Prompt 6: Delpit

Many of the students in my class, and in the school, live in very poor areas. Their lifestyles are completely different from the "culture of power," and they have grown up with different experiences. My teacher told me it's important to push and encourage the students to do well, but if they are in a bad mood you have to know when to back off. My teacher has to take into consideration who's uncle got shot in a drive by, or who's parents are not home because they are working 2 jobs.

There are so many sociocultural aspects to take into consideration when teaching students who live in lower economic areas. It is more than who didn't sleep well; it's who doesn't have a bed to sleep in. A lot of this is the result of Delpit's "5 Aspects of Power" which is in article: The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children. These 5 Aspects of Power are: 1. Issues of power enacted in classrooms. 2. There are codes/rules for participating in power; there is a "Culture of Power." 3. The rules reflect the rules of the culture in power. 4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. 5. Those with power are frequently less aware of--or least willing to acknowledge-its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

In order to help empower the students, the teacher must realize they are not the only expert in the classroom. Everyone comes into a classroom, or anywhere for that matter, with their own personal knowledge and history. Denying students their own expert knowledge disempowers them.

To make more sense of Delpit, I am going to relate it to the simulation game we played in my college class when learning about Delpit. The class was broken up into 5 or 6 groups. Once the directions to the game were passed out we were not allowed to talk AT ALL or write down words on paper. Each table learned their rules and were comfortable with them... Little did we know when we switched the groups up, everyone had different rules. It was beyond aggravating because it took a few rounds before I caught onto it. When we moved from table to table we were not already a participant in the culture of power, and we were not explicitly told the rules--representing aspect #4. The people who did NOT have to move and were at the same table were least aware that there were different rules because they were in their own "home" territory whereas those moving around were more aware of what was going on and the lack/difference of power. If you were at your original table, you held the power. If you went to another table, you had to adapt to their rules. This was an example of aspect #5.

In a classroom with a white teacher who is not aware of the "culture of power" will find a child as disobedient if they do not follow the rules and regulations of that culture of power. Delpit argues that white people see white people with problems as just having problems, but when a person of color has problems those problems become a representation for their cultural group. Delpit says that teachers need to accept the students and to take responsibility to teach them.


"No one comes from nowhere, and everyone comes from somewhere" (Dr. A). Take the time to get to know your students backgrounds and develop methods that are best suited to their own educational needs.