlighted the complexity of Defining the Notion of Deficit Thinking
deficit thinking discourse and simply trying to “fix”
the deficit students will never be a satisfactory solu- Richard Valencia is one of the scholars who has
tion. Here, the literature has also suggested that the spent much of his professional life critiquing and
acts of “fixing” further perpetuate the notion of challenging the construct of deficit thinking (e.g.,
deficit thinking and alienate students from their own Valencia, 1997; 2010). Valencia (2010) connected
schools. Weiner (2006) asserted that school bu- school failures of low-SES students of colors to the
reaucracies usually try to “fix” students who do not development of deficit thinking. He explained that
behave or perform well “because the problem in- such school failures were somehow planned to hap-
heres in the students or their families, not in the so- pen because there were many schooling conditions
cial ecology of the school, grade, or classroom” (p. that forced these low-SES students to fail. For ex-
42). Schools and practitioners should go beyond ample, segregated schooling of students of color
such a blaming game because marginalized stu- usually “led, and still leads, to inferior schooling,
dents’ low and poor academic achievements will hence school failure” (p. 2). This makes sense be-
further be perpetuated. In this sense, Simone (2012) cause students who receive lower quality instruc-
said, tions would definitely fail to compete with students
“[D]eficit thinking cannot be fixed; it must be ad- who receive high-quality instructions. Here, Valen-
dressed, eliminated and replaced with an equitable cia concludes that “racialized opportunity structures
education that equally and effectively prepares lead to racialized academic achievement pat-
every student for his or her future” (p. 6). terns” (p. 3).
Although there have been many studies on prob- One of the theories that scholars and other educa-
lems of deficit thinking in American classrooms, as tion stakeholders have linked to low-SES students’
far as I am concerned, there is little research has school failures is the deficit thinking. For Valencia
been done on Head Start teachers’ perspectives of (2010), deficit thinking is an endogenous theory –
the poor students and parents that they serve. The “positing that the student who fails in school does so
Head Start Program, which was officially launched because of his/her internal deficits or deficien-
by President Lyndon B. Johnson some fifty-one cies” (p. 6), and these deficiencies allegedly result in
years ago, is a federally-funded public preschool the student’s limited or lack of intellectual ability,
program for children living in poverty (Mongeau, linguistics proficiency, or motivation. Such a theory
2016). The Head Start program usually serves mar- is dangerous because “it ignores the role of systemic
ginalized students (e.g., colored, bilingual, or immi- factors in creating school failure, lacks empirical
grant students). verification, relies more on ideology than science,
This study, therefore, aims to investigate how the grounds itself in classism, sexism, and racism, and
teachers perceive the students and parents’ partici- offers counter-productive educational prescriptions
pation in relation to the notion of deficit thinking/ for school success” (Valencia, 2010, pp. 6-7). Here,
perspective. In particular, this study focuses on a the actual problems that cause the students to fail
may never be solved. The impact of deficit para-
8
digm can last much longer. For instance, children failing in school, but they would consider internal
who are taught under such a paradigm may grow up individual factors. They are eager to “fix” those in-
believing that their backgrounds have many defec- ternal factors as they see this as a simple act of prob-
tive elements that would eventually contribute to lem-solving. Thus, the real issues of inequality will
their low performance. If the same students later never be addressed.
enroll in a teacher preparation program that does
Oppression
not challenge the deficit paradigm, they would
likely perpetuate the notion of deficit thinking in The abovementioned blaming game would trans-
their own class (Sarmiento-Arribalzaga & Murillo, late into a form of oppression—“the cruel and unjust
2009). use of authority and power to keep a group of peo-
Likewise, Walker (2011) contends that deficit ple in their place” (Valencia, 2010, p. 9). Classroom
theory “blames school failure for these students on teacher practices or school board policies can poten-
the students’ lack of readiness to learn in the class- tially oppress the marginalized students, especially
room, the parents’ lack of interest in their educa- when the policies further blame the students and do
tion, and the family’s overall lifestyle” (p. 577). not address the real causes to their low performance,
Also, students’ cultures are often associated with for instance. School segregation is another example
their low performance at school. Walker (2011) fur- of oppressive education policy that is grounded in
ther argues that students whose cultures are differ- deficit thinking.
ent from the dominant cultures are alleged to Pseudoscience
“innately have less competence, less intelligence,
less capability, and less self-motivation (p. 477). As has been said, deficit thinking is considered a
Such a blaming game has apparently been based on pseudoscience because it lacks empirical verifica-
unproven stereotypes and unempirical (if not base- tion. Deficit thinkers usually base their study on
less) assumptions. Valencia (1997, 2010) has, there- “unsound assumptions, use psychometrically weak
fore, contended that deficit theory as a pseudo- instrument and/or collect data in flawed manners, do
science because the theory is lacking “empirical not control important independent variables, and do
verification.” not consider rival hypotheses for the observed find-
Anderson (2013) discusses the current school ings” (Valencia p. 12).
accountability system which links school perform- Temporal Changes
ance with evaluations and accreditations. The better
performing schools will be rewarded and the non- According to Valencia (1997), deficit thinking is
performing will be penalized. The penalty can be in “greatly influenced by the temporal and Zeitgeist
the form of less funding. Such a high-stake condi- (spirit of the time) in which it finds itself” (p. 7).
tion may have further perpetuated the deficit model Two points would make this clearer. First, deficit
practices because the students, teachers, and school thinking is shaped more by the ideological and re-
administrators would be in fear in that policies search climates of the time—rather than shaping the
which can fix the issues will be devised. Again, this climates. Second, the fluid aspect of deficit thinking
fixing effort will usually try to focus on internal is not seen in the basic framework of the model, but
matters of why students do not perform well. rather in the transmitter of the alleged deficits.
Characteristics of Deficit Thinking Educability
Valencia (1997, 2010) proposes six characteris- Valencia (2010) argues that the social and behav-
tics of deficit thinking: (a) blaming the victim, (b) ioral sciences have four goals: describe, explain,
oppression, (c) pseudoscience, (d) temporal predict, and modify behavior. Deficit thinkers would
changes, (e) educability, and (f) heterodoxy. These use these goals to put forward their deficit perspec-
are explained in the following sections. tives. For example, Stanford University Professor,
Terman (1916), as cited by Valencia (2010), de-
Blaming the Victim scribes the IQ of Portuguese, American Indians,
Here, deficit thinkers would not address the ex- Mexican Americans, and African American as being
ternal factors as to why the low-SES students are at the bottom, he explains the cause to their low IQ
(which was allegedly genetically-based), he then
9
predicts huge racial differences will emerge, and In their study, Garcia and Guerra report how some
finally he proposes modification which was segre- 69 teachers managed to challenge their deficit model
gation of these low IQ people. Here, Valencia ar- teaching beliefs and practices after participated in
gues that “deficit thinkers would have us believe Organizing for Diversity Project (ODP) at the
that educability largely depends on individual intel- Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
lectual ability and that social, political, and eco- (SEDL) in Austin, TX. During the projects, these
nomic conditions within the schools and society do educators were able to discuss ways to create more
not appreciably relate to why variability exists in equitable learning environments for their students.
student learning and academic performance” (pp. This makes a lot of sense. In-service teachers can
15-16). significantly benefit from discussions with others or
consultations with experts as they can, perhaps, be
Heterodoxy
aware of their taken-for-granted teaching beliefs and
Valencia (1997) argues that the notion of hetero- practices so they can make calculated changes next
doxy, which can be simply referred to as alternative time they teach.
or differing views, can help us grasp the debates Valencia (2010) also summarizes a number of
between deficit and non-deficit thinkers. “Histori- anti-deficit thinking suggestions put forward by
cally, the deficit thinking model has rested on ortho- other scholars. Scholars have suggested anti-deficit
doxy—reflecting the dominant, conventional schol- thinking strategies can potentially improve the edu-
arly and ideological climates of the time. Through cational experiences of all students. Those strategies
an evolving discourse, heterodoxy has come to play are discussed within the issues of preservice teacher
a major role in the scholarly and ideological spheres education, parental engagement in education, educa-
in which deficit thinking has been situated” (Valen- tional leadership, social justice, ethnography of
cia, 2010, p.18). Although such heterodoxy had lit- school.
tle impact on challenging the status quo in the past, Alber (2013) suggests that teachers need to build
it was always a part of the deficit thinking evolu- on students’ strengths and interests to avoid deficit
tion. model teaching practices. Specifically, Alber (2013,
Deconstructing Deficit Thinking: Practical para. 8-12) suggests the following tips to build stu-
Solutions dents’ strengths and interests:
1. Goal Setting. Ask students to list what they
Pearl (1997) proposes “strong democracy” as an
are good at, what they'd like to be better at,
alternative to deconstruct deficit thinking. In order
and what they can teach others to do. Include
to deconstruct deficit model policies and practices
a writing activity where students set personal
within the school, democratic education should be
and academic goals, highlighting how the
in place. Pearl says that at least four requirements
skills and talents they already possess will
should be met in order for the democratic education
help them grow and accomplish these goals.
to take place. The requirements are (a) provision of
knowledge that would allow every student to 2. What I Know Well. Invite students to teach
equally engage in “an informed debate on every or share something they are good at with the
generally recognized important social and personal class. Here are some examples of things I've
issues,” (pp. 215-216), (b) assurance that everyone seen students share: origami, dance steps, a
has equal right of freedom of expressions, specified self-defense move, basic guitar chords, car-
rights of privacy, due process (e.g., presumption of tooning, Photoshop.
innocence), and freedom of movement, (c) provi- 3. My Learning Inventory. Ask students to list
sion of opportunities and skills to everyone so he or all the ways they learn best: by doing, by read-
she can participate with equal power and (d) provi- ing, by drawing, by seeing, by creating... Also,
sion of equal encouragement to everyone so he or have them list the things that have made their
she could participate in various societal activities. learning memorable (possible answers: "a
Further, Garcia and Guerra (2004) proposes a good book," "a nice teacher," "a fun assign-
socio-cultural framework for the deconstruction of ment"). Ask them to also include things that
deficit discourse through professional development. may interfere with their learning (possible ex-
ample, "if something is too hard").
104. Artifact from My Life. Students choose take as the relevant context?
something precious to them, an item that has How is what the speaker is saying and how he
value (personal, not monetary). Create an as- or she is saying it helping to reproduce con-
signment where the students bring the item to texts like this one (e.g., a class session in a
class (a photo, an award, baby shoes). They daycare), that is, helping them to continue to
can write about it and then share in small
exist through time and space?
groups why the item is so special.
5. Takeaways. Remember that critical to the Is the speaker reproducing contexts like this
learning process is self-reflection. Provide one unaware of aspects of the context that if
students with an opportunity to name and he or she thought about the matter con-
celebrate their own “takeaways”—all that sciously, he or she would not want to repro-
they have gained from a specific learning ex- duce?
perience. Is what the speaker is saying and how he or
she is saying it just, more or less, replicating
Theoretical Framework contexts like this one or, in any respect, trans-
For the present study, I consider deficit thinking forming or changing them?
theory which blames the students’ failures on their Gee argues that “no act of speaking in context is
backgrounds (e.g., Anderson, 2013; Garcia & ever totally identical in every aspect to another (e.g.,
Guerra, 2004: Pearl, 1997; Valencia, 1997; Valen- every lecture is different somehow), but sometimes
cia, 2010; Walker, 2011; ) and I was also inspired the differences are small and not very significant
by Bourdieusian perspective of democratic educa- and other times they are larger and more signifi-
tion (issues of access) and socials (Grenfell, 2012).
cant” (p. 91).
These informed my analyses of my interview data
with Ms. Anna, a local Head Start lead teacher, to Research Context
learn how to define her students and their parents’
participation and to learn if she develops and main- I chose to observe a local federally-funded pre-K
tains deficit perspectives when talking about her classroom (best known as Head Start classroom) and
students and their parents, particularly when dis- interview its two teachers. The Head Start classroom
cussing students’ achievements. that I observed is situated within a church building
on the east side of a mid-sized college town in the
Methodology Midwest. Altogether, there are four pre-K Head
Start classrooms at this church location. The class-
This is simply a case study but tries to utilize room that I observed is was team-taught by Ms.
Gee’s (2014) discourse analysis tool called “the Anna and Ms. Sharon (not real names). During my
context is a reflexive tool” which brings my focus research, 13 students were enrolled in this classroom
on the context, not just on what was said, as the lead
(maximum number).
teacher talks about her students and their parents.
As we use language to construct, deconstruct things, Observation
or to get things done, the contexts may help us in
this sense. The “property of context -namely that it To better help me understand the research con-
is both there (and gives meaning to what we do) – is texts and everyone involved in it, I observed Ms.
called the “reflexive” property of context. Speaking Anna’s class twice (approximately four hours in
reflects context and context reflects (is shaped) by total). I decided to observe the class from 9:00 am
speaking (what was said)” (p. 91). Here, Gee’s tool (starting time) to 11:00 am (right before the children
was used as an additional tool to analyze interview went to the playground to play) because I wanted to
data. Here, I adopt the following Gee’s questions to witness the kinds of teaching practices that Ms.
analyze the data: Anna and Ms. Sharon, the assistant teacher, engaged
in inside the class. In fact, the children would not
How is what the speaker is saying and how he spend so much time studying after lunch as they
or she is saying it helping to create or shape would take an hour-long nap and have some snacks
(possibly even manipulate) what listeners will before they go home. In addition, Ms. Anna also
11suggested that I observe her class before lunchtime. state and she has extensive experience teaching chil-
During my first observation, I paid attention to dren aged 5 and under. Ms. Anna started her career
the physical condition of the class and the kinds of teaching children after she graduated from college
activities that the students and the teachers were decades ago. Ms. Anna, she has been teaching in
doing from the beginning. From this observation, I this federally-funded classroom for almost five
learned that the class is following some types of years. During the interview, it was revealed that Ms.
routines. In fact, Ms. Anna printed and attached a Anna had taught in many different daycares before
list of daily activities that the students and the but Ms. Anna had to adjust here and there and had
teachers will be doing every day from the very first to upgrade her ability when she first worked at her
minute to the last minute. current Pre-K class. She had to do more paperwork
Because I witnessed the same activities were and learned other computer skills which were not
performed on my second observation, I diverted my required in her previous works. Currently, Ms. Anna
attention to unfamiliar things that the teachers or the serves as a lead teacher.
students were doing. With careful observation, I
Data Analysis Process
noticed that Ms. Anna and Ms. Sharon were not re-
luctant to do different things (e.g., doing different After I retyped my observation notes and tran-
math and science activities) in their class although scribed all interview data. I also coded my interview
routine has been established. In addition to observ- transcripts and observational notes. It is important to
ing the nature of student-teacher interactions, I also note that I had to omit some data because both Ms.
focused on how Ms. Anna and Ms. Sharon per- Anna and Ms. Sharon talked about things that were
formed team-teaching and on how responsibility not directly related to the topics of my questions.
was shared. [Omitted] would indicate such data omission.
Overall, I used my observation as a tool to gain As per the transcription process, I decided to pro-
preliminary knowledge or initial assumptions of my vide light Jeffersonian transcription where I type
research setting. The observation was expected to what I hear but also add some Jeffersonian tran-
provide me with an “authentic” experience of how scription symbols. To help me transcribe the huge
the class is actually run. For me, such initial knowl- amount of audiotaped data, I used Express Scribe
edge and experience would better assist me when I software where I can set hotkeys (e.g., I assigned F4
conduct the interview. For example, I can just con- key for pause and F9 key for replay) so I could con-
firm my interpretation of one particular classroom tinue typing without having to close my Microsoft
activity or interaction during the interview. Also, I Word file. Because the transcription process can
was hoping to get some general impressions of Ms. also offer some initial interpretation of the data, I
Anna’s class and to see whether deficit discourse deleted the data that I did not need (i.e., I omitted
was enacted in the way she ran the class. data that was not related to topics discussed). An-
other benefit of this transcription process is that I
Interview could develop some kinds of initial analysis of the
I initially conducted two separate semi- data.
structured interviews with Ms. Anna and one inter- To analyze the data, I first tried taking the fol-
view with her assistant for another project that fo- lowing three steps: describing, analyzing, and inter-
cused on teacher teaching beliefs. For this study, I preting. The data I collected from the interview were
decided to use the data from my two interviews transcribed and were coded and analyzed themati-
with Ms. Anna (because this study focuses on Ms. cally. I also took the same process when I analyzed
Anna). I later decided to do another interview with observational note data. I would discuss these
Anna where I asked specific questions that could themes in regard to deficit thinking theory. For in-
reveal deficit discourse was enacted as she was talk- terview data, I tried to apply Gee’s the Context Is
ing about her students and their parents. Here, I fo- Reflexive Tool which could, I hoped, shed addi-
cus my analysis on my interview with Ms. Anna. tional light on the kind of contexts deficit thinking
discourse/perspective which is or is not enacted.
Participants
Here, I simply printed my transcribed data and
Ms. Anna was born and grew up in a Midwest provided my codes on the margins of the papers or
12in-between the lines because I did not use any quali- they had jobs, more than college-educated.
tative analysis software packages such as N-Vivo. And I guess they think since their kids know
This coding strategy, however, resulted in numer- so much more at this age that they think
ous codes, thus making it more difficult to come up they’re gonna be better kids, maybe. I don’t
with themes that accurately represent the data. know. It’s just status, status, symbol we call
When I revisited the data several more time, I de- like maybe. I mean you know like I said I had
cided to draw themes based on the themes of my parents who want good education; they are
interview questions. This strategy allows me to learning something, not just playing.
quickly arrive general interpretations of the data. The context of Ms. Anna’s account here was
Furthermore, I was aware that it is important for when she was talking about how goal-oriented these
me to try to “establish trustworthiness” in my analy- parents were. The parents would oftentimes ask
sis so I tried revisiting my initial codes several whether their children had met their learning goals. I
times. This allows me to move from a broad under- think, here, Ms. Anna is trying to produce a context
standing of large dataset to categories/themes. I also where the parents of high-SES students want their
asked one of my colleagues to read my transcripts pre-K children to learn more, not just playing. When
and codes to check if the themes have accurately Ms. Anna said “[T]hey are learning something, not
represented the dataset. just playing,” she seemed to highlight the contrast
Findings and Discussion between the teaching goals of the expensive daycare
which she taught before and Head Start program
I decided to discuss only a few major themes in
where she is teaching now. The high-SES parents
order to delimit this paper. As I said earlier, these
who paid expensive daycare fees demanded to know
themes were largely based on the questions that I
if their children had met the learning goals while the
asked during the interviews, but the themes mostly
low-SES parents of Head Start program did not nec-
connected to how the teacher perceives her students
essarily do so. The low-SES parents would let their
and parent’s participation. The themes are as fol-
children follow Head Start learning principle which
low:
learning through play.
1. Teaching high-SES vs. low-SES students I think the context that Ms. Anna was trying to
2. Children Education & Parent Capitals produce here indicate some kind of deficit dis-
3. Rough Family Life & Defiant Students course. The elite parents who can afford expensive
4. Perfect families vs. broken families education fees are depicted as the ones who want to
I would go through each of these themes in de- make sure that their children receive a good educa-
tails where I would refer to specific quotes to sup- tion from early on so they will be better kids thus
port the proposed themes. As these are tentative the possibility of their having better and brighter
themes, I may possibly revisit and revise themes in future will be more likely. This kind of education
my future studies involving the same dataset. This scenario has seemingly been taken for granted for
makes sense because my understanding of the data generations; it is supposed to be like that; critical
would possibly evolve if it is seen at a later time. review of such scenario is not needed. Here, I recall
When asked to compare her experience teaching when Grenfell (2012) discusses Bourdieu’s critique
both high- and low-SES (social economic status) of supposedly equal access to education. Although
students, Ms. Anna offered some significant con- quality education is claimed to be available for eve-
trasts between what the parents of high-SES stu- ryone, only those with sufficient capitals can truly
dents and low-SES students expect from their chil- access such high-quality education. In the end, the
dren’s pre-K education. In the following interview marginalized low-SES students will stay in their
excerpt, Ms. Anna considered parents of high-SES places.
students belong to elite groups and assumed these Ms. Anna went on discussing how parents’ eco-
elite parents want their kids to learn more, not just nomic, social, political, and or cultural capitals mat-
playing, so they can be better kids. ters in children’s education. When Ms. Anna was
asked to compare her experience teaching at her pre-
I guess they’re focusing more on what is it I vious work site with her current Head Start program,
don’t know the elite group. You know since she valued a different kind of social capital of the
13parents of her current students. The context of her FZ : Why?
discussion was the Head Start program which is a MA: Demographic
federal-sponsored program that provides both nutri- FZ : What demographic what’s demography
tion and pre-K education to poor children at no cost.
like over there?
She did not talk about the parents’ low economic
status but praised their education. The fact that her MA: Like I said uhm (.02) I had more parents
classroom is attended by international students in jail hum(h)our
whose parents are working on graduate degrees at a FZ : More parents in jail?
well-known university in the Midwest makes her MA: Incarcerated uhm like I said uhm we
Head Start class uniquely-different from other Head serve the Midwestern university population,
Start classes. Other classes usually have local poor about two miles from campus, two miles.
students whose parents do not necessarily have a FZ : Why do you think do:: you think that has
college education. Ms. Anna is aware that her stu- connection with uhm (.)
dents’ parents are not rich because, to be eligible for
MA: That’s just my opinion. I just feel like
Head Start, a student has to come from a family
because I’m uhm I don’t know I mean a lot of
whose household income should be at or below
[people cause I have]
Federal Government poverty level but the parents’
higher education provides a key difference here. In From the above excerpt, we can see how Ms.
other words, the parents may not have economic Anna links parents’ rough conditions (e.g., being
capital but they have social, cultural, and education incarcerated) to the possibility of the parents’ will-
capitals that make them stand above the rest of par- ingness to get involved in their children education.
ents of students in different Head Start locations. To Although Ms. Anna was seemingly a bit hesitant
me, the discursive discussion here is that the parents about drawing a direct connection between family
will care about their children’s education when they condition with children learning, we can understand
care about their own education in the first place so the context here. She hinted that teaching students,
the students will have more possibility to succeed. whose parents are uncaring, is very much different
This kind of perspective seemingly makes perfect from teaching those with caring parents. Simone
sense but, on a second thought, the perspective is (2012), whose study investigates the kind of strate-
too stereotypical, if not deficit model of thinking, gies school principals employ to eliminate deficit
because students’ internal motivation to learn can thinking, argues that many teachers view their job
just be overlooked. assignments to teach lower level students as nega-
tive ones. “Common perceptions regarding the
FZ: Uh uh, so so if you compared your ex-
lower track students included troublesome, unmoti-
perience with the parents uhm in the previous
vated, uncaring parents, unprepared for rigorous
church daycare and here. Did you see differ-
work, difficulty with discourse … are indicative of
ences?
deficit thinking” (p.1). Such perceptions are cer-
MA: A huge different! tainly troubling because they impact how a teacher
FZ : What are they? Can you explain? teaches.
MA: Well, here’s a huge difference from Moreover, Ms. Anna addressed her concerned
where I work and another Head Start site, about the kind of negative impacts children with
which is on the other side of town, because rough family life would bring to the classroom. She
like I said a lot of my parents are a Midwest- asserted that a lot of time the students would behave
ern university-affiliated so they’re coming to violently in the classroom or say inappropriate
learn. To do more research, to learn. things that no children of their age would have said.
FZ : Students? As a teacher, Ms. Anna said she indeed dreaded of
coming to class and face these kinds of children.
MA: Oh yeah, right here where I am at, this “The kids, you know, they were violent. They
site, right here. If I do another site, it was not kicked, they hit me. They kinda choke me,” says
(.) but I worked at Broadview was nothing Ms. Anna at one point during the interview. I think
like it. she said this to picture how difficult her previous
14teaching condition was. It was a struggle for her as child’s learning. Though we can see that there are a
a teacher to come to class as there was no comfort lot of examples of struggling single-mothers, we
at all. Ms. Anna did not, however, confirm if she or cannot simply conclude that a struggling mother is
her colleague at the school had tried to do some- uncaring about her child’s education. We have seen
thing to help these violent students. To me, these so many stories of single mothers successful raising
kinds of students would likely be like this because and educating their children. I think it makes sense
not many teachers would go extra miles to learn the to consider single-family hardship and struggle but
actual causes of their violent acts as everything, this should not make us engender deficit thinking. I
usually, is linked to their family life. Below, Ms. understand the context that Ms. Anna was referring
Anna explains why a child’s behavior is somehow to when she talked about. She was referring to vul-
connected to their family life. nerable mothers who had to stay in a woman shelter
because they could not afford housing on their own
Well, it was hard because when they have a
or those young mothers whose partners had abused
rough family life, they’re gonna come in and
them.
some of that takes a toll on the child, whether
Perhaps, Ms. Anna here considers that students
emotionally or socially yeah.
coming from troubled or broken families are at risk
Here, Ms. Anna argued that difficult family life of not being able to learn like other children who
would affect a child either emotionally and socially. have a “perfect” family. Valencia (2010) contends
This can then explain why a child behave violently that “at-risk” are usually referred to minority stu-
when interacting with others. While it makes so dents. In this sense, he writes “given that at-risk stu-
much sense to make such a conclusion, we need not dents are concentrated among pupils of color, from
close other doors of interpretation. We also need to poverty households, single-parent families, and im-
consider other internal and external problems to migrant populations, the at-risk inventory approach
help explain why a low-SES student performs has the strong tendency to stereotype” (p. 112).
poorly at school. That way, we will not base our Judging from Ms. Anna’s class population, we can
conclusions on assumptions and we will not be at see that the students are somehow connected with
risk of being trapped in the deficit model of think- one of the characteristics of “at-risk students” men-
ing. tioned by Valencia above. Thus, simply labeling
Similarly, Ms. Anna further talked about ideal Ms. Anna’s students at “at-risk” students might just
families that could better encourage and support a be a form of stereotyping.
child’s learning. According to Ms. Anna, two- Ms. Anna’s definition of an ideal family consist-
parent families are seemingly better supporters of ing of a man and wife might not fit everyone’s defi-
their children’s learning that single families because nition of a family. For instance, a child who did not
the husband and wife can take turn caring for their know his or her mother and father and was raised in
children. Thus, children of a two-parent family can a foster home would never have a family if he or she
get full familial supports. goes by such a definition. Adopted children raised
I think it makes a difference. This is just my by same-sex couples might also be troubled by the
opinion. You could ask somebody else, definition. I think educators need to avoid using a
maybe someone say no because I am not say- single broad brush to treat every issue in their class-
ing all people of single families. I am not say- rooms.
ing that at all. I’m saying that a two-parent Conclusion
family who are working together as uhm fam-
The tentative findings that I present in this paper
ily, man, and wife, and a family encouraging
indicate that deficit thinking are very likely to arise
the child that’s better than just the single par-
in educational institutions where marginalized
ent whose significant other is in jail, de-
groups of students are present. We should not take
ceased, or out of your life. And it’s harder on
the seemingly neutral practices for granted but begin
a single mom.
to critically question such practices so we might not
From the excerpt, we learn that Ms. Anna claims continue perpetuating practices that would marginal-
that a single mom would find it harder to support a ize minority groups. Educators need to be aware of
15the deficit thinking and actively find ways to dis- Mongeau, L. (2016, August 06). The Never-ending
mantle it in their everyday practices. Also, student- struggle to improve Head Start: The federal gov-
teachers who come from minority groups should be ernment has invested billions in preschool, but
aware of deficit thinking in education for disman- there’s still lots of room to grow. Retrieved April
tling the model of thinking that have discriminated 28, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/
them in the first place. education/archive/2016/08/is-head-start-a-
This research project and its findings have not failure/494942/
only enabled me to learn more about deficit think- Olvera, C. (2015). Teacher perceptions of English
ing and Head Start Program in general but also al- learners acquisition of academic English: Impacts
lowed me to practice what I learn in qualitative on long-term English learner classification.
class and experience what it really means to actu-
eJournal of Education Policy, 78-92.
ally conduct a qualitative study. The themes that I
draw from the dataset might not represent the Payne, R. K. (2013). A framework for understanding
“reality” in its entirety but the readers, especially poverty: A cognitive approach (5th ed.). High-
those interested in the issues of deficit thinking in lands, Texas: aha! Process, Inc.
the field of education, would gain a deeper under- Pearl, A. (1997a). Cultural and accumulated envi-
standing that deficit model of thinking can be en- ronmental deficit models. In R. R. Valencia
gendered or perpetuated unconsciously. (Ed.), The evolution of deficit thinking (pp. 132-
References 159). Washington, DC: The Falmer Press.
Alber, R. (2013, April 02). Tools for teaching: Pearl, A. (1997b). Democratic education as an alter-
Ditching the deficit model. Retrieved April 29, native to deficit thinking. In R. R. Valencia (Ed.),
2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/ The evolution of deficit thinking (pp. 211-241).
teaching-tool-ditching-deficit-model-rebecca- Washington, DC: The Falmer Press.
alber Pitzer, H. K. (2014). Deficit discourse, urban teach-
Anderson, A. (2013). Teach For America and the ers’ work and the blame game (Unpublished doc-
dangers of deficit thinking. Critical Education, 4 toral dissertation). Syracuse University, Syra-
(11), 29-46. cuse, New York.
Garcia, S. B., & Guerra, P. L. (2004). Deconstruct- Pitzer, H. (2015). Urban teachers engaging in criti-
ing deficit thinking: Working with educators to cal talk: Navigating deficit discourse and neolib-
create more equitable learning environments. eral logics. Journal of Educational Controversy,
Education and Urban Society, 36(2), 150-168. 9(1), 1-16.
doi: 10.1177/0013124503261322 Sarmiento-Arribalzaga, M. A. (2009). Pre-service
Gee, J. P. (2014). How to do discourse analysis: A bilingual teachers and their invisible scars: Impli-
toolkit. New York: Routledge. cations for preparation programs. SRATE Jour-
nal, 19(1), 61-66.
Grenfell, M. (2012). Bourdieu, language, and edu-
cation. In M. Grenfell, D. Bloome, C. Hardy, K. Simone, J. A. (2012). Addressing the marginalized
Pahl, J. Rowsell, & B. Street (Eds.), Language, student: The secondary principal’s role in elimi-
ethnography, and education (pp. 50-70). New nating deficit thinking (Unpublished doctoral dis-
York: Routledge. sertation). University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, Urbana, Illinois.
Menchaca, M. (1997). Early racist discourse: Roots
of deficit thinking. In R. R. Valencia (Ed.), The Valencia, R. R. (1997). Conceptualizing the notion
evolution of deficit thinking (pp. 13-40). Wash- of deficit thinking. In R. R. Valencia (Ed.), The
ington, DC: The Falmer Press. evolution of deficit thinking (pp. 1-12). Washing-
ton, D.C.: The Falmer Press.
Valencia, R. R. (2010). Dismantling contemporary
deficit thinking: Educational thought and prac-
tice. New York: Routledge.
16Valencia, R. R., & Solorzano, D. G. (1997). Con- van der Valk, A. (2016). Questioning Payne. Re-
temporary deficit thinking. In R. R. Valencia trieved April 27, 2017, from http://
(Ed.), The evolution of deficit thinking (pp. 160- www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-52-spring-
210). Washington, DC: The Falmer Press. 2016/feature/questioning-payne
About the author: Faishal Zakaria is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language
Education (LCLE), with a minor in Instructional Systems Technology (IST), at Indiana University Blooming-
ton. With a Fulbright scholarship, Faishal earned an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
(TESOL) from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2008. Before starting his Ph.D. program at Indiana
University Bloomington, Faishal served as an English language teacher educator in Indonesia. He has taught a
first-year multilingual composition course and Indonesian language courses at Indiana University
Bloomington.
17Every Contact Leaves a Trace:
A Literary Reality of Locard’s Exchange Principle
Jeroen Bode
Ibaraki Christian University
I n an earlier OTB forum article (Bode, 2017) I
mentioned the possible literary traces in the
works of Washington Irving and Arthur Conan
cases that he started these as a series of studies into
criminal psychology (p. xvii). He actually intended
to write and submit to the Strand magazine twelve
Doyle. This year (2018) while reading Edogawa stories, but due to an illness in 1901 he could not
Ranpo’s short story The Psychological Test (心理試 finish them. During his recuperation, his friend B.
験,1925; English translation by Harris, 2012) for Fletcher Robinson gave him through his stories
some reason it reminded me of something I had ideas for writing another Sherlock Holmes story
read in 2015 or 2016. A trace1 was still lingering in known now as The Hound of Baskervilles.
my mind. The case details (fictional) in Edogawa’s For Edogawa Ranpo reasons are not discussed
story resembled one of Conan Doyle’s writings; not fully in the Harris (2012) translation of a selected
a Sherlock Holmes story but something of his other number of his stories. However, in the preface (pp.
less familiar works. Conan Doyle also wrote on real 8-9) we can see the statement that Edogawa started
criminal cases that happened in the UK. The piece his writing career as an exponent of the mystery sto-
in question is The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley ries in 1923, the year that in the Tōkyō-Yokohama
(published in the Strand in May, 1901). These prod-
ucts have been collected by Jack Tracy (editor) in
his 1988 edition. Important to mention here is that
Edogawa’s story cannot be regarded as a case of
plagiarism because it has an original quality in its
further development. In the foreword by Patricia
Welch to Harris’ translation of Edogawa’s stories it
becomes clear that Edogawa was an avid reader of,
among others, Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Conan
Doyle in his university days (p. 15). This might
have led him to include, as homage to Conan Doyle,
in his story line of The Psychological Test details of
the Emsley case.
Authors’ Motive
Peter Ruber (Conan Doyle, 1988) writes in his
introduction to the Conan Doyle collection of real
Bode, J. (2019). Every contact leaves a trace: A The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley (before enter-
literary reality of Locard’s Principle. OTB ing the crime scene). Strand Magazine illustration
Forum, 9(1), 18-22. (May 1901) by Sidney Paget.
1
Most of these Locard’s exchange principle is an important principle within the field of forensic science; through which
crimes are investigated. In all crimes the perpetrator leaves “particulars” of him/herself behind as evidence of involve-
ment in the crime. Dr. Edmond Locard stated it accordingly:
"Il est impossible au malfaiteur d'agir avec l'intensité que suppose l'action criminelle sans laisser des traces de son pas-
sage." [It is impossible for a criminal to act, especially considering the intensity of a crime, without leaving traces of this
presence.] (Baxter, 2015, p. 23)
18area a great devastating earthquake occurred. Al- It is unavoidable for the judge at the time to convict
ready, in his youth he had become familiar with the Mullins with such a small margin of error. The
crime fiction read to him by his mother (p. 16) and judge at the time recognized that although the mar-
he continued reading detective stories (by Poe, gin of error was very small, to convict Mullins in
Chesterton, Conan Doyle) during his university this manner was unavoidable. These are the essen-
time. Those stories appealed to him due to the care- tial details of the case as presented by Conan Doyle
ful plotting, logic and reasoning (p. 15). With these and in the section on comparison of the writings of
experiences it is perhaps not a surprise that Edo- both authors I will describe what first arrested my
gawa became an author in his own right. attention to the similar details in Edogawa’s story to
Conan Doyle’s writing.
The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley (published in
the Strand, May 1901) The Psychological Test (心理試験, 1925; English
This is an actual case that happened in London in translation by Harris, 2012)
1860 (August 16th). The most striking details are This is a fictional case to begin with and written
that the widow Mrs. Mary Emsley was found mur- as such by Edogawa Ranpo in 1925. The fictional
dered in her house. One of the discoverers, named case details relates a story wherein Fukiya Seiichirō
John Emms (cobbler), became a suspect in the case. (the murderer) murders the widow who, like Mrs.
While in fact it turned out that Emms had a “most Emsley in Conan Doyle’s story, is a landlady with a
convincing alibi” (p. 40; but no details of what that similar unpleasant disposition to others. Fukiya is a
was.) and that the person, George Mullins (plasterer) Waseda student and his friend Saitō Isamu, also a
who tried to implicate Emms in the case was con- Waseda student, is regarded as the prime suspect in
victed and hanged on November 19th. Although he the case by the police. The preliminary judge (not as
left a statement of his innocence the most important “the district attorney” in the translation) Kasamori is
evidence seems to have been the planting of the evi- not convinced but cannot find a way to proof that it
dence (Mrs. Emsley’s possessions) in Emms’ shed. is in fact Fukiya. Even with his familiarity with psy-
chology, Kasamori could not find a result marking
Fukiya as the true criminal. An old friend of Kas-
mori, Akechi Kogorō helps and reassesses the word
association test showing that Fukiya overdid his
mental training and spoke too fast in response time
with a trick question on what was in the room at the
time of crime, which Fukiya could not have seen
two days before (his alibi) the crime. Because the
screen-painting was brought in just a day before he
did his crime, Fukiya sealed his guilt. The timeline
issue of the screen-painting proved that he had been
there.
A Comparison of the Sources
The first trace was the similar description of the
widows in both writings: their unpleasant character
to others and in dealing with their tenants. Is this a
coincidence, perhaps? Not according to the Special
Agent Gibbs’s rule #39 (NCIS series). These points
are the common features of both writings. However,
the time of the crime are in each different. In Conan
Doyle’s writing the time is set on Monday evening,
some time after 19:00 (p. 37). While Edogawa’s
story has the crime occurring in the morning without
Edogawa, R. (1988). Japanese tales of mystery and a definite time (p. 56). The main persons involved
imagination. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle. are in Conan Doyle’s a cobbler and a plasterer. The
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