Week 5: The culture of Power

 

Other Peoples Children 

The Silenced Dialogue

Lisa Delpit 

Quotes

“There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a culture of power.”

Delpit argues that success in schools and society depends on awareness of the dominant culture's unwritten rules, such as language, behavior, and expectations. Children from prosperous communities often acquire these rules at home, but not so for marginalized communities. This quotation captures Delpit's argument that teachers must teach these rules overtly to offer equal access to success rather than assume that all students know them.

“Those with power are frequently least aware – or least willing to acknowledge – its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.”

This quote demonstrates how privilege operates in education. Policymakers and teachers, who tend to be members of dominant cultural groups, overlook the barriers that marginalized students face because they have never had to navigate them themselves. Meanwhile, students who lack power clearly perceive these barriers but do not possess the tools to overcome them. Delpit explains that teachers must become aware of and work with these power dynamics rather than ignoring feedback from communities of color.

“To act as if power does not exist is to ensure that the status quo remains in place.”

Delpit criticizes the notion that if students are treated the same, they will end up in the same place. To ignore power relations in education is only to replicate current inequalities. Instead, she contends that educators must recognize such imbalances and actively provide students with the knowledge and skills to understand and contest them. This relates to her overall argument that multicultural education must do more than merely celebrate diversity; it must also confront systemic disparities in learning.

One Point I can share in class is:

"Delpit argues that teachers must 'teach' students the rules of the dominant culture for them to be successful, but how do teachers accomplish this without asking students to 'give up' their own cultural identities? How do schools reconcile teaching the 'codes of power' and affirm and value students' home cultures?"**

This is the pivotal question of vital significance: How can educators empower pupils without dissolving their cultural identity, one of the inherent dilemmas of Delpit's assertion?