Deficit beliefs. In examining the deficit beliefs expressed by the participants, there was an obvious trend that factored into which category the educators were placed. In general, educators with greater cultural knowledge tended to express fewer and less severe deficit beliefs about the diverse students and families in the scenarios. For example, the culturally responsive educational leader expressed no deficit views, while two of the three culturally aware educational leaders each expressed a single deficit view. In contrast, educa- tors in the general awareness, little awareness, and culturally unaware cate- gories tended to express increasingly numerous and more negative deficit beliefs. One educator categorized as culturally unaware expressed deficit beliefs in five out of the six scenarios in the instrument, indicating this educa- tor appears to hold significant biases relative to diverse students and families.
In most cases, the deficit beliefs expressed by educators centered on the idea that the culture clashes depicted in the scenarios were the resulted from lack of knowledge or intentional misconduct on the part of students and fami- lies. For example, in the scenario in which some students drew collectivist representations of family when the teacher was expecting individualistic rep- resentations, educators tended to suggest culturally, linguistically, and eco- nomically diverse students did not have either the background information or the skills to correctly complete the assignment. Similarly, in responding to the scenario in which two Latino students approached the teacher to discuss a classroom assignment, participants suggested that the students either “lacked ability to comprehend the assignment,” “needed validation” or “addi- tional approval,” “did not have self-confidence,” or “were fearful of getting the assignment incorrect” rather than considering the influence of culture, which often affects student interaction with teachers.
In regard to deficit views of parents, participants frequently characterized the parents referenced in the scenarios as being uninvolved in their children’s education. Reasons given for their lack of involvement focused on the “dif- ficulties they face outside of school,” the “need to work,” and “understanding of the homes the students live in ... parents work two jobs and money, health issues are more pressing.” Furthermore, most educators did not recognize forms of parent involvement that did not adhere to traditional definitions of parent involvement. For example, “parents walking their children to class” was frequently viewed as a problem that needed to be immediately extin- guished or phased out, and some participants even suggested this behavior was detrimental to children’s development.