Addressing Homelessness in Our Schools and Language Arts Classrooms

In the context of increasing economic inequality in North America, it is important for educators to understand poverty and homelessness and how it impacts children in our schools. In particular, we need to reject deficit models and look toward systemic causes so that teachers can be knowledgeable advocates for young people experiencing homelessness. In this article, we draw on this premise, on our combined experience working extensively on literacy projects with youth who are homeless, and on our teaching in elementary schools from an activist position. In keeping with the consequential policy themes that have been recently covered in this column, we consider how to address child homelessness in its various forms in our schools and particularly in language arts classrooms. We begin by briefly discussing the ways deficit discourses in the media and popular culture can lead to misunderstandings of the structural forces that lead to the persistence of poverty and homelessness.