Lit Review #1

This article by Tara J. Yosso (2005) attempts to relate the concept of cultural capital to a new concept known as community cultural wealth, by integrating critical race theory perspectives.

Yosso begins with the theory: in the US, due to the stratification of wealth along face-characteristics such as race, education/knowledge about access to the upper and middle class are considered a tangible resource that some are privy to while others aren’t. This was the basis for Bourdieu’s (1977) cultural capital, which suggested that certain groups of people had access to this information and are able to pass it down generationally, while a majority of Americans do not have access to this power and as a result very seldomly enter the middle and upper class. Yosso takes it a step further and verabalizes how distinct groups of people, such as People of Color as outlined by critical race theory, face generational inaccessibility to higher education and other methods to access social mobility because they’ve been, “[left] lacking necessary knowledge, social skills, abilities and cultural capital.” (Yosso, 2005, p. 70)

What this paper is about, however, is how Yosso wishes to convert this perspective into one that also frames the strengths of these individuals who experience cultural poverty disadvantages. She does so by outlining six forms of capital that comprise community cultural wealth, which would celebrate the unique cultural values/knowledge/differences that positively benefit those cultures that possess them. This would apply for the white middle American and their community cultural wealth, but also for households of color facing generational poverty or who have personally experienced systemic inequality such as a the achievement gap.

Of particular note, Yosso states, is how this strengths based framing can benefit the process of schooling. Students from these cultures bring with them under-utilized assets.

The article then retouches on the history of critical race theory, arriving from the legal Critical Legal Studies movement. Critical race theory diverged from CLS when it sought to explore and challenge racial perspectives not only from a Black-White binary, but observing other people of color as well.

The meat of this paper is Yosso’s belief that research often “‘sees’ deprivation in Communities of Color. Indeed, one of the most prevalent forms of contemporary racism in US schools is deficit thinking” (Yosso, 2005, p. 75). The fact that our research and our educators who work off this research use primarily deficit-framed theories rejects the premise that students come to schools without any relevant knowledge and must be taught in a transactory fashion. “Deficit thinking takes the position that minority students and families are at fault for poor academic performance because: (a) students enter school without the normative cultural knowledge and skills; and (b) parents neither value nor support their child’s education” (Yosso, 2005, p. 75). Yosso believes that instead of this, we should approach schooling acknowledging the varied and invaluable cultures of each student that they bring with themselves to class, because it adds up to tremendous and worthwhile  cultural capital. “this reality necessitates a challenge of personal and individual race, gender and class prejudices expressed by educators, as well as a ‘critical examination of systemic factors that perpetuate deficit thinking and reproduce educational inequities for students from nondominant sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds’ (p. 155). I believe CRT can offer such an approach by identifying, analyzing and challenging distorted notions of People of Color.” (Yosso, 2005, p. 75)

“while Bourdieu’s work sought to provide a structural critique of social and cultural reproduction, his theory of cultural capital has been used to assert that some communities are culturally wealthy while others are culturally poor. This interpretation of Bourdieu exposes White, middle class culture as the standard, and therefore all other forms and expressions of ‘culture’ are judged in comparison to this ‘norm’. In other words, cultural capital is not just inherited or possessed by the middle class, but rather it refers to an accumulation of specific forms of knowledge, skills and abilities that are valued by privileged groups in society.” (Yosso, 2005, p. 76)

Community Cultural Wealth is composed of:

Familial Capital
Social Capital
Navigational Capital
Resistant Capital
Linguistic Capital
Aspirational Capital

“CRT centers the research, pedagogy, and policy lens on Communities of Color and calls into question White middle class communities as the standard by which all others are judged. This shifting of the research lens allows critical race scholars to ‘see’ multiple forms of cultural wealth within Communities of Color.” (Yosso, 2005, p. 82)