Basic Cultural Conflict

In “Basic Writing as Cultural Conflict,” Tom Fox presents and then critiques various well-intentioned theories and frameworks that attempt to define basic writers and influence basic writing programs. He begins by repudiating deficit theories that center on perceived inadequacy as characteristic of the basic writer, the skills view that focuses on correcting student error, and service course ideology that simply views basic writing in a vacuum, separate and worthless to the institutions that house them. According to Fox, all these principles assume that basic writers and basic writing classes bring no value to the classroom and the academic community, subsequently discounting students’ knowledge, talents, and skills. As a result, both …show more content…
However, although initiation theory acknowledges and validates the backgrounds of students, it still undermines students by presuming, similarly to deficit theory and skills view ideology, that some ignorance in students prevents them from successfully participating in postsecondary academic culture. Moreover, this theory privileges the institution above basic writing students’ domestic culture as evidenced by the supposition that there is irrefutable worth in being initiated into academic culture. Even pioneers of initiation theory, Bizzell and Bartholomae, recognize how students may be harmed by potentially experiencing “a sense of loss… [from] abandoning their world view” (70). Finally, Fox discusses an ideology that he titles “The Clash of Cultural Styles.” A perspective that accounts for the disproportionate number of African American basic writers by identifying culturally distinct communication styles. Fox explains that the difference between the …show more content…
In “The Banking Concept of Education,” Freire denounces the “banking concept” that is premised on the belief that students are empty “ ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by the teacher” (Freire 244). Freire explains that in this educational scenario students are submissive while teachers are active, thus creating a power imbalance in the classroom. Like the ideologies Fox criticizes, the “banking concept” diminishes the richness of students’ cultural language. Subsequently, the classroom reflects and perpetuates the political structures of the outside world, where certain groups, the poor, minorities, immigrants, et cetera, are oppressed by a dominant majority group. Fox describes a very similar paradigm when he addresses the power dynamics created by the theories he repudiates. Furthermore, like Fox, Freire realizes that assumptions about deficiencies in students harm them. To resolve this issue, Freire advocates for “problem-posing” instead of the “banking concept.” The basis of Freire’s “problem-posing” method appears parallel to “oppositional culture” theory. Both these ideologies understand that students have credibility before they enter the classroom and