The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating the Effects of Poverty

Abstract

Much ink has been spilled debating the role of the intellectual. William Tierney’s article “Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating Poverty” in the August/September 2013 issue of Educational Researcher adds to this literature. In his article, Tierney presents recommendations to the education community on how we might help our students in poverty. While Tierney’s recommendations are compelling, he frames his essay in a way that makes it difficult to understand why traditional education reform has failed to reach its ambitious goals. In this brief response to Tierney, I encourage our community to view the effects of poverty as two-dimensional when trying to craft and conduct educational reform.

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“…To be effective, the enabling force should emanate from a transdisciplinary framework in which medical and allied health professionals work to support caregivers hands-on with just-in-time knowledge and skills at critical junctures of the children's development. 2,[12][13][14]…”

Fromm's Humanism and Child Poverty: Neoliberal construction of the ‘have-not’

“…Under a neoliberal regime poverty is dominantly conceived in terms of measurement of income level. This is called the 'monetary approach' to poverty (Scherrer, 2014). Income level is of course important as people experience poverty in terms of material deprivation and the ensuing effects of this.…”

“…Jimmy Scherrer (2014) indicates that policy-makers need to focus on children's rights and the provision of public services and public goods in addressing poverty-not just on income levels. In addition Scherrer (2014) argues that child poverty advocates need to challenge and reframe the nature of policy dialogue on poverty reduction and social spending to broaden its scope.…”

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