WebQuest - What Is Poverty and Who Are the Poor?
Adapted from "Is Capitalism Good for the Poor," © 2004 Foundation for Teaching Economics. Revised 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
Thanks to film, television, and our own experiences, we all have personal mental images of poverty. While these images help to form our individual opinions about issues surrounding world poverty, the very fact that they are personal means that they may be difficult to discuss with others. Fortunately, we can take steps to make communication easier. Discussing a controversial issue like world poverty is more likely to be productive if the word "poverty" means the same thing to everyone in the discussion.
Before attempting to answer the question of whether capitalism is good for the poor, you must agree on some common vocabulary with the class. The goal of this webquest is to arrive at a working definition of poverty, so that when a classmate refers to "world poverty," or "the poor," those participating in the discussion actually hear what the speaker thought was said.
Task-Answer the following:
In terms of the world's population, what is poverty and who are the poor?
Steps to Take:
- In your group, generate a working list of characteristics and indicators that you believe define world poverty and/or characterize the world's poor.
- is it a median value or is it an absolute?
- is it a physical attribute or an emotional need?
- is it educational (literacy) or intellectual?
- does the definition vary based on the yardstick or benchmark used for measurement?
- is there a precedence or priority associated with the characteristics you developed?
- Discuss the individual lists and compile a list of possible critical attributes of world poverty.
- The term "critical attributes," as used in logic, means those characteristics of a concept which must be present for the concept to exist. Identifying the critical attributes of world poverty allows you to examine an instance or circumstance and decide if it is an example of the concept.
- (For example, here's an interesting question: Does poverty in the U.S. have the same critical attributes as world poverty?)
- Another way to think of critical attributes is to ask yourselves: "How do we tell who is poor and who isn't?" or "How do we decide whether or not a nation is poor?" or "How do we draw a line to separate the poor from the non-poor?"
- Divide the critical attribute list among group members and use the websites given under the Resources section to reconsider the items in terms of what information you find from the sources about the world's poor. Be alert to commonalities, patterns, trends, magnitude as you compare the web content to your listed items.
- Investigate a minimum of 5 sources that define, identify, categorize, characterize, and/or describe world poverty through images, graphics, data, and/or text.
- Use the links in the Resources section, below. See where they lead you. Remember that sometimes the information you seek does not just pop up on the site; you may have to explore links embedded in the sites themselves.
- One of your 5 sources must be a site other than those listed on this page. To find additional sources you must follow links embedded in the sources listed here. You may not use Google or any other search engine to find additional resources.
- The websites given in the Resources section have been specifically chosen for their appropriateness to this activity. However, these sites may contain other links of interest.
- Reconvene your group and share your findings. Reach a consensus on the critical attributes list. Based on your findings, the group needs to write a short (no more than 2 sentences) answer to the question that includes the critical attributes (criteria) you've developed from the discussion (1-4) above. The question again is:
In terms of the world's population, what is poverty and who are the poor?
Resources
The World Bank – Poverty Data: provides in-depth information on world poverty.
The United Nations: The UN website contains a significant number of embedded links to further information on poverty and the state of the world’s population.
Note: Each of the 8 items (purple font) is a link to a set of graphic data. For example: Eradicating Hunger
World Poverty: These links will provide other information on poverty.
Poverty in the United States: These links may help you to decide how (and if) the United States fits into the picture of world poverty