Poverty PhDs: Funds of knowledge, poverty, and professional identity in academia

In contrast to the common deficit approach, this self-study explores the relationship between the funds of knowledge possessed by people of poverty and their development of professional identity in academia. All three authors have moved beyond conditions of financial poverty, but all find that the mental conditions of poverty persist. We conclude that select skills and dispositions developed in conditions of material poverty helped us to navigate graduate school and continue to productively inform, yet complicate, the development of our professional academic identities. We tease apart the myth of meritocracy and identify the value of transferable funds of knowledge developed in poverty. We document how our own practices have changed as a result of recognizing our funds of knowledge developed in poverty.