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Page 1: Bridging Culture
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BridgingCultures

Teacher Education Module

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BridgingCultures

Teacher Education Module

Carrie Rothstein-Fisch

HALAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, INC., PUBLISHERS

2003 Mahwah, New Jersey London

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Camera-ready copy for this book was provided by the author.

WestEd"

Copyright © 2003 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrievalsystem, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers10 Industrial AvenueMahwah, NJ 07430

[ Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rothstein-Fisch, Carrie.Bridging cultures : teaching education module / Carrie Rothstein-Fisch.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-8058-4207-1 (alk. paper)

1. Teachers—Training of—United Sates 2. Multicultural education—United States 3. Home andschool—United Sates I. Title.

LB1715 .R59 2003370'.71—dc21 2002026350

CIP

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosenfor strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ixOrganization of the Module xiReadings for the Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module xiiAcknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1 Introduction to Bridging Cultures 1Culture and Education 1What is the Bridging Cultures Project? 1Validity of the Bridging Cultures Framework and Module 4Cultural Caveats 5

Chapter 2 Facilitator's Script 7Overview 7Objectives 7Optimal Use of the Module 8Learning to Bridge Cultures Takes Time 8Creating Trust and a Sense of Safety 9Many Ways of Learning 10Guide to Using the Script 10

Presentation Tips 11Prepare the Materials 11Invite Others 11Check the Room and Equipment 12

Use of the Readings 12Further Reading 13Connecting the Readings to Learning 13

Script Introduction 15Jobs Scenario: Solving a Classroom Dilemma 17Description of Individualism and Collectivism 21Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict 26

Independence versus Helpfulness 27Classroom Applications 27

Personal Property versus Sharing 29Whose Blocks? 29Crayons in the Classroom 31Classroom Applications 33

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Cognitive Skills and Objects Out of Contextversus Social Skills and Objects in a Social Context 34

How Would You Describe an Egg? 34Bridging Discourses of Home and School 35Classroom Applications 37

Child as an Individual versus Child as Part of the Family 38School Breakfast and School-Wide Cross-Cultural Misunderstanding 38Parent-Teacher Conference 42Classroom Applications 43

Parents' Role versus Teacher's Role 45Teachers Giving Parenting Advice 46Classroom Applications 47

Praise versus Criticism 48The Concept of "Burro" 49Mocking the Praise 49Rethinking Academic Award Activities 50Classroom Applications 51

Oral Expression versus Listening to Authority 52Checking for Understanding 53Guilt in the Principal's Office 54Classroom Applications 55

You Are the Bridge 57Evaluation 59

Chapter 3 Effect of the Module on Pre-Service Teachers 61The Course 61Bridging Cultures Module Assessment Results 62Evaluation 1 Exit Evaluation of the Bridging Cultures Module . 63Evaluation 2 Midterm Exam 68Evaluation 3 Final Exam 71

Chapter 4 Overhead Transparency Masters 751. Bridging Cultures Workshop Agenda 772. The Bridging Cultures Project Initial Training 793. The Bridging Cultures Project Shifting Roles 814. Solving a Classroom Dilemma: The Jobs Scenario 835. Jobs Scenario: School One 85

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VII

6. Jobs Scenario: School Two 877. The Cost of Home-School Conflict 898. Individualism-Collectivism Features 919. Hofstede's Individualism Ratings 9310. Risk: Overgeneralizing 9511. Benefit: Understanding 9712. Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict 9913. Whose Blocks? 10114. Crayons in the Classroom 10315. Shared School Supplies 10516. How Would You Describe an Egg? 10717. Science from Stories 10918. School Breakfast 11119. School Sign 11320. School Letter 11521. Parents' Role versus Teacher's Role 11722. Group Homework Practice 11923. Praise versus Criticism 12124. Oral Expression Versus Respect for Authority 12325. Guilt in the Principal's Office 12526. You Are the Bridge 127

Chapters Handout Templates 1291. Solving a Classroom Dilemma: The Jobs Scenario 1312. Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict 1333. You Are the Bridge 1414. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module Evaluation 143

Appendices 1471. Bridging Cultures Project Participants 1492. The Hofstede Study and Expanded Data Set 151

References 153

Author Index 157

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Preface

The Bridging Cultures Project, on which this colleagues in the Bridging Cultures Project and ITeacher Education Module is based, is an out- believe that conflicts between these underlyinggrowth of empirical research that demonstrated value systems must be considered if we are tohow differences in cultural value systems lead to improve schooling for a significant number of ourconflicts in classrooms. These differences, which students.tend to be invisible, were shown to cause conflict Acting on this belief, the Bridging Culturesbetween immigrant Latino families and the schools Project researchers joined with teachers of immi-that serve them (Greenfield, Quiroz, & Raeff, grant Latino students in the greater Los Angeles2000; Raeff, Greenfield, & Quiroz, 2000). In brief, area to explore the usefulness of a frameworkschools tend to reflect the values of the so-called based on individualism and collectivism for im-mainstream, which are highly individualistic— Paving schooling. The staff researchers includedteaching students to become independent and take Patricia Greenfield and her student, Blancacare of their own needs. In contrast, immigrant Quiroz1, both from University of California, LosLatino families tend to be collectivistic—teach- Angeles (UCLA); Elise Trumbull from WestEding children to be interdependent with others and (a regional educational laboratory located in Santo attend to the needs of the family. Although these Francisco); and me, Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, anare broad generalizations that do not apply in all educational psychologist and teacher-educatorsituations, they help us understand why many stu- from California State University, Northridgedents and their families come into conflict with (CSUN). Seven bilingual elementary school teach-schooling in the United States. Lacking knowl- ers completed the team. They were Marieedge of culture-based value systems, educators Altchech, Catherine Daley, Kathryn Eyler, Elviaoften misdiagnose classroom management prob-lems or misinterpret parental behaviors. My ^s. Quiroz is currently a doctoral student at Harvard.

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Hernandez, Giancarlo Mercado, Amada Perez, and communities or had extensive formal educationPearl Saitzyk. in their homeland, experiences likely to make for

In the fall of 1996, the staff researchers con- fewer conflicts with mainstream schooling. Like-ducted a series of three half-day workshops to wise, understanding students' cultures requiresintroduce the framework of individualism and simultaneous examination of the mainstream cul-collectivism to the teachers and share what had ture if improvements are to be made in curriculumbeen learned from related classroom research. We and instruction (Finkelstein, Pickert, Mahoney, &asked the teachers to use the framework as a basis Barry, 1998).for observation first and then as a catalyst for Non-Latino cultural groups have also ex-change in their own classrooms. At the conclu- pressed epiphanies based on learning thesion of the three initial workshops, the teachers framework's concepts. For example, following theshifted in their roles from teacher-participants to Module presentation, many of my Korean Ameri-teacher-researchers. Over the course of the next can students have commented, "You just describedfour years, the team of staff researchers and my life!" The case of African Americans is moreteacher-researchers met every two to three months complex. According to Hale-Benson (1986) andto share observations, innovations, and reflections, Ladson-Billings (1994), elements of collectivism,deepening our understanding of how culture op- expressed in students' preferences for learning incrates in the classroom. Because the Project is truly groups (versus in isolation) and a sense of familycollaborative, much of what is included in this responsibility, are common among African Ameri-Module represents the thinking of my colleagues, cans. However, their valuing of individualand therefore I often use the pronoun "we" instead performance and competition with peers contrastsof "I," although I am sole author of this publica- somewhat with the orientation of some othertion, and I am responsible for any omissions or groups that have been described as collect!vistic.errors. Other parallels between immigrants in general and

The Module focuses on immigrant Latinos some African Americans have to do with conflictsbecause the empirical research on which the they may encounter in the discourse norms ofProject is based was conducted with that group. classrooms, in which there are expectations forIn addition, this population represents a large group separating academic language and content fromof newcomers to the U.S., and applied research personal values, feelings, and experiences. Spe-related to Latinos could be of great interest to many cific information about how individualism andeducators and families. collectivism play out among Native Americans,

To understand any culture, it is important to African Americans, and Asian Americans can bestudy that specific culture; otherwise, program- found in Greenfield and Cocking's (1994) Crossmatic innovations designed for students and Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development.families may turn out to be inappropriate. Module Because I saw the usefulness of the individu-participants from Latino cultures have validated alism and collectivism framework for the Bridgingthe framework of individualism and collectivism Cultures teachers as a vehicle for examining cul-through their stories of conflict and confusion. rural issues in classrooms and schools, I began toHowever, immigrant Latinos are not a homoge- present it to my students at CSUN. In the fall ofneous group. Some immigrated from urban 1997, I developed a three-hour instructional

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Preface XI

module that I used in my educational psychologycourses geared toward preservice teachers. TheBridging Cultures Teacher Education Module hasgrown out of this initial form, refined over theyears on the basis of student evaluations and myown experiences presenting the framework. Anearlier version, titled Bridging Cultures: A Pre-Service Teacher Preparation Module(Rothstein-Fisch, 1998), was printed in draft formby WestEd and has been shared with many teachereducators and professional development special-ists. The initial version allowed our peers tovalidate the content and processes of the Module.

The current Module is appropriate for teacher-educators to use in one or two class sessions andcan be incorporated in courses in educational psy-chology, child development, counselingpsychology, and any others that deal with culturein education. For example, I have used it success-fully in a wide range of courses such asPsychological Foundations K-12, Issues andTheories in Early Childhood Education, AdvancedPsychological Foundations of Education (a re-quirement for School Counseling students), andApplied Child Development for Parent and ChildEducators. In addition, the Module has beenadapted for a large number of professional devel-opment workshops with early childhood educators,elementary and secondary teachers, school coun-selors, and administrators (Trumbull, Diaz-Meza,Hasan, & Rothstein-Fisch, 2001).

Although the Module has been used primarilyas a stand-alone training entity, the concepts andexamples can be taught in conjunction with othercultural diversity frameworks. As a case in point,the Southwest Educational Development Labora-tory produced a comprehensive training guide,Understanding the Cultural Contexts of Teachingand Learning: A Training Guide (Guerra & Gar-cia, 2000), which included elements from an earlier

draft of this Module as one of 11 training sessions.Their training guide incorporated additional com-patible cultural dimensions such aspower-distance and low- and high-context com-munication styles that seem allied to theindividualism-collectivism framework. Theframework of individualism and collectivism hasalso been incorporated into other diversity mater-ials (Brislin & Yoshida, 1994; Gudykunst, 1994;Lustig & Koester, 1999; Singelis, 1998).

Organization of the Module

The Module is intended to help teacher-edu-cators or professional development specialistsbuild knowledge based on individualism and col-lectivism and translate it into an effectivepresentation or set of presentations that engagetheir audiences. Chapter 1 discusses the role ofculture in education and introduces the constructsof individualism and collectivism. It reports theeffects of the Bridging Cultures professional de-velopment project on the seven teachers mentionedpreviously. Chapter 1 also provides a bird's-eyeview of the kind of effects the Bridging CulturesProject has had, something you may want to thinkabout in advance.

Chapter 2 provides the actual training re-sources including an outline, agenda, and script.As the main body of the Module, Chapter 2 hasseveral important features. First, the overview of-fers specific learning objectives for participantsto accomplish by the end of the session. Second,it describes optimal uses for the Module, includ-ing setting the stage with essential skills fordiversity training, preparation of materials, and aguide to using the script.

The largest component of Chapter 2 is a three-hour script. It is not intended for verbatim read-

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ing, but it does offer a specific example of how Ihave presented the Module. The script is designedas a lecture-discussion, with some structured op-portunities for guided dialogue and small groupinteraction. Throughout the script, Facilitator'sNotes are found in the margins. These are sug-gested as a result of my experience presenting theModule, including cues for overhead transparencyuse or places to stop for discussion. Of course, iffacilitators are experienced in presenting materialon multicultural education, they may find someof my suggestions obvious or unnecessary. I sim-ply wanted to share my own experiences in usingthe Module. Oversized margins are intended to en-courage integration of the facilitator's personalexperiences and stories (and those learned fromaudiences) in the presentation and adaptation ofthe Module. Finally, Chapter 2 offers ideas forincorporating the Readings for the Bridging Cul-tures Teacher Education Module (described in thenext section) into the presentation.

Chapter 3 presents the evaluation of a slightlyearlier version of the Module used with preserviceteachers (Rothstein-Fisch, 1998). I provide evalu-ation results of the Module from two sections ofthe same course (Psychological Foundations K-12) in 1997 at CSUN to give the reader an idea ofthe range of impact one can expect to have in athree-hour session. Chapter 4 contains suggestedoverhead transparency masters, and Chapter 5 pro-vides handout templates. Appendix 1 contains thelist of Bridging Cultures Project participants. Ap-pendix 2 describes individualism ratings from 50countries based on a system designed by Hofstede(2001).

Readings for the Bridging CulturesTeacher Education Module

The Readings that complement this Moduleinclude five previously published articles and onebook chapter. Provided as background informa-tion to presenters, the Readings are alsoappropriate for use by education students or otheraudiences as an adjunct to the Module. Suggesteduses of the Readings are described in Chapter 2,but they deserve some introduction here. The 16-page Knowledge Brief, Bridging Cultures in OurSchools: New Approaches That Work (Trumbull,Rothstein-Fisch, & Greenfield, 2000), is the workmost closely aligned to the Module itself becauseit explains the framework of individualism and col-lectivism, the Bridging Cultures Project, and theSeven Points of Home-School Conflict that areidentified in this Module. Two brief articles arealso included, Bridging Cultures with ClassroomStrategies (Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield, & Trum-bull, 1999) and Bridging Cultures with aParent-Teacher Conference (Quiroz, Greenfield,& Altchech, 1999). They were originally publishedin Educational Leadership and describe teacher-constructed strategies that enhance learning andhome-school communication. The fourth and fiftharticles are the original research cited throughoutthis Module that provided the empirical basis forthe Bridging Cultures framework: Cross-CulturalConflict and Harmony in the Social Constructionof the Child (Greenfield, Quiroz, & Raeff, 2000)and Conceptualizing Interpersonal Relationshipsin the Cultural Contexts of Individualism and Col-lectivism (Raeff, Greenfield, & Quiroz, 2000). Thefinal selection in the Readings is the first chapterfrom Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority ChildDevelopment (Greenfield, 1994), Independenceand Interdependence as Developmental Scripts:

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Preface XIII

Implications for Theory, Research and Practice,wherein the constructs of independence (individu-alism) and interdependence (collectivism) areportrayed as developmental scripts with implica-tions for theory, research, and practice. All sixworks contained in the Readings are publishedwith the permission of their copyright holders(WestEd, Rothstein-Fisch, Quiroz, Wiley, andLawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.).

Acknowledgments

The Bridging Cultures Project is first and fore-most a collaboration among colleagues dedicatedto improving education for immigrant students,their teachers, families, and schools. What beganas a relatively simple experiment to validate theusefulness of a framework for understanding cul-ture became a partnership among seven elementaryschool teachers, four staff researchers, and morerecently a cadre of about 15 students from theMichael D. Eisner College of Education at CSUNand the Psychology Department at UCLA. To-gether, we have shared stories of frustration withinstitutions and policies that seemed to derail stu-dent success, such as the virtual elimination ofbilingual education in California, as well as suc-cesses resulting from applications of theindividualism and collectivism framework. Wehave also shared our lives: new babies, illnesses,promotions, marriages, and countless meals.

Each member of the team deserves specialthanks. Dr. Patricia Greenfield, whose theoreticalmodel initiated the project, has served as our prin-cipal investigator, offering guidance, wisdom, andinsight throughout. She has been a significant con-tributor to the thinking represented in this Moduleand all the Bridging Cultures activities and publi-cations. Blanca Quiroz began the project as a

UCLA undergraduate struggling with the dishar-mony of being an immigrant Latina parent in aculture very different from the one she had knowngrowing up in Mexico. Her stories of cultural con-flict, many included in this Module, provided reallife experiences that exemplify the constructs ofthe Bridging Cultures framework. Blanca contin-ues to inspire us as a doctoral student at Harvard.As the Bridging Cultures Project Director atWestEd, Dr. Elise Trumbull coordinated our ac-tivities and led many of our publication efforts.She has been an enthusiastic and steadfast cham-pion of the Project through each stage ofdevelopment from inception to the completion ofthe Bridging Cultures Project's Five-Year Report(2001, available on the Web at www.wested.org/bridging/BC_ 5yr_report.pdf) and beyond. Elisehas also contributed significantly to the editing ofthis Module.

Our seven elementary school teachers (seeAppendix 1) have been the heart of our processand products, and quite simply, without them therewould have been no Bridging Cultures Project.They have provided rich examples of how under-standing cultural values can improve classroompractices in a wide range of areas such as literacy,mathematics, and home-school relations. It is theirexperience and wisdom that fill many pages of thisbook. They continually inspire us with their teach-ing gifts, and we have learned from theirexperiences and interviews and most of all, fromwatching them work with students and families intheir classrooms.

The vital role of the Culture and Language inEducation (formerly Language and Cultural Di-versity) Program directed by Dr. SharonNelson-Barber at WestEd (which provided fiveyears of funding for Bridging Cultures) cannot beoverstated. WestEd has published several reportsand the widely distributed Bridging Cultures in

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Our Schools: New Approaches That Work(Trum-bull, Rothstein-Fisch, & Greenfield, 2000).WestEd is co-publisher with Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates, Inc., of Bridging Cultures betweenHome and School: A Guide for Teachers(Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield, & Quiroz,2001) and this Module. Special thanks to NaomiSilverman, our patient, insightful, and supportiveeditor at Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., whochampioned this Module and was instrumental inthe development and publication of the Guide.

Acknowledgment is given to the copyrightholders who have allowed their works to be re-produced as overhead transparency masters. Theseinclude Wiley, Dr. Geert Hofstede, WestEd, theAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum De-velopment, Teachers College Press, and theRussell Sage Foundation. I sincerely appreciatethe photographs from J. Patrick Geary (Overhead14) and Giancarlo Mercado (Overhead 18).

Special thanks to Erica Kica, Sarah Walhert,and Art Lizza who complete our production teamat Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Gratefulacknowledgment is extended to Shernaz B. Gar-cia, University of Texas-Austin, for her insightfulsuggestions on an earlier draft, along with the sug-gestions from one anonymous reviewer. Iespecially appreciate the efforts of Cherry ElliottAlena, who brought her considerable talents as acritical reader and artist to the design and format-ting of the Module.

I owe a debt of gratitude to the education stu-dents at CSUN. They have assisted me for fouryears while I tested various iterations of this Mod-ule. They have validated it in their work aspreservice and inservice teachers, parent educa-tors, school counselors, and career counselors.They have asked hard questions, filled out numer-ous evaluations, and used the Bridging Culturesframework as a source of their own original re-

search. J. Patrick Geary, a former graduate stu-dent in school counseling, has been especiallyhelpful in presenting, evaluating, and editing theModule.

I am grateful to my mother, Ethel Rothstein,daughter of immigrants, who as a young widowsacrificed so much for her children's education.Endless gratitude is owed to my husband, Dr.Bryan Fisch, and our two children, Ariana andJonathan, for filling my life with endless joy andan ever-larger appreciation for our family's inter-dependence.

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Introduction to the Bridging Cultures Project

Culture and Education

Large waves of recent immigrants from Mexico,Central and South America, the Middle East, andAsia have necessitated new ways of thinking aboutlearning and teaching. However, most educatorsare not adequately prepared for the cultural mixwhich faces them, and they do not have adequateresources to help them understand underlying cul-tural values. Although it is highly useful forteachers to learn about all the cultures that makeup their classrooms (Banks, 1997; Banks, 2001),accumulating the information necessary to under-stand their nuances can be daunting. A BridgingCultures kindergarten teacher, Kathy Eyler, ex-pressed her frustration, "I wanted to understandmy students better so I started studying Mexicanculture. Then I realized that the children in myclass came from many distinct regions, each withdifferent histories and traditions. I just knew Iwould never know enough. I had to give up try-ing" (Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield, & Trumbull,

1999, p. 64). However, Kathy's frustration turnedto understanding, action, and advocacy as a resultof the Bridging Cultures Project.

What is theBridging Cultures Project?

The Bridging Cultures Project is a profes-sional development project that has found waysto improve cross-cultural understanding in class-rooms and schools. It is based on a series ofempirical studies demonstrating that deep, invis-ible cultural values affect the ways teachers,parents, and students solve home- and school-based problems (Greenfield, Raeff, & Quiroz,2000; Quiroz & Greenfield, forthcoming; Raeff,Greenfield, & Quiroz, 2000). The research focusedon immigrant Latino families and the cultural val-ues system that is common in Mexico and Centraland South America, especially among the ruralpoor and those with limited access to formal edu-cation. These immigrants come to the United

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States with a cultural value system called collec-tivism (Greenfield & Cocking, 1994; Triandis,1989). Collectivism refers to a cluster of interre-lated values that reflect a particular worldview andmotivate a whole range of thoughts, beliefs, andbehaviors. In this value system, children are seenas part of a family whose members are interde-pendent. Sharing and helping others are essentialbecause the goal of collectivism is group-familyinterdependency. Collectivism is the culture ofimmigrants from many parts of the world. In fact,70% of the world's cultures can be characterizedas collectivistic (Triandis, 1989).

In contrast, mainstream schools in the U.S.foster individualism, a set of values associated withindependence, self-expression, and personalachievement. Individualism stresses personalchoice and autonomy. In this value system, chil-dren are seen as individuals who need to becomeindependent of their families. In the Bridging Cul-tures Project, we have used a framework in-corporating these two value orientations as a wayto help teachers become aware of the deep mean-ing of culture and how it affects everything fromhow schools implement federal breakfast programsto how teachers approach literacy.

Initial research studies prompted the question,could teachers understand and apply the frame-work of individualism-collectivism to positivelyaffect communication, instruction, and learning?

In the fall of 1996, we tested whether theBridging Cultures framework of individualism andcollectivism could be useful for teachers servinglarge populations of immigrant Latino children.Seven elementary school teachers (four Latino andthree European American) in bilingual classes inthe greater Los Angeles area participated with staffresearchers from WestEd (a regional educationlaboratory); University of California, Los Ange-les (UCLA); and California State University,

Northridge (CSUN) (see Appendix 1). The teach-ers were invited to attend three half-day work-shops conducted by the staff researchers that wouldintroduce them to the framework of individual-ism and collectivism. Pretest data revealed thatthe teachers were largely individualistic in theirsolutions to scenarios presenting home- andschool-based problems. On the pretest, 85% oftheir responses were rated individualistic. At theend of the third workshop, teachers responded toanother set of scenarios in a more balanced man-ner (50% collectivistic responses, 29% individu-alistic, and 21% a combination of individualisticand collectivistic) (Rothstein-Fisch, Trumbull,Quiroz, & Greenfield, 1997).

Pretest and posttest data and videotapedrecords from the three workshops demonstratedthree changes in teachers' thinking about culture.The following quotations from the Bridging Cul-tures teachers indicate that:

1. Teachers understood children and their fami-lies in new ways that bridged home and schoolcultures.

I am much more aware of how strong[ly] the col-lectivistic model is ingrained in my Latino stu-dents and how strong[ly] the individualistic modelis ingrained in our curriculum, teaching methodsand society. (Amada Perez)

I feel less isolated and more heartened. I'm moreaware of my individualistic tendencies. I havemade efforts to connect more with parents.Awareness of the model and the possibility ofchange is encouraging. (Pearl Saitzyk)

2. Teachers improved classroom activities byemphasizing meaningful collaboration amongstudents.

My reading and math journal is going to be muchmore group oriented. (Catherine Daley)

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In my classroom, I started being really consciousof the helpers—not just allowing it, encouragingit. It is a much different atmosphere. I can tell bythe looks on their faces.(KathyEyler)

3. Teachers used personal reflection about therole of culture in thinking, learning, acting,and communicating for themselves and others.

I think before I act or speak when dealing withconflict that may occur between students andalso participate more from this perspective on aprofessional level at faulty meetings or just atlunch. (Elvia Hernandez)

I am more conscious of my perceptions and im-mediate reactions to others. (Catherine Daley)

At the conclusion of the third workshop, theteachers unanimously asked to continue their par-ticipation in the Bridging Cultures Project. Theydescribed the roles they would like to take.

Developing a team that can present together atschools. (Marie Altchech)

I'd like to continue to research, share my experi-ences, write and work on presenting atconferences and do in-service workshops in mydistrict, county, state, country, and world.(Amada Perez)

I would like to continue to be a participatingmember of this group and help in any way I can.(Giancaho Mercado)

I'd be interested in developing materials for stu-dents and teachers, as well as informing parentgroups. (Elvia Hernandez)

All of the teachers described the frameworkas vital to their ongoing understanding of students,families, and themselves. Although the staff re-searchers planned to document the changesteachers made as they attempted to address goalsthey had set for themselves, we could never have

anticipated the teachers' enthusiasm to continueas a group and ultimately their commitment toleadership in developing innovations in their class-rooms and schools. As researchers in their ownclassrooms, the teachers have created their ownunique ways for operationalizing the frameworkto solve a wide variety of problems. Indeed, it islargely the teachers' innovations, drawn from thecultural strengths of students and their families,that are used throughout this Module to demon-strate how to reduce cross-cultural conflicts.

The teachers and staff researchers continue todocument their applications of the individualism-collectivism framework in many ways. Togetherwe have generated a variety of data sources:

• Videotapes of the 3 initial training workshopsand the first group meeting thereafter

• Field notes from 24 semi-monthly meetingsthat yielded detailed documentation of theteachers' experiences using the framework

• Written surveys and reflections from the teach-ers at numerous times throughout the past 4years

• Observations by staff researchers of all 7teachers at least twice in their classrooms forseveral hours (in 1998 and in 1999)

• Intensive individual teacher interviews, eachoften lasting more than 2 hours

Teachers also took on the role of professionaldevelopers. Their efforts have included planningand presenting at local, state, and national confer-ences. They have integrated Bridging Culturescontent into courses for intern teachers, critiquedpublications, and contributed to professional de-velopment materials. Detailed documentation ofthe teachers' growth is contained in the BridgingCultures Project Five-Year Report, 1996-2000

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(Trumbull, Diaz-Meza, Hasan, & Rothstein-Fisch,2001).

The framework of individualism and collec-tivism has proven useful because it generatesinsights and understandings that enable teachersto build cultural bridges between home and school(Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield, & Quiroz,2001). For example, teachers discovered that stu-dents' natural desire to help their classmates couldyield improved multiplication test scores (Roth-stein-Fisch, Greenfield & Trumbull, 1999). Theyalso discovered that when a writing prompt waschanged from something general ("Describe a fa-vorite TV show") to something that includes thefamily ("Describe a TV show you like to watchwith your family"), writing increased in length,detail, and sophistication of vocabulary becausestudents seemed much more interested in describ-ing the joy of sitting with their parents, siblings,and cousins watching television, noting in particu-lar how each family member liked somethingdifferent about his or her favorite show. Thus, un-derstanding value systems through a simpletwo-part framework, has allowed teachers to lookat students, parents, and themselves in new waysthat promote learning (Trumbull, Diaz-Meza,Hasan, & Rothstein-Fisch, 2001; Trumbull, Roth-stein-Fisch, Greenfield & Quiroz, 2001).

Validity of the Bridging CulturesFramework and Module

The content validity of the framework is de-rived from several scholarly sources. Theframework of independence (individualism) andinterdependence (collectivism) has been appliedto Native American roots (including conquered in-digenous peoples of North America, includingMexico), African roots, and Asian roots (Green-

field, 1994, included in Readings for the BridgingCultures Teacher Education Module as Article 6;Greenfield & Cocking, 1994). Empirical studiesinclude a series of videotaped, naturally occurringparent-teacher conferences (Greenfield, Quiroz,& Raeff, 2000, Readings Article 4) and a series ofopen-ended hypothetical scenarios solved by stu-dents, parents, and teachers at two schools, oneserving European American families and the otherimmigrant Latino families (Raeff, Greenfield, &Quiroz, 2000, Readings Article 5). This body ofresearch confirmed that the values and beliefs ofschools can conflict with the values and beliefs offamilies, causing confusion, misunderstanding,and sometimes misguided punishment.

The Module also draws on two sources of pro-cess validity: The original longitudinal study withour seven teacher-collaborators and the evalua-tion data from students and participants inBridging Cultures presentations. The impact of theframework on the teachers was the result of pro-longed interaction and collaboration, and the datademonstrate how changes occurred in teachers' un-derstanding and behavior toward Latino studentsand their families (Trumbull, Diaz-Meza, Hasan,& Rothstein-Fisch, 2001). It is clear that this typeof ongoing professional development and dialogueis powerful and compelling, but it is also verytime-consuming and expensive. Thus, the needarose for a more traditional type of workshop for-mat despite the well-recognized limitations ofshort-term professional development.

Data from the first pilot testing of the Mod-ule, presented in Chapter 3, provide an account ofhow university students enrolled in a course oneducational psychology increased their knowledgeof cultural value systems. It would be hard to imag-ine that one class session would produce resultscomparable to the impact on our original seventeachers, and the long-term effects of the Module

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1 Introduction to the Bridging Cultures Project

on education students have not been studied sys-tematically. Pre-service teachers would not be ableto make changes in classrooms in the same wayour tenured and experienced group of seven teach-ers did because they are still in the role ofapprentice. Nevertheless, students and participantsin our workshops claim to have been affected by asingle or short-term exposure to Bridging Culturesprinciples and examples (Trumbull, Diaz-Meza,Hasan, & Rothstein-Fisch, 2001).

Cultural Caveats

Before moving further, it is critical to state animportant caution. Although this Module oftenfocuses on differences between individualism andcollectivism, I do not mean to oversimplify orovergeneralize about groups of people. "Humanexperience is far too complex to fit neatly into anyconceptual scheme. No society is all one thing oranother" (Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, & Green-field, 2000, p. 4). Because intracultural variationis so important, it is mentioned here as well as inthe script in Chapter 2. There will always be di-versity within any group even if the groupmembers are all recent immigrants from the samestate of Mexico. For example, socioeconomicstatus is a very powerful predictor of school suc-cess—more so than culture alone. Anymulticultural education program should consideran array of variables that affect individual fami-lies whether the family is rural or urban, formallyor informally educated, monolingual or bilingual.All of these factors affect the degree to which afamily is individualistic or collectivistic. For ex-ample, urban life and higher levels of formaleducation tend to make people moreindividualistic.

Cultures—and people—change over time asthey come into contact with each other and as theireconomic circumstances change. However, manychild-rearing values persist over generations(Greenfield & Suzuki, 1998; Lambert, Hammers,& Frasure-Smith, 1979), and deeply held valuesystems are more resistant to change than surfaceaspects of culture such as eating habits or language.Thus, even as outward acculturation moves peopletoward an individualistic orientation, collectivis-tic values and child-rearing practices are likely topersist.

In many ways, the value orientation of collec-tivism is particularly robust among recentimmigrants from rural and poor areas of Mexicoand Central and South America, with a strongemphasis on the unity of the family. Thus, if theframework proved useful with this population—illuminating dramatic differences between schooland home, generating ways to draw on students'strengths, and helping to avoid conflicts in theclassroom—then future research could addresshow it might apply in settings where relations be-tween home and school values were more subtle.

As we seek to build bridges between homeand school cultures, we must not reduce complexindividuals to simple categories; nevertheless, wecannot ignore the compelling influences ofchildren's home culture on their education. "If wecan remember that the framework is just a tool, aheuristic for helping us organize our observationsand questions, we can avoid the pitfalls associ-ated with categories" (Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch,Greenfield, & Quiroz, 2001, p. 4). In the next chap-ter, a method for sharing this heuristic is presentedas a three-hour training Module. It is hoped it willpromote essential discussion about culture andeducation.

5

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Facilitator's Script

Overview

The Bridging Cultures Module was designed tohelp pre-service and in-service educators under-stand the role of culture in education and learningfrom the perspective of two differing cultural valuesystems, individualism and collectivism. It is es-pecially well suited for teachers, but it has alsobeen used for training school counselors and ad-ministrators as well. This chapter offers a scriptof how to present the Bridging Cultures Project.It is organized as a three-hour module whereinparticipants explore the differences between thevalues of school and the values of immigrantLatino families through a variety of classroom-based problems.

Objectives

At the end of the Module presentation,participants will be able to:

• Recognize that all people have cultures andno one culture is inherently better than another

• Identify the features of individualism andcollectivism

• Examine their own cultural orientation andidentify the values of their family of origin

• Cite examples of home-school conflict deriv-ing from differing cultural value systems

• Describe classroom-based strategies that ap-ply individualistic and collectivistic values tohelp students achieve their full potential hon-oring both home and school cultures

7

Chapter

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Optimal Use of the Module

Diversity training is complex, emotionally andcognitively. It is fraught with challenges for bothpresenters and their group participants. The firstchallenge is for leaders to consider their own per-sonal cultural values. Self-awareness is anecessary part of being able to teach cross-cultur-ally and to develop genuine, mutual relationshipswith people from differing cultural backgrounds(Derman-Sparks & Philips, 1997). Acquiring self-awareness with regard to culture is a dynamicprocess, and like all development it evolves anddeepens over time. Reading widely about culture,race, language, and power will certainly help.

The companion book, Readings for the Bridg-ing Cultures Teacher Education Module, providesan important adjunct to this Module and is brieflydescribed in the Preface. It should be read priorto presenting the Module. I recommend that Mod-ule presenters read the articles in reverse orderbeginning with the theoretical chapter by Green-field (1994, Article 6) because that sets the stagefor the others. The Greenfield article also drawson examples from non-Latino groups so that pre-senters can be ready to answer questions about howthe framework relates to other non-mainstreamcultural groups. Articles 4 and 5 provide impor-tant background information on how the empiricaldata referred to throughout the Module were de-rived. The three articles that remain (Articles 1-3)are highly worthwhile because they apply directlyto the actual Bridging Cultures Project. As indi-cated in the Readings, presenters are encouragedto read our other Bridging Cultures book, Bridg-ing Cultures between Home and School: A Guidefor Teachers (Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, et al.,2001) or browse the Bridging Cultures Five-YearReport: 1996-2000 (2001) on the Web at http://

www.wested.org/bridging/BC_5yr_report.pdf.Numerous additional resources on diversity arecontained in the references and are cited in thescript itself as reference points for further read-ing.

There comes a point where we must admit wedon't know everything, yet forge ahead to reducecultural conflict. Bridging Cultures presenters areeagerly encouraged to learn as much as possible,but they should not be crippled by what they don'tknow. Rather, they should be open to reading,watching, asking, and learning from others in arespectful, nonjudgmental way. College studentsare willing to help their professors learn moreabout their home cultures, particularly when theysense a genuine interest. I always encourage stu-dents to contribute their experiences to the learningprocess in ways that are most culturally meaning-ful for students themselves. Inevitably, their storieshave enriched my understanding and cross-cultural knowledge.

Learning to Bridge CulturesTakes Time

It takes time for facilitators to develop knowl-edge of the literature on diversity and to draw fromtheir own personal histories (and those of formeraudiences) to make meaning of the Bridging Cul-tures framework: They must also allow sufficientlearning time for participants to do the same. Eachaudience brings with it different levels of expo-sure and experience in working with students fromnondominant groups, particularly the immigrantLatino students who are the focus of the BridgingCultures Project. As with any new set of concepts,it is best to situate this framework within the learn-ers' own lived experiences with real world culturalconflicts and concerns. Participants will need time

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2 Facilitator's Script

to see what applies to the individuals and groupsthey work with in school settings. The best learn-ing moments come when previously obscurevalues and beliefs become clearer and can be ex-amined purposefully. It is therefore ideal to allowfor as much guided discussion time as possible.

The content and length of the Bridging Cul-tures presentation should be varied according tolearners' needs. Although the script in this chap-ter is designed as a three-hour presentation, it isfar better to spread this workshop over several ses-sions, noting applications of the individualism andcollectivism framework to issues such as class-room management, parent empowerment, literacy,and science or other subject content areas. Ide-ally, the framework should be infused throughoutan academic semester or, better yet, a wholeteacher education curriculum. With regard to anykind of professional development or theoreticalframework, time is needed to progress from basicawareness to understanding and then to action andadvocacy. Time allocated for ongoing discussiondefinitely helps participants consider their ownexperiences as they reflect on and anticipate in-teractions with students, their students' families,school staff, and the wider community. If threehours are not available, there are two places in thescript that can be abridged or eliminated. For ex-ample, several conflicts could be combined, suchas those focused on objects (Conflicts 2 and 3) ororal expression (Conflicts 6 and 7). Another wayto abridge the script would be to reduce the num-ber of examples offered for each conflict or totruncate the detailed interpretations that followeach example.

Creating Trust anda Sense of Safety

Establishing a trustworthy and safe environ-ment is essential before beginning a trainingsession or class. In an ongoing course, this is prob-ably already established, but in a singleworkshop-style presentation, participants may feelvulnerable about sharing personal culture-basedexperiences, particularly if their cultures have adifferent value system from the mainstream. Dis-cussions of cultural value systems may causeuneasiness or defensiveness. Therefore, it is wiseto establish trust and safety rules before the pre-sentation for optimal participation.

Trust is essential. First, facilitators must trustthemselves. "The clearer the structure and the moresecure you are in the role of facilitator, the betterthe chances for a safe climate and productive dis-cussion" (Mesa-Bains & Shulman, 1994, p. 6).For instance, facilitators who trust themselves canreframe questions and draw on body language cues(Mesa-Bains & Shulman, 1994). Promoting trustwithin the audience means allowing for multipleways of learning and contributing to the discus-sion, recognizing that some participants may wantto make contributions orally whereas others aresatisfied by listening and having opportunities towrite responses. Private conversations with peoplewho have been reluctant to share (such as prior tothe presentation or during break time) build trustand establish the sentiment that all opinions arevalued.

Ground rules are especially important to es-tablish. The audience can be asked to generate theirown list of ground rules about sharing, or the fa-cilitator can bring a tentative list of suggested rules.For example, attentive, respectful, nonjudgmentallistening to one speaker at a time is important

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because it eliminates interruptions. Establishing acode of confidentiality within the group so thatpersonal disclosures are not shared beyond thesession can also be an important ground rule toengender trust and group sharing.

Sometimes discussion of cultural conflicts cantrigger heightened emotions. For example, collegestudents may come to a realization about familyconflicts and be in need of counseling services. Insuch cases, knowledge of referral resources canbe helpful. In addition, some participants may feelthat their values are "better" than others, and con-flict resolution skills may be necessary. Girard andKoch (1996) suggested that conflicting interestsbe seen as a "shared problem, to be solved mutu-ally" (p. 9). In this case, the goal is to understandeach other without a judgment as to which cul-tural value system is better. Remind participantsthat both individualism and collectivism are im-portant for school success and ask them to generatea list demonstrating that both systems contributeto learning in meaningful ways.

Many Ways of Learning

Facilitators will find many participants gravi-tating toward the framework, eager to share storiesof their personal experiences with individualismand collectivism. In contrast, some participantsmay be uncomfortable with personal narratives.One way to avoid the tensions caused when per-sonal narratives become too time-consumingduring discussion is to have people share in pairsor small groups. This fosters respect for partici-pants' lived experiences while not requiring thewhole group to become embroiled in what somemay feel are tangential personal issues.

At the beginning and end of the Module pre-sentation, there are opportunities for participantsto write. These are included as handouts in Chap-

ter 5. The first one includes an informal responseto a school-based scenario. The second handout,Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict, providesa vehicle for participants to write notes in an or-ganized fashion during the discussion. Toward theend of the presentation, the audience is givenHandout 3 and invited to conceptualize and illus-trate a cultural bridge. Drawing an actual bridgeallows participants to envision and personalizehow they might become cultural conduits for stu-dents and families. Handout 4 is an evaluation ofthe Module that allows participants to reflect ontheir own experiences with individualism and col-lectivism while providing a critique of thepresentation method and content. "No matter howcoherently planned, sensibly constituted, or wellled they may be, cultural education programs takeon a life of their own when they are enacted"(Finkelstein, et al., 1998, p. 26). Hence, it is im-portant to evaluate each presentation of theModule to learn the myriad ways in which it maybe understood and experienced.

Guide to Using the Script

There are two parts to the script. The narra-tive script is very close to how I actually presentthe Module in three hours. Remember that this isa sample script. Put the content in your own wordsand construct a learning experience that is gearedto your unique audience. I use the script as a foun-dation and read several specific examples verbatimbecause they capture the original research well.First read the needs of the audience, then engageand alter the script.

The second part of the script is the Facilitator'sNotes. These are included in the margins with sug-gestions and ideas for the process of presentingthe Module, and they include discussion topics aridindications for putting up overhead transparencies

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or distributing handouts. Reference citations foundin the script are not necessarily intended to be readaloud; they are provided as a means to locate origi-nal sources. Most important, adapt the script toyour own specifications, and plan how you willintroduce, present, and evaluate key concepts andactivities.

Presentation Tips

Strategies for preparing to present new mate-rial are offered in this section. They may be sofamiliar to you that you want to skim past them.On the other hand, some of them may be goodreminders or trigger thoughts of new strategies youcan use. For example, I practice new material outloud to determine if there are points of confusionor words that trip me up. To overcome these prob-lem areas, I recommend marking up the pages withyour own margin notes or references. A highlighterwill help to emphasize key points you don't wantto miss if time runs short. Whenever possible, prac-tice in front of a friendly audience to gatherconstructive comments before the actual presen-tation.

Prepare the Materials

The Module has been perforated and hole-punched to facilitate its use. For example, you maywish to detach the pages in Chapters 4 and 5 forease in duplicating the overheads (onto transpar-ency masters) and the handouts. Likewise, thescript may be easily detached to make it less cum-bersome in handling during the lecture—discussion.The punched holes make it easy to put the entirebook into a three-ring binder. A binder is a goodway to store the Readings, as well. Consider abinder as an expanding repository for other cul-tural diversity resources that complement theModule.

It probably goes without saying, but be sureyou have more than enough handouts for the groupyou anticipate. These materials are copyrighted;therefore we have cited the full references, andthey should remain printed on reproductions of thehandouts. Prepare an agenda that outlines specifi-cally what you plan to do or use the one includedin Chapter 4 (Overhead 1). Develop an evalua-tion, using Handout 4 as a start: Ask the questionsyou would like answered. Bring blank overheadtransparency sheets and marking pens for note-taking because writing down participants'responses to problems or questions can be helpfulfor learners. Taking time to record audience com-ments also demonstrates that their responses arevalued, and the need for a visual focal point is sat-isfied. Finally, if you decide to write commentson blank overhead transparencies, you'll have awritten reminder of the discussion content.

Invite Others

If you are a college professor, consider adver-tising the Bridging Cultures Module as a workshopif you think others in addition to your studentsmight be interested in attending. Of course, thereare benefits and drawbacks to bringing others tothe discussion. If you have a well-established trustlevel in the middle of a college course, you maynot want the disruption outsiders may introduce.New participants may also change the establishedgroup's security. If you do decide to invite others,such as school-based personnel, be sure to giveadvance notice to them and the class. Provide cleardirections and free parking if possible. Arrangefor refreshments so that break times can be spentin the same room and the conversation can be in-formal but still purposeful.

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Check the Room and Equipment

The room should be large enough to allow acomfortable seat for each participant. Ideally,tables or desks should be arranged in a theater-style format for the initial part of the presentationand then moved into small clusters for group shar-ing time. Also, check for distractions such asuncomfortable room temperature and outsidenoises.

Be certain that the overhead projector is ingood working order and that additional light bulbsare available just in case you need them. If theroom is very large, you may need a microphoneand speakers. Be cautious about cords and otherdistractions or obstacles that can impede your pre-sentation. Many of these details may seem trivial,yet failure to deal with them can sabotage an oth-erwise excellent educational experience.

Use of the Readings

The companion book, Readings for the Bridg-ing Cultures Teacher Education Module, includessix articles associated with the Module that supple-ment it in two ways. First, they provide the fulltext of previously published works and are in-tended as important background knowledge forfacilitators. Second, they are highly worthwhileresources for participants. They are introducedbelow along with comments about the intendedaudiences for each.

Article 1. Bridging Cultures in Our Schools: NewApproaches That Work. Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. (2000).

The first article is a widely distributed 16-pagedescription of the framework of individualism andcollectivism, the Bridging Cultures Project, and

the Seven Points of Home-School Conflict, in-cluding examples and strategies. Educationstudents have commented that this article helpedto solidify the concepts from the presentation andwas useful in course assignments.

Article 2. Bridging Cultures with Classroom Strat-egies. Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. M., &Trumbull, E.( 1999).

In a brief and concise manner, Article 2 pro-vides an overview of the Bridging Cultures Projectwith commentary on specific classroom practices(many of which are included in this Module) suchas the hummingbird example.

Article 3. Bridging Cultures with a Parent-teacherConference. Quiroz, B., Greenfield, P. M., &Altchech,M.(1999).

The process of moving from a child-driven,individual parent-teacher conference toward groupparent-teacher conferences is described inArticle 3, including reflections from the teacherwho made the changes.

Article 4. Cross-cultural Conflict and Harmony inthe Social Construction of the Child. Greenfield,P. M., Quiroz, B., & Raeff, C. (2000).

Written primarily for scholars, Article 4 de-scribes nine naturally occurring parent-teacherconferences between immigrant Latino parents andtheir children's European American elementaryschool teacher. Excerpts from this research arementioned in the script. This article is highly rec-ommended for professors, professional develop-ment specialists, or advanced education students.

Article 5. Conceptualizing Interpersonal Relation-ships in the Cultural Contexts of Individualism andCollectivism. Raeff, C., Greenfield, P. M., &Quiroz, B. (2000).

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Fifth-grade children, their parents, and theirteachers are offered a series of home-schoolconflicts and asked how to solve them in Article5. The Module script begins with one scenario fromthis research, the classroom task of cleaning thechalkboard. Because this research is fundamentalto the Module, it is highly recommended for pro-fessors and professional developmental specialists.Advanced education students might also find theoriginal research very interesting.

Article 6. Independence and Interdependence asDevelopmental Scripts: Implications for Theory,Research, and Practice. Greenfield, P. M. (1994).

Article 6 is actually the first chapter of a bookthat explores the framework of independence (in-dividualism) and interdependence (collectivism)related to people with American roots (includingthe indigenous people of America, now consid-ered Mexican or Native American), AfricanAmerican roots, and Asian roots. The entire bookis highly worthwhile. The chapter is included inthe Readings primarily as background for Modulepreparation or for advanced students.

Further Reading

As mentioned in the Preface, two additionalresources are associated with the Bridging Cul-tures Project.

1. Bridging Cultures between Home and School:A Guide for Teachers. Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. M. & Quiroz, B. (2001).

The Guide describes the Bridging CulturesProject in some detail and includes chapters oncross-cultural communication, parent involve-ment, and teachers as researchers. It is a perfectcomplement to the Module since it contains manyteacher-constructed strategies for promoting cul-

turally appropriate instruction.

2. The Bridging Cultures Project Five-Year Re-port, 1996-2000. Trumbull, E., Diaz-Meza, R.,Hasan, A., & Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2001). On theInternet at http://www.wested.org/bridging/BC_5yr_report.pdf.

Serving as summary report of the BridgingCultures Project, the Five-Year Report describesthe training, follow-up, professional developmentmeetings, research methods, outcomes, and futuredirections of the Project.

Connecting the Readings to Learning

The selected Readings that complement thisModule are ideal as sources for follow-up assign-ments if connected to part of an ongoing course.For example, teacher-education students could usethe information contained in the Readings as a re-source for writing papers, structured observationsof multicultural classrooms, or preparing for es-say exams on topics such as:

• The role of culture in education

Families and schools

Multicultural education-ideas

-new trends and

• Applying the principles of individualism andcollectivism in the classroom

• Serving the needs of immigrant students

Because the Readings provide vivid examplesof how culture influences learning and teaching,they are helpful as catalysts for reflective practiceor as a guide for culturally meaningful observa-tions of students, their teachers, and/or theirfamilies.

The Module has been designed so that the pre-sentation precedes the distribution of the Readings

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in order to produce a "wow" effect when the graphscomparing responses from two differing culturalgroups are shown the first time. However, in somecases it may be advisable to have participants pre-pare for the Module presentation by doing thereading first. Whenever the Readings for the Bridg-ing Cultures Teacher Education Module areoffered, learning more about individualism andcollectivism helps deepen the understanding andappreciation of culture in schools.

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SCRIPT NOTES

Introduction5 minutes

Today we will learn about the Bridging CulturesProject. Here is what we will do. (Overhead 1) It'san ambitious agenda, so let's get started. TheBridging Cultures Project is part of an ongoing pro-fessional development action research project. Itincludes two phases.

Phase 1Initial training: Teachers as participants

Overhead 1Agenda

Bridging Cultures Workshop Agenda

Introduction to the Bridging Cultures Project

Solving a Classroom Dilemma

Description of the Bridging Cultures Framework

The Seven Points of Home-School Conflict

Break

Envisioning the Cultural Bridge

Questions and Applications

Evaluation

(Overhead 2) In the fall of 1996, seven bilingual el-ementary school teachers came together at UCLAto learn more about the role of culture in education.Four of the teachers were Latino and three were Eu-ropean American. The teachers represented allelementary grade levels from kindergarten throughfifth grade.

The three initial workshops lasted about four hourseach and were conducted over a four month period.All sessions were videotaped, and the participantsand researchers ate breakfast and lunch together. Atthe first meeting, the teachers took a pretest consist-ing of four problems to solve related to home andschool cultural values. At the third meeting, they tooka similar test to measure if their understanding andproblem-solving skills related to culture hadchanged. All teachers had made a significant shiftin understanding immigrant Latino children andfamilies, even the Latino teachers! (Rothstein-Fisch,Trumbull, Quiroz, & Greenfield, 1997)

Overhead 2Bridging Cultures Project

The Bridging Cultures Project

Initial training, 1998

ParticipantsSeven bilingual Spanish-English elementary teachers(four Latino, three European American)

MethodThree videotaped workshops over four months

OutcomeAll teachers learned to understand and applythe Bridging Cultures framework

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NOTES SCRIPT

Phase 2Shifting the teachers' role from participantto researcher and disseminating the research

Overhead 3Bridging Cultures Project

The Bridging Cultures Project

Shifting roles, 1997-2001

Bi-monthly meetings provided opportunities tocontinue applying and researching the framework

Teachers moved from being teacher-participants toteacher-researchers, finding new examples andapplications of Bridging Cultures in their schools

Teachers became conference presenters,publication co-authors, and school leaders

If participants have read the articles from theHeadings prior to the presentation, the descrip-tion of the Project arid the participants couldbe posed as questions to the audience. Forexample, "Who remembers something aboutthe participants in the Bridging CulturesProject!" The Readings can also be mentionedwith regard to the Projects disseminationcomponent.

At the third and final meeting, the teachers requestedthat the meetings continue. As one teacher recalled:

I remember saying that we would continue tomeet and continue to dialogue and then try toteach others what we had learned. We were will-ing to do whatever it took to continue. The thingthat was amazing to me was that it was a totalcommitment, 100% consensus! (Amada Perez)(Rothstein-Fisch, 2000.)

(Overhead 5) After the initial three meetings,teachers moved from the role of teacher-participantto teacher-researcher as they continued to find newways to explore, learn, and apply the Bridging Cul-tures framework. Phase 2 continues with anexpanded group of other educators and graduate stu-dents who are focusing their research on BridgingCultures.

In addition, the Project has been widely dissemi-nated. The Bridging Cultures Project has been pre-sented more than 100 times between 1997 and 2001by the staff researchers, the initial teacher-partici-pants, and graduate students. In addition, theteachers have become co-authors of articles and areconsidered school leaders in many ways.

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SCRIPT NOTES

Jobs Scenario:Solving a Classroom Dilemma20 minutes

(Overhead 4, Handout 1} This Jobs Scenario wasused as part of a series of studies (Raeff, et al., 2000)in which parents, teachers, and fifth-grade studentsfrom two Los Angeles schools were asked toresolve conflicts centered around home and schoolthemes. (A scenario is a vignette demonstrating howdiffering value orientations lead to different inter-pretations of the same event or to different behav-iors in the same circumstances.) Take a minute torespond to this scenario.

Overhead 4Solving a Classroom Dilemma:The Jobs Scenario

Solving a Classroom Dilemma

The Jobs Scenario

It is the end of the school day, and the class iscleaning up. Salvador isn't feeling well, and heasks Emanuel to help him with his job for the day,which is cleaning the blackboard. Emanuel isn'tsure that he will have time to do both jobs.

What do you think the teacher should do?

Handout 1Solving a Classroom Dilemma:The Jobs Scenario

1. Put up Overhead 4 and/or distribute Hand-out 1. Ask participants to write responses.2. Share answers in whole group or pairs. Cap-ture comments on blank overhead or chalk-board.3. Focus debriefing on:• Finding a third person, either the teacher

or another student(individalistic)

• Protecting the task, focusing on taskcompletion (individualistic)

• The element of choice, Emanuel's choiceto help or not (individualistic)

• Helping automatically withoutquestioning (collectivistic)

• Helping without concern for personalpreference or job (collectivistic)

4. Participants may ask, "How do we knowSalvador is really sick?" or "r "Whthis theteacher's problem?" These responsesrepresent an individualistic perspective: Helpisn't offered unless the situation is desperateor it is convenient to do so. These points maybe discussed during the school graphsdebriefing.

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NOTES SCRIPT

Overhead 5The Jobs Scenario: School One

Let participants notice that the predominantresponse of the parents is to help, whilethe teachers and children have different re-sponses.

Overhead 6The Jobs Scenario: School Two

Let's see how parents, teachers, and fifth-grade stu-dents in two different schools responded to the samescenario.

(Overhead 5) The parents and children sampled inSchool One were entirely European American andthe teachers were of mixed ethnicity. From the graph,we can see that the dominant response was that theteacher should find a third person to clean the black-board. In fact, parents, children, and their teachersoverwhelmingly preferred this solution to thedilemma. Participants reasoned that Emanuel had hisown job to do and that his first responsibility wouldbe to that task. This response illustrates the value ofindependence, not infringing on others' rights. Somesaid that the third party should be a volunteer; thisresponse illustrates a value placed on choice, in thiscase, the choice of whether or not to help. It alsoemphasizes the importance of getting the job done,an orientation toward accomplishing a task ratherthan focusing on the needs of a sick friend who mayneed help. Notice that there is a general agreementamong children, parents, and teachers about how toresolve this dilemma.

(Overhead 6) Now, let's take a look at School Two.School Two served a population that was entirelyLatino. The teachers were again of mixed ethnicity

(proportionate to School One). Looking at the graphof School Two, what do you notice?

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SCRIPT NOTES

Immigrant Latino parents solved the jobs dilemmaby overwhelmingly (80%) selecting a helpingresponse. They believed that when a group membersuch as a fellow student needs help, it should be pro-vided automatically. The parents' response contrastswith the responses of the students and teachers. Theteachers in School Two responded very much thesame as the teachers in School One. Most studentsagreed with the position of their teachers, but a sig-nificant minority agreed with the values of theirparents. Thus, a simple classroom job, cleaning thechalkboard, can reveal two completely differentviews of human relations.

(Overheads 5 & 6} Notice that there is harmony be-tween the students, parents, and teachers in SchoolOne: The pattern of responses is more or less thesame for parents, teachers, and students. This con-trasts with the disharmony of School Two, wherestudents were pulled between two sets of culturalvalues. The graph of School Two also reveals thatthe conflict is often resolved in favor of the school,thus invalidating parents' developmental goals fortheir children.

Consider how hard it is for students to be wrenchedbetween the values at home and the values at schoolbecause they are in direct conflict. These deep andoften invisible cultural value differences cause allkinds of differences and conflicts in motivation,learning, and education, as we will see.

Alternate between Overheads 5 & 6, the graphsof School One and School Two, one after theother. Ask participants if they see a pattern.

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NOTES SCRIPT

The Cost of Home-School Conflict

Overhead 7The Cost of Home-School Conflict

The Cost of Home-School Conflict

'IWe came to feel that] the rules at school weremore important than the rules at home. The schooland the teachers were right. As a child, you beginto feel the conflict Many of my brothers stoppedcommunicating with the family and with my fatherbecause he was ignorant"

Amada Irma PerezThird-Grade Teacher

Remember that some parents, teachers, andstudents at the predominantly EuropeanAmerican school (One) were also in favor ofthe student helping a classmate in the JobsScenario but only about 20% of the time. Thus,while one type of response is clearly preferred,variations in beliefs about independence andhelpfulness exist within any population. Like-wise, in the school with Latino children andparents (Two), about 10% of the parents se-lected the response to "find a third person."The children were torn in their responses,wanting to solve the classroom job dilemmaby helping (about 30%) much more often thantheir teachers (about 10%), but less frequentlythan their parents (about 70%).

(Overhead 7) One of our Bridging Cultures teachers,an immigrant Latina, described the conflict poign-antly. This is an experience very common for immi-grant children and their families.

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SCRIPT NOTES

Description ofIndividualism and Collectivism25 minutes

Studies such as the one just described grew out ofnew ways of thinking about cultural values in edu-cation. The Bridging Cultures Project focuses onthe cultural dimensions of individualism and col-lectivism, which represents the degree to which aculture emphasizes individual fulfillment and choiceversus interdependent relations, social responsibil-ity, and the well-being of the group. Hofstede (2001)characterized "mainstream" culture in the U.S. asthe most individualistic of the cultures studied. Wewill see how various countries rank in terms of theirlevels of individualism in just a minute. First, weshould become more familiar with the characteris-tics of individualism and collectivism.

With the continuing influx to the U.S. of new stu-dents from Mexico and other countries with collec-tivistic value systems, teachers, counselors, andadministrators need an understanding of how andwhy differing value orientations can cause conflictbetween home and school. Without this understand-ing, discord can occur between even the most well-intentioned educators and the students and familiesthey serve. Moreover, internal conflict within thehearts and minds of students may occur when theyare pulled between parents (who may desire behav-iors consistent with collectivism) and teachers (whostress more individualistic qualities). We saw thisin the teacher's quote about home-school conflict.

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Overhead 8Individualism and Collectivism

IndividualismRepresentative of

mainstream U.S. culture

• Fosters independence andindividual achievement

• Emphasizes the physicalworld, private property,and objects out of context

• Promotes individual needs,self-expression, andpersonal choice

CollectivismRepresentative of many

Immigrant culturesand 70% of the world

• Fosters interdependence,family, and group success

• Emphasizes the socialworld, shared property, andobjects in social contexts

• Promotes norms, respectfor authority and elders,and group consensus

Move a sheet of paper to uncover each fea-ture comparing individualism and collectivismacross each dimension. Note that this slideindicates that 70% of world cultures are col-lectivistic (Triandis, 1989), and this may con-fuse participants when they see the relativeranking of countries according to the Hofstede(2001) data. The Triandis data is based uponthe percentage of world population in eachcountry whereas the Hofstede data rankscountries or regions from most individualisticto least.

(Overhead 8) In this slide, we see three major fea-tures of individualism and collectivism. Notice that70% of world population is collectivistic! No one isexclusively individualistic or collectivistic, but weall have cultural value orientations. When a familyfrom the mainstream culture raises a child in thatculture, there is often little conflict between homeand school. However, when a family from outsidethe dominant culture raises a child in the U.S., cul-tural values can collide. It is important to recognizethat both cultural orientations are valid, since all cul-tures socialize and educate children with purpose.

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(Overhead 9} Returning to the research by Hofstede(1980, 1983, 2001), as promised, let's look at therelative value of individualism in a few countriesand regions. Notice that the high scores are associ-ated with greater individualism, perhaps indicatingan inherent devaluing of the collectivisitic orienta-tion. Where did your family come from? To whatdegree might they be individualistic or collectivis-tic? Stop and think about where you stand with yourown value system.

Overhead 9Hofstede's Individualism Ratings

Hofstede'sIndividualismRatings

USA 91Australia 90

Great Britain 89Canada 80

Italy 76France, Sweden 71

Germany 67Israel 54Spain 51India 48

Argentina, Japan 46Iran 41

"Arab countries," Brazil 38Philippines 32

Mexico 30"East African countries" 27

Hong Kong 25Singapore, Thailand, 2o

•West African countries"South Korea 18

Costa Rica 15Indonesia, Pakistan 14

Guatemala 6

This overhead shows the relative individual-ism of some countries and regions. Notice thatthe highest scores are often in English-speak-ing and affluent countries. For more informa-tion, see Appendix 2, which includes analphabetical list of fifty countries and threeregions and their rankings based on individu-alism scores from Hofstede's (2001) research.This data is shown to allow presenters andaudiences to identify the individualism rank-ing of their country or region of origin.

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Overhead 10Risk: Overgeneralizing

Risk: Overgeneralizing

Socioeconomic status, amount of formal education,and rural or urban origins are powerful predictors ofindividualism and collectivism.

All cultures, like people, are both individualistic andcollectivistic and change over time. However, despitecultural shifts toward the mainstream, child-rearingvalues can persist over many generations.

While definite cultural differences do exist, and canbe understood on the basis of the individualism- col-lectivism framework, it is necessary to caution youabout the limits of the framework and the risks ofover-generalizing.

(Overhead 10) The framework is not meant to over-simplify groups: Human experience is far toocomplex to fit into any single scheme. The BridgingCultures framework describes two value systems, notspecific people. Socioeconomic status and formaleducation are powerful predictors of cultural values,much greater than ethnic group membership alone.Many variables comprise family experience, such asif members are from an urban or rural background,whether they had access to formal or only informaleducation in the country of origin, and the level oftheir English proficiency. More formal education andhigher Socioeconomic levels, as well as urban influ-ences, are factors that promote individualism. Lessformal education, lower Socioeconomic levels, andrural, agricultural lifestyles promote collectivisticculture. Opportunities for formal education, includ-ing high school, are often not available to poor peoplein Mexico, the country of origin of most of the re-search sample.

All cultures, just like all people, change over time.However, despite cultural shifts toward the main-stream, child-rearing values from the culture oforigin may persist over many generations becausethey come from deeply held beliefs. Social integra-tion with the mainstream may mask the persistence

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of the ancestral value system, but it often lies justbeneath the surface and can exert a strong influenceon child rearing (Greenfield & Suzuki, 1998; Lam-bert, et al., 1979; Valdes, 1996).

(Overhead 11) Nevertheless, the value of the Bridg-ing Cultures framework (or the continuum of indi-vidualism and collectivism) is that it allows peopleto see one of the major underlying sources of cul-tural variation. It can be used as a tool to explorecultural differences in a non-judgmental way: Ev-eryone has a culture and no one orientation is rightor wrong. It opens the door for inquiry and under-standing of others. Do not use the framework to char-acterize or categorize people but rather to engagethem in culturally meaningful personal interactionsand to propose solutions to conflict in schools.

We are about to learn more about the frameworkand its application to education. The following class-room applications are all derived from teacher-initiated and teacher-tested practices prompted bythe Bridging Cultures Project.

Overhead 11Benefit: Understanding

Benefit: Understanding

The individualism-collectivism framework:

• Provides a tool for uncovering cultural variation

• Opens the door for understanding others

• Helps foster meaningful interactions

. Suggests solutions to conflicts

If time permits, have participants turn to neigh-bors and share about the ways in which theymight be individualistic and/or collectivistic andhow their families tried to raise them, butwatch the time!

This is a good place to clarify the frameworkwith an example from your own experience.Participants from collectivistic cultures mightespecially appreciate your own family story. Itis widely acknowledged that examining thevalues of one's own culture is crucial. Mem-bers of the dominant culture may not be usedto doing this, and it is often hard for them tomake their values explicit for examination. Insome cases, my students have lamented thatthey "don't have a culture!"

This is a good place to ask if there are anyquestions. Spend a few minutes to clarify mis-conceptions, but explain that the frameworkgets clearer once examples are provided in thenext part of the presentation.

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Discussion of the Seven Sources is lengthy,yet participants describe it as especially use-ful because the examples are vivid and theclassroom applications help make individual-ism and collectivism clear and meaningful.Most important, discussion of the conflictsmakes the framework immediately useful.You may want to take a break during this dis-cussion if the group needs to stretch. If thereare time constraints, a condensed version ofthe Seven Sources is in Handout 2: It can beused with modified explanations.

Overhead 12Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

> Independence• Personal property• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

• Child as individual• Parents' role to teach• Praise-positive self-esteem• Oral expression

asataMarcja-rssssa..-: .^ssx

Collectivism

> Helpfulness• Sharing• Social skills andobjects in social context

• Child as part of a family• Teacher's role to educate• Criticize—normative behavior> Listening to authority

Uncover one source of conflict at a time. Keepthis overhead handy, since you may want toswitch between it and the others detailing theseven points. Each source of conflict is accom-panied by additional examples and overheadsuseful to the discussion.

Seven Sources ofHome-School Conflict45 minutes

The framework of individualism and collectivismhas proven to be helpful to teachers in many ways.First, they find that it is not complicated. We oftensay that the framework is "economical" because ithas only two parts to remember and the features ofone orientation are understandable in relation to theother. Second, teachers have found that the frame-work is "generative"; that is, it helps them generatenew, almost endless ways to use and apply knowl-edge of cultural value systems to solve classroomproblems and reduce cultural conflict.

(Overhead 12, Handout 2) Our discussion now takesus to the Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict(Greenfield, Quiroz, et al., 2000; Quiroz & Green-field, forthcoming). These are specific areas wherethe conflicts between individualism and collectiv-ism become real in the lives of teachers, students,and families. In each of the seven topics we will dis-cuss, real-life problems will be described and prac-tical, teacher-generated solutions will be offered.Let's take a look at these sources one by one.

Handout 2Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

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Independence versus Helpfulness

Recall that a simple dilemma regarding classroomjobs, such as the one with Salvador and Emanuel,elicited two different views of human developmentand social relationships. For students, parents, andteachers in School One, the value of independencewas prominent. Emanuel had a choice, independentof the needs of others, as to whether he would help afriend or not. This contrasts with the way immigrantLatino parents almost always solved the dilemma:They believed that a student should automaticallyhelp a friend in need.

Classroom Applications

Both helpfulness and independence are necessaryand important qualities for students. However, class-room culture, as we have seen, often promotes inde-pendence at the expense of helpfulness. In fact,helping in academic situations is frequently labeled"cheating" (Rothstein-Fisch, Trumbull, Isaac, Da-ley, & Perez, 2001). The Bridging Cultures class-room applications therefore often focus on addingcollectivistic elements in order to create a better bal-ance between the two value systems. Most impor-tant, the goal of Bridging Cultures is to make thetwo value systems of individualism and collectiv-ism explicit to help reduce conflict. Here are someideas from our Bridging Cultures teachers that havemade use of this explicit knowledge related to inde-pendence and helping.

Questions should be taken at logical intervalsthroughout the Module presentation. The timeallotted here can be used to promote additionalparticipant involvement or to synthesize theindividualism-collectivism framework withother models of cultural diversity, learning, orteaching.

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(a) Provide opportunities for students to help asmuch as possible in order to create classroomharmony. Recognize that helpfulness can havepositive educational outcomes for both the helperand the person being helped. When independenceis stressed, it can be a single person's indepen-dent effort that might contribute to meeting theneeds of the whole group.

(b) Assign two monitors for classroom duties so theycan help each other, or have the whole class takeresponsibility of cleaning the entire classroom.

(c) Purposefully allow students to help each otherachieve acacdemic success. In one case, a teacherallowed students to seek help from their friendsto solve math problems, and the names of thetarget student and the helper were both writtenon the answer sheet.

(d) Be explicit about when students can help andwhen they must work independently, such as intesting situations. Let them know why they willneed to work well alone and with others.

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Personal property versus Sharing

(Overhead 12} Individualism puts a great deal ofemphasis on personal property, while collectivismemphasizes sharing. Objects can be valued more thansocial relationships in individualistic cultural groups,and social relations are often prized over possessionsin collectivistic cultures. Here are two examples.

Whose Blocks?

The following example and its interpretation areadapted from Quiroz & Greenfield (forthcoming) andGreenfield, etal. (1996).

(Overhead 73) At preschool, a European Americanboy was playing with blocks. Nearby, Jasmine, thedaughter of immigrant Latino parents, took one ofthe blocks that the boy was not using and began toplay with it. In response, the boy hit Jasmine andshe began to cry. The teacher responded by repri-manding the injured, crying Jasmine and admonish-ing her for taking away toys that belonged to anotherchild!

It just so happened that Jasmine's mother observedthe entire incident from behind a one-way mirror.She became terribly upset that the teacher had failedto reprimand the boy for his act of aggression andinstead scolded Jasmine for something that is per-ceived as completely normal in the family's house-hold, sharing objects. As an immigrant Latina parent,the mother felt that her child was the target ofracial discrimination.

Return to Overhead 12, Seven Sources. Showthe second conflict. Personal property versusSharing.

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

> Independence

• Personal property

• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

• Child as individual

> Parents' role to teach

• Praise-positive self-esteem

> Oral expression

Collectivism

• Helpfulness

• Sharing

• Social skills andobjects in social context

• Child as part of a family

• Teacher's role to educate

• Criticize—normative behavior

> Listening to authority

Overhead 13Whose Blocks?

Whose Blocks?

Picture this: At preschool, a European Americanboy was playing with blocks. Nearby, Jasmine,daughter of immigrant Latino parents, took one ofthe blocks that the boy was not using and beganto play with it In response, the boy hit Jasmineand she began to cry.

What might the teacher think or feel?

What will the teacher do?

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Interpretation

Jasmine and her mother interpreted the block inci-dent from a collectivistic viewpoint: The boy showedselfishness in refusing to share the toys, and thencompounded his undesirable behavior with physi-cal aggression. In contrast, the teacher's reaction wasconsistent with the individualistic values of inde-pendence: Objects are the property of a single indi-vidual, if only temporarily (as they are in school).Hence, the teacher treated Jasmine as the primaryaggressor because she took away a toy "belonging"to another child.

It is clear that not all teachers from the mainstreamU.S. culture would respond as this teacher did. Manywould focus on the undesirability of physicalaggression or attempt to mediate the dispute in waysthat acknowledge the needs of both children. Nev-ertheless, those with an individualistic orientation,with its valuing of private property, might see theboy as the original victim and Jasmine as an aggres-sor. In this case, Jasmine was not seen as the victimof the boy's selfishness, and her own legitimate needfor rectification went unrecognized.

The values of Jasmine's collectivistic culture wereinvisible to the teacher, while the underlying valuesof the teacher were invisible to Jasmine and hermother. This lack of understanding of values resultedin misinterpretations about motives and led to con-flict. In this case, Jasmine was confused about thebehaviors of both her peer and her teacher, while

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her mother interpreted the attitude of the teacher asan act of discrimination against Latinos.

The default assumption is that the child needs to askpermission to use what is construed in the classroomas "personal property." In order for Jasmine to knowthat she needs to ask permission, she must under-stand the assumption that the toys belong to the boy,if only for a period of time, rather than being sharedby the group. Jasmine assumed that the blocks werefor everyone. This type of cultural misunderstand-ing can and does lead to conflicts in multiculturalclassrooms.

Here is another experience related to personal prop-erty and sharing.

Crayons in the Classroom

This case and its analysis are quoted from Quiroz &Greenfield (forthcoming).

(Overhead 14} A teacher-mentor came to visit a bi-lingual kindergarten classroom. The mentorobserved that the teacher had arranged the crayonsin cups by color—all the red crayons in one cup,all the blue in another, etc.—and that the class wassharing each cup. The mentor suggested putting eachchild's name on an individual cup that wouldcontain crayons of all colors and would be used byonly that particular child.

Overhead 14Crayons in the Classroom

Crayons in the Classroom

A teacher-mentor came to visit a bilingual kindergartenclassroom. The mentor observed that the crayons weresorted into cups by color—all the red in one cup, all theblue in another, etc. — and that the class was sharingall the crayons in all the cups.

The mentor suggested putting each child's name on acup which would contain multicolored crayons whichwould be used by only that particular child.

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The reason for doing this, the mentor said, was thatit was very important for children to have their ownproperty because it made them feel good. She alsosaid that this practice would help children take careof their own property, and that it was only fair thatchildren who took care of their things would not haveto use the "crappy" (her word!) material of childrenwho did not know how to take care of their things(Quiroz & Greenfield, forthcoming, p. 12).

Interpretation

The crayons incident involves the issue of the under-lying value placed on sharing and on personal prop-erty. The kindergarten teacher, Blanc a Quiroz, is animmigrant Latina parent herself, and her arrange-ment of the crayons was based on her collectivisticorientation. When she responded to the wishes ofthe supervising teacher by rearranging the crayons,the children (largely immigrant Latino) found them-selves in a conflict between the familiar sharing ori-entation from home and the emphasis on personalproperty by the mentor teacher. According to the re-searchers, the children "did not care if their materi-als were misplaced, so their 'personal' materialsended up having to be rearranged by the teacher ev-ery day. It was not that the children were incapableof arranging their materials in a systematic fashion,because they had done so before. However, the cat-egory 'personal material' simply was not importantto them" (Quiroz & Greenfield, forthcoming, p. 12).

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Classroom Applications

(a) (Overhead 15) School materials may be shared,mutually cared for, and stored where all studentshave access to them.

(b) Engage in discussion about when sharing is ap-propriate and when it might be necessary to "askpermission" before taking something. Whensquabbles over materials arise, rather than ask-ing, "Who had it first?" have the children findways to share.

(c) Families that emphasize sharing often extend thisto making gifts to teachers; however, teachersmay be uncomfortable accepting presents fromfamilies with very limited financial resources.One way for educators to respect the culturalvalue of sharing is to accept gifts graciouslywhile acknowledging good attendance, a posi-tive attitude, respectfulness, concentrated effort,or helpful behavior.

Overhead 15Shared School Supplies

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Cognitive skills and objects out of contextversus Social skills and objectsin a social context

Return to Overhead 12, Seven Sources, andreveal Cognitive skills versus Social skills.

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

• Independence

• Personal property

• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

• Child as individual

• Parents' role to teach

• Praise -.-positive self-esteem

• Oral expression

Collectivism

• Helpfulness

• Sharing

• Social skills andobjects in social context

> Child as part of a family

> Teacher's role to educate

• Criticize—normative behavior

• Listening to authority

n=xis.-szz:z

Overhead 16How Would You Describe an Egg?

How Would You Describe an Egg?

A kindergarten teacher showed her

class an actual chicken egg that would

be hatching soon. She explained the

physical properties of the egg and asked

the children to describe eggs by thinking

about the times they had cooked and

eaten eggs.

(Overhead 12) In the individualistic value system,cognitive skills are valued in and of themselves. Thatis, information about the physical properties ofobjects is deemed important and worthwhile in itsown right. However, collectivistic families see cog-nitive development as much more embedded in theoverall social behavior and manners of children. Incollectivistic families, objects are important becausethey help people. The purpose and benefit of theobjects derive from their service to the group.

How Would You Describe an Egg?

The next two examples and explanations are fromGreenfield, et al., (1996) and Greenfield, Rothstein-Fisch, et al., (2000).

(Overhead 16) A kindergarten teacher showed herclass an actual chicken egg that would be hatchingsoon. She explained the physical properties of theegg and asked the children to describe eggs by think-ing about the times they had cooked and eaten eggs.

One of the children tried three times to talk abouthow she cooked eggs with her grandmother, but thesecomments were disregarded in favor of a child whoexplained that eggs look white and yellow when theyare cracked.

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Interpretation

The child's response was typical of the associationsencouraged in collectivistic cultures, where objectsare most meaningful in connection with social in-teractions. This teacher expected students to describeeggs as isolated physical entities and did not seemto value the objects as they were used to connectpeople in social relationships. She was unaware thather question was ambiguous: Children who sharedthe teacher's value orientation would assume thatshe was interested in the physical properties of theeggs, although she had not made this point explicit;however, those children who did not share theteacher's value orientation would make a differentassumption, that she was interested in the object asa mediator of social relationships.

Bridging Discourses of Home and School

The "egg incident" and its analysis were included inthe initial training of the seven Bridging Culturesteachers. A year later, one of the teachers, MarieAltchech, was preparing her fifth-grade class for afield trip to the wetlands. A decent from the areavisited her class and asked a series of factual ques-tions, but the students responded with stories ofplants and animals experienced with their families.When the decent asked the children to "stop tellingstories," their voices fell silent.

The naturalist had beliefs about what counts asknowledge: Scientific knowledge is equated with

Ask participants to think about how they woulddescribe eggs based on the times they havecooked and eaten them. Responses typicallycenter on the physical properties of eggs, evenwhen the adult participants are from collectiv-istic families. Their individualistic responses arelikely the result of schooling practices in theU.S.

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Overhead 17Science from Stories

Science from Stories

Student experience

Carolina's story• Carolina was playing in

the garden with hergrandmother

• She saw a hummingbirdnear the cherry tree

• It "stood in the air"• Carolina tried to get close

to the pretty bird, but itkept moving away

Scientific Information

Hummingbird qualities• Brownish with bright irides-

cent green and red coloringaround head and neck

> Wings beat rapidly• Can hover, fly in any direction• Must eat frequently because

constant energy is requiredfor movements

Use a sheet of paper to uncover each sectionin sequence: Read the left side of the chartfirst, telling Carolina's story, and then uncoverthe scientific information in the same se-quence the teacher used to construct thechart.

knowledge of the physical world and should be dis-cussed independent of social experiences. However,because of her training, the Bridging Cultures teacherdid not make these same assumptions. After the do-cent left, she encouraged the children to tell theirstories about flora and fauna because she recognizedtheir important role in the implicit assumptions con-cerning knowledge that her students, children ofLatino immigrants, brought to their education. Sheunderstood that the stories, which usually connecteda natural phenomenon to family members and events,were important in the collectivistic view. She alsounderstood that the docent had quashed her students'voices. This kind of negative experience could stiflestudents' participation as learners and stunt their con-fidence (Greenfield, Rothstein-Fisch, et al., 2000).The teacher was not about to let this happen! Instead,she used the students' stories as a foundation to con-nect the children's lived experiences with the kindof knowledge associated with objects out of context(often referred to as "decontextualized" knowledge).She constructed a chart on the chalkboard showinghighlights from the children's stories on the left andscientific information derived from it on the right.

(Overhead 17] As we look at this T chart, notice theleft side first. The teacher began with giving valueto the story as she chronicled some importantfeatures of the hummingbird. When Carolina wasfinished with her story, the teacher guided questionsto uncover the scientific elements. Notice that thechildren learned the word "iridescent," not a typicalvocabulary word for fifth graders. Moreover, from

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the general discussion about hummingbird eatingbehavior, a larger discourse ensued about metabolicrate. It is doubtful that the docent could ever havepromoted such sophisticated vocabulary or scien-tific awareness by disallowing stories. Clearly, theBridging Cultures teacher valued both the social andscientific information equally—as evidenced bywriting almost equal amounts of information on bothsides of the chart. The teacher's guided questionsbased on the child's own story led to uncoveringscientific knowledge without the ambiguity seen inthe example of the egg.

Classroom Applications

Rather than denigrating the home culture by dis-counting important knowledge from the collectivis-tic frame of reference, the teacher built on thestudents' knowledge and self-image as competentknowers and learners. The teacher supported thechildren from collectivistic backgrounds by show-ing interest in their family experiences and the nar-rative form, but she was explicit about science andthe factual style when that was the topic and modeof study.

(a) Encourage students' stories, appreciating bothsocial and cognitive elements. Value stories intheir own right as literature in Spanish, English,or other home language. Use stories as a jump-ing-off point for lessons in science, socialstudies, and math.

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(b) It may be necessary to take only two or threestories when time is limited. Students can alsoshare stories in pairs or small groups.

(c) In conversations with both students and theirfamilies, be explicit about questions are that areintended to tap cognitive skills and/or socialskills and model how both kinds of knowledgeare important and helpful in problem solving.

Child as an individualversus Child as part of family

Return to Overhead 12, Seven Sources, andreveal Child as an individual versus Child aspart of the family.

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

• Independence

• Personal property

• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

• Child as individual

• Parents' role to teach

• Praise -positive self-esteem

• Oral expression

Collectivism

• Helpfulness

• Sharing

• Social skills andobjects in social context

• Child as part of a family

• Teacher's role to educate

• Critteize-normative behavior

> Listening to authority

(Overhead 12) Clearly, every child is both an indi-vidual and part of a family. However, individualis-tic families see children as separate individuals. Thisis strikingly different from collectivistic cultures,where the unit of interest is the family and how anyone person contributes to, promotes, or detracts fromthat whole. How does this play out in school-based policies?

School Breakfast and School-WideCross-Cultural Misunderstanding

This real-life experience and explanation come fromQuiroz & Greenfield (forthcoming) and Greenfield& Suzuki (1998).

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(Overhead 18) There had just been a major crisis inthe school involving the federally funded schoolbreakfast program. The problem as seen by theschool was that immigrant Latino mothers wereaccompanying their children to school, bringingyounger siblings, and eating the school breakfast to-gether with their children; as a consequence, eatingfood that "belonged" to only the school children.

When the school tried to stop this practice by lock-ing the families out of the schoolyard, there was amajor blow up. Latino immigrant parents who hadpreviously not been involved in school affairs sud-denly became activists. The school personnel, whofelt strongly about their position, were astounded atthe reaction (Quiroz & Greenfield, forthcoming).

Interpretation

School officials failed to understand that in the col-lectivistic worldview of the Latino immigrantparents, it is extremely important for the family toeat together when possible. Instead, administratorsand teachers saw this as a transgression against afederal policy which structures the school breakfastprogram as an individual entitlement, not a familyone.

Overhead 18School Breakfast

School Breakfast

There had just been a major crisis involving thefederally funded school breakfast program. Theproblem, as seen by the school, was that immigrantLatina mothers were accompanying their childrento school, bringing younger siblings, and eating theschool breakfast together with their children; as aconsequence, eating food that "belonged" only tothe school children.

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Overhead 19School Sign

Ask participants if they have seen similar signsor to reflect on how they might feel as theparents in this case.

(Overhead 19) Consider this photo, "Only studentsare permitted in eating area." What's the message?"Stay out!" Although the sign is translated into Span-ish, there is no explanation of why this rule exists.Stop and think for a moment how very strange thismessage might be to collectivistic families whereeating together is among the most basic elements inlife. Incidentally, this was the only sign at the school;there weren't any that said, "Welcome families" or"We're glad you're here!"

As a result of learning about the school breakfastproblem in a Bridging Cultures training workshop,one of the teachers, Catherine Daley, became pro-active in her school. Ms. Daley's school had to en-force a new "locked school" policy, in which gatesand access points to the outside would be lockedduring the day. The teacher knew that parents wouldfeel unwelcome in the closed school. She discussedthe policies and how they might be interpreted froma collectivistic perspective with a school adminis-trator, which resulted in sending a letter to familiesin English and Spanish explaining the reasons be-hind the policies about federally subsidized food andchildren's safety-at school.

(Overhead 20) Here is the English version of theletter that was sent out. It does a fine job of high-lighting school policy by explaining the underlyingreasons for the rules explicitly. It also welcomesparent involvement. In addition to sending a letter,explaining the policy face-to-face with the familiesis important since parents may have limited literacy

Overhead 20School Letter

UoiMd School Duttict c. Ainu

U8Niaibfitmt.anoi£old.CA9MOO BmMUBtoppMF^ijJ

M»ndkiiJ,im

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skills and may not read Spanish or English or maybe fearful of something on official letterhead. Ideally,a school-wide family information network couldhelp convey school policies and promote understand-ing of home and school practices.

This example illustrates that teachers and adminis-trators need to be aware of how their messages maybe perceived from a different cultural vantage pointand cultivate ways to share understanding. In asimilar case, a catastrophe between staff and par-ents was averted because Bridging Cultures teacherGiancarlo Mercado recognized the problem of alocked-down, closed campus from Ms. Daley's ex-perience. At his principal's request, he held meet-ings for school staff making the cultural values ofmany immigrant families explicit for all concerned(Rothstein-Fisch, 2000). No crisis ensued, and thestaff seemed to recognize the value of understand-ing the cultural framework of individualism andcollectivism.

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Here is another example of misunderstanding.

This is a good place to discuss the article fromthe Readings (Article 3) on parent-teacherconferences (Quiroz, et al.f 1999). Several ofmy graduate students who are elementaryschool teachers have had great success withgroup parent-teacher conferences. They or-ganized the conferences around reading lev-els, and the parents seemed relieved to learnthat other families had the same questions orconcerns. The teachers reported that the par-ents, who generally said little on a one-to-onebasis, became vocal in a group context. Teach-ers also felt less frustration because they couldspend more time with families as a group ex-plaining state standards, report cards, andother generic information, rather than repeat-ing the same explanations over and over againin individual 20-minute conferences. As an in-cidental by-product of the group conferences,the families offered parenting advice to eachother in a manner that was more akin to whatthey had experienced in their country of origin.

The Parent-Teacher Conference

This example and discussion are quoted from a vid-eotaped study of nine naturally occurring confer-ences between immigrant Latino parents and theirchild's European American teacher (Greenfield,Quiroz, & Raeff, 2000).

In one video, the teacher began with this statementto the father: "She's doing great, she's doing beauti-fully in English and in reading. And in writing, andin speaking." The father showed discomfort, look-ing down at his lap, and turned the conversationtoward his son (present at the conference), saying"the same [with] this guy..." only to be interruptedby the teacher's shrill voice (indicating her discom-fort with the changed focus of the meeting). As shemaneuvered the conference conversation back to thedaughter, the child in her class, the father stoppedresponding to her comments (Greenfield, Quiroz, etal.,2000,p. 100).

The excerpt from the parent-teacher conference pro-vides a good example of cross-cultural miscommu-nication. Neither the teacher nor the father did orsaid what the other wanted or expected. The fatherdid not follow up on the teacher's lead and discussthe academic excellence of his daughter as an indi-vidual; likewise, the teacher did not seem to be awarethat the father's orientation was toward the academicmerits of the family as a unit. In other words, he was

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oriented to the family as a unit, rather than the sing-ling out of only one child.

Interpretation

The discord between the two adults results from dif-fering cultural value systems. The parent's collec-tivistic orientation—maintaining the family as a unit—was in conflict with the teacher's individualisticorientation—singling out this particular student. Thenegative impact on home-school relations was in-tensified because neither participant recognized thatthere was a communication problem during the con-versation; thus there was no attempt to address thebasic misunderstanding (Greenfield, Quiroz, &Raeff, 2000).

In both the school breakfast crisis and the parent-teacher conference miscommunication, the parentswere trying to keep the family together as a unit.This conflicts directly with implicit school valuesand with explicit school policies that focus on thechild as an individual.

Classroom Applications

(a) Teachers should find out what the family's be-liefs and goals are so that students' success inschool does not inadvertently violate the family'scultural conceptions of success. Sharing infor-mation about school expectations and normshelps ensure that parents understand the U.S.educational system and its culture, but we mustalso listen to and learn from families. With the

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help of an interpreter if need be, describe thephilosophical underpinnings of the U.S., whichwas founded on rights of the individual. In somecases, it is not always possible or reasonable toachieve individualism and family success, suchas when a child is kept out of school to help asick relative, but creative flexibility can make adifference. For example, sending a homeworkpacket to the absent child while she or he caresfor a relative can help minimize academic peril.

(b) Promote family empowerment in schoolpractices and policies through parent-led meet-ings that welcome children and other familymembers to convey openness and address con-cerns. Potluck gatherings are especially helpfulin attracting families, setting a positive tone, andshowing the commitment of teachers who sin-cerely want to work with families to supportstudent success. Inviting parents to bring food isalso likely to resonate with the home value ofhelping and sharing.

(c) Group parent conferences have been successfulin providing a voice for parents who may be morecomfortable discussing children as a group ratherthan singling out individuals. (See also Read-ings., Article 3.)

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Parents' role to teach versusTeacher's role to educate

Parents' role versus teacher's role is the next conflict.

(Overhead 12) The educational maxim that parentsare their children's first teachers guides the thinkingof many educators (National Education Goals Panel,2000). Schools often send letters home urging par-ents to work in specific ways with their children,such as practicing reading, editing homework, orcompleting math assignments.

(Overhead 21} Valdes (1966) found that all 10 ofthe immigrant Latina mothers she studied "saw them-selves as participating actively in their children'seducation; that is, in raising children to be good andwell-behaved human beings. They did not, however,see themselves as adjunct schoolteachers. They didnot see their role as involving the teaching of schoolsubjects. In their own experience in school, this hadbeen the province of the teacher. Mothers, on theother hand, had been responsible for the moral up-bringing of their children. When American teach-ers expected that Mexican working-class motherswould 'help' their children with their schoolwork,they were making assumptions about the abilitiesthat the mothers did not have. Moreover, they werealso making assumptions about the universality ofwhat, in American schools, counts as knowledge"(p. 166).

It may be unrealistic to expect that parents will takeon didactic roles with their children (Quiroz &

Return to Overhead 12, Seven Sources,and show Parents' role versus Teacher'srole.

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

• Independence

• Personal property

• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

> Child as individual

• Parents' role to teach

• Praise-positive self-esteem

• Oral expression

Collectivism

• Helpfulness

> Sharing

> Social skills andobjects in social context

• Child as part of a family

• Teacher's role to educate

• Criticize—normative behavior

• Listening to authority

Overhead 21Parents' Role versus Teacher's Role

Parents' Role versus Teacher's Role

In a study of immigrant Latino families, Valdes foundthat mothers "saw themselves as participating activelyin their children's educactfn, that is, in raising childrento be good and well-behaved human beings. They didnot, however, see themselves as adjunct schoolteachers.They did not see their role as Involving the teaching ofschool subjects. In their own experience in school, thishad been the province of the teacher."

Put up Overhead 21 but display only the titleinitially. Then uncover the quote.

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Greenfield, forthcoming). For example, many im-migrant Latino come to the U.S. with six or feweryears of formal education. Moreover, the educationalsystem of the country of origin is quite different fromthat of the U.S. (Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, et al.,2001). Even more important, these parents want theschools to allow them to teach what they considerproper social behavior and values to their childrenwithout obstructing the socialization process. Nev-ertheless, many times parent education does inter-fere—by expecting parents to teach their children inindividualistic ways (Greenfield, Quiroz, & Raeff,2000; Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, et al., 2001;Valdes, 1996).

Teachers Giving Parenting Advice

Another finding of the previously mentioned con-ferences between immigrant Latino parents and theirchildren's European American elementary schoolteachers was that in seven of the nine cases, parentswere uncooperative when the teacher tried tooffer parenting advice. The parents seemed to be-lieve that, at home, parenting was up to them. Inaddition, the parents may have been particularly sus-picious of the teachers' suggestions, fearing that theteachers' "ideal" child would be learning behaviorsinconsistent with the home values of collectivism.Thus, taking the advice of the teacher might under-mine the parents' goals for helping, sharing, and be-haviors related to other collectivistic values(Greenfield, Quiroz, & Raeff, 2000).

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Classroom Applications

(a) Often the first question immigrant Latino par-ents ask teachers is, '^Como se porta mi hijo/hija?" "How is my child behaving?" The par-ents may see a distinct role for teachers as re-sponsible for teaching reading, writing, andmath; however, they see themselves as respon-sible for moral education. Explicitly recognizewhen parents have well-behaved children.

(b) (Overhead 22) Be realistic about expectationsregarding homework. It might be helpful to askwhich family members, such as older siblingsor cousins, can help students with homework.One Bridging Cultures teacher avoids conflictsby allowing students to practice homework insmall groups without writing down the answers.Students practice homework as a group, review-ing their lessons and discussing appropriate re-sponses so they can complete it at home on theirown. As a result, the homework completion rateincreased to 100%.

(c) Rethink student-led conferences. Their formatturns out to be incompatible with collectivisticvalues. Putting the child in charge of a confer-ence violates a parent's expectation of beingrespected and according the teacher properauthority. Instead, try group conferences with theoption to follow up with an individual confer-ence if desired.

(d) Ensure that schools are welcoming to parentswith limited formal education. Invite them tocome and learn more about educational goals and

Overhead 22Group Homework Practice

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processes just as you listen to matters of familyconcern. Parent centers located at school sites(and often run by immigrant parents themselves)can increase meaningful communication aboutschools and create a social hub for family sup-port (Joint Committee to Develop a Master Planfor Education, 2002; Moles, 1996).

Return to Overhead 12, Seven Sources,and reveal Praise versus criticism.

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

• Independence

• Personal property

• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

• Child as individual

• Parents' role to teach

• Praise—positive self-esteem

• Oral expression

Collectivism

• Helpfulness

> Sharing

• Social skills andobjects in social context

• Child as part of a family

• Teacher's role to educate

• Criticize—normative behavior

• Listening to authority

Overhead 23Praise versus Criticism

Praise versus CriticismA Mexican immigrant mother recalls herexperience in a parent-teacher conference inwhich her child's teacher called her daughter"outstanding." According to this mother, "I did notknow what to do about her being 'outstanding':I had tried to show my daughter not to 'show offor be cruel to others, but it seemed it was notworking. I blamed her'bad habit of'standing out1

on this country's social influences as I had seenon TV and in my personal observations."

Praise versus Criticism

The sixth source of home-school conflict is thetension between praise and criticism.

(Overhead 12, Overhead 23) A Mexican immigrantmother recalls her experience in a parent-teacherconference in which her child's teacher called herdaughter "outstanding." According to this mother,"I did not know what to do about her being 'out-standing': I had tried to show my daughter not to'show off or be cruel to others, but it seemed that itwas not working. I blamed her 'bad habit' of'stand-ing out' on this country's social influences as I hadseen on TV and in my personal observations"(Quiroz & Greenfield, forthcoming, p. 6).

Parents with a strong collectivistic orientation arelikely to become uncomfortable when they hearpraise of their children. Praise singles a child outfrom a group. Consider the literal meaning of "out-standing"—standing out from the group. Collect-ivistic parents may not consider this a positive trait.On the contrary, it may be cause for concern! Indi-

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vidualistic systems highlight the value of praise tomaintain positive self-esteem. In collectivistic sys-tems, criticism is valued as a feedback mechanismthat encourages normative behavior. Collectivisticstudents may become very uncomfortable when theyhear teachers reitreate, "You're great," "You're thebest!" Notice the strong emphasis on self and onbeing better than others in these expressions. Latinoimmigrant parents may fear that praise will makechildren egotistical.

The Concept of "Burro"

Some teachers report hearing parents call their childa "burro"—literally translated as "donkey."They interpret this as a demeaning self-fulfillingprophecy that will cause children to develop nega-tive self-esteem. However, within the home culture,using such nicknames is an important way to remindchildren to focus attention on schoolwork or the taskat hand. The criticism is meant to foster normativebehavior so that individuals do not become isolatedfrom their group. Moreover, Latino immigrant par-ents may assume that students do not have to bepraised for expected behaviors that should comenaturally to them.

Mocking the Praise

In two different instances, collectivistic studentssubjected to praise appeared to scoff at the acclaim.In one case, a quiet student was being tutored in longdivision. Because she appeared shy, the tutor

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There is obvious overlap among many of theexamples of the Seven Points of Conflict. Thisis natural since all the examples pivot on theelements of individualism and collectivism. Forexample, elements from "Praise versus Criti-cism" link to the differences between parents'and teacher's roles.

believed she lacked self-confidence and praised herrepeatedly for the smallest efforts, saying, "Good"or "That's right, nice work!" As the student beganto work the math problems, she was overhead mut-tering sarcastically under her breath, "Nice work."In another case, a college student was tutoring agroup of immigrant high school girls in English. Heconstantly used praise in a manner that he felt wouldbe motivating to the young women. However, onthe bus ride home from school, the girls mocked hispraise and imitated his comments chorally in a sing-song manner; "Good job," they mimicked and thenerupted in giggles (Geary, 2001).

In both cases, the tutors' attempts at positive moti-vation actually had the reverse effect: The collect-ivistic students were not motivated by the praise;instead they made fun of it. These students were froma culture in which they were used to criticism, notpraise, as motivation. Immigrant children are not theonly ones who may suffer from excessive or insin-cere praise. Kohn (1993) denounces "phony praise"(p. 109) and questions the value of praise that setsup competition. He also condemns public praise asundermining intrinsic motivation.

Rethinking Academic Award Activities

Equipped with the framework, a colleague of aBridging Cultures teacher began to recognize theunderlying cause of her students' resistance to themonthly Awards Assembly. She had never under-stood why her kindergarten children would ask

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repeatedly if they could stay in their class and notattend the ceremony that highlighted "best atten-dance," "best reader," and, apparently worst of all,"most improved." The teacher hypothesized as aresult of learning the framework of individualismand collectivism that the children resisted the ideaof the praise: It isolated them from the group, andboth they and their schoolmates felt uncomfortableabout that. The children wanted to avoid the praise!This recognition sparked a novel idea. The teacher,supported by her principal, was allowed to teach herwhole class a dance (with valuable music, rhythm,and movement benefits for all) to be performed dur-ing the regular assembly. The children were proudto entertain the other students and seemed to feel farmore accomplished than when they were pulled awayfor individual praise in isolation from the group.

Classroom Applications

(a) Use praise parsimoniously, authentically, andspecifically to promote learning. Less is more inthe case of praise. Teacher comments such as "Ilike the way you helped Luis" seem especiallyvacant since "helping" is likely to be somethingthe student would do automatically. Statementsthat give information about performance, suchas "clever idea," "good examples," or "wellpunctuated," are much more helpful than undif-ferentiated praise.

(b) Private praise may honor the student more thanpublic praise. Focus public praise on whole-classachievements such as when the whole class at-tains a language arts, math, or science goal.

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(c) Expressing authentic disappointment may be anhonest way to motivate students. Explainingerrors is an important feedback mechanism, andit may be more consistent with home culture.Refrain from either praise or criticism by askingstudents, "Is this your best work?" to promotetheir own internal motivation and self-knowledge.

(d) Rethink awards assemblies as merely show-casing selected individuals and instead find a wayto emphasize the success of the group such aslearning a dance, mastering a certain level oftimed math facts, or raising the attendance rateat school.

Oral expressionversus Listening to authority

Return to Overhead 12, Seven Sources, andreveal Oral expression versus Listening toauthority.

Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

• Independence

• Personal property

• Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

• Child as individual

• Parents' role to teach

• Praise-positive self-esteem

• Oral expression

Collectivism

• Helpfulness

• Sharing

• Social skills andobjects in social context

> Child as part of a family

• Teacher's role to educate

• Critteize-normative behavior

• Listening to authority

The last conflict we will discuss is oral expressionversus listening to authority.

(Overhead 12} Skilled self-expression, critical ques-tioning, and the ability to engage in debate are oftenassumed to be valued attributes of the "ideal stu-dent." With this in mind, individualistic parents mayprepare their children for school by socializing themto "speak up," "ask a lot of questions," or "tell theteacher if you need anything." This would be veryconsistent with a "constructivist" theory of learningthat emphasizes a child's active participation inmaking meaning (Trumbull, et al., 2000).

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However, children from collect!vistic cultures aresocialized very differently. They are taught to listenrespectfully to authority figures and to learn bywatching others. Rather than telling the teacher ifthey need anything, they are instructed by parentsnot to bother the teacher with their own needsbecause that would take time away from the lesson.Their individual questions would also pull themaway from being part of the whole group, causingconflict comparable to what we have seen in otherexamples.

(Overhead 24) Teachers often attribute reluctanceto participate in class discussions to quietness, lim-ited English proficiency, or shyness. These percep-tions miss the underlying role of culture in oralexpression. In individualistic cultures, it is often said,"The squeaky wheel gets the grease." However, theaxiom in collectivistic cultures is, "The nail thatsticks up gets pounded down."

Checking for Understanding

One Bridging Cultures teacher, Elvia Hernandez,whose class is a combination kindergarten and firstand second grades, noted that the children rarelyraised their hands to ask questions. This continuedto be true of students in her class for one or twoyears. "When I asked if they understand something,the children always nodded affirmatively. By that Imean, if I am teaching a lesson, they won't say, 'Idon't understand.' But in small groups, then I willre-explain the concept because I will think about

Facilitators are encouraged to link the ques-tion of oral expression versus listening to au-thority to examples of power-distance andverbal versus non-verbal communicationstyles. For instance, the individualistic valueorientation tends to be associated with moredirect, low-context forms of communication.Similarly, in the U.S., individualism is also as-sociated with low power-distance, which as-sumes shared responsibility betweenteachers, students, and parents for the edu-cational process. (See Brislin & Yoshida, 1994;Guerra & Garcia, 2000; and Lustig & Koester,1999.)Comparing oral expression to listening canprompt an important discussion of communi-cation in general. Invite participants to shareexamples of this conflict from their personalexperiences. Although this definitely addsmore time to the presentation, it is a valuablestrategy to engage the audience personally andmeaningfully.

Overhead 24Oral expression versusRespect for authority.

Oral Expression versusRespect for Authority

In individualistic cultures, it is often saidthat "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."

In collectivistic cultures, it's often said that"the nail that sticks up gets pounded down"

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Overhead 25Guilt in the Principal's Office

the [Bridging Cultures] model—from what welearned, they are not the type to question authorityor they don't want to be highlighted or stand out inthe group. So I pull them aside once everyone elseis working and I just give them an extra problem orexplanation without asking them, 'What don't youunderstand?' Somehow I will indirectly give themmore when I know they didn't understand a con-cept. You can see how they breathe better, then Ican send them along and they can do their work"(Rothstein-Fisch, 2000).

Guilt in the Principal's Office

(Overhead 25) A child from a Mexican Americanfamily was called into the principal's office, accusedof a school-related crime. The child, out of respect,did not look at the principal during the questioning.The principal incorrectly assumed this behavior rep-resented shame. The child was assumed to be guiltyand was expelled. As it turned out, another child whowas also questioned was guilty of the crime, butbecause he looked directly at the principal and spokeup, he was assumed to be innocent. Bridging Cul-tures teacher, Catherine Daley, decided to make"looking into eyes" an explicit lesson for her stu-dents. She had a discussion with her third grade classabout eye contact. The children were clearly told thatdifferent people and different situations requireddifferent kinds of looking. She told them, "If youare with a Latino, look down, and when you are witha typical American you must look them in the eyes."Ms. Daley wanted to be very clear that culture af-

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fects how different people interpret the same behav-ior. Following the discussion, she took the childrenon a "field trip" around the school to identify whichschool adults they should lower their eyes for andwhich they should look at eye-to-eye. In addition,she cautioned the students not to overgeneralize ormake too many assumptions by telling them, "If theother person is not getting the right message, tryswitching the eye contact level." (Rothstein-Fisch,2000.)

These two examples illustrate the importance of de-mystifying cultural differences to bridge the gap be-tween behavior that demonstrates respect at home(looking down and being a respectful listener) andbehavior that shows respect at school (looking at theperson speaking and asking questions). As in theother sources of home-school conflict, it is essen-tial for students to learn both sets of skills. Theyneed to know how to show respect for authority andwhat is considered appropriate oral expression inschool.

Classroom Applications

(a) Be explicit about when it is appropriate for stu-dents to ask questions and when it is appropriateto listen. Let them ask each other questions inpairs or small groups where age and authoritydifferences will not inhibit oral expression. Pro-vide opportunities for students to role-play signsof respect for different people or write storiesabout cultural misunderstandings.

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(b) Don't assume that quiet children are not learn-ing or that they are shy. Understand that justbecause they are not speaking does not mean theyare not comprehending and learning. Watch chil-dren in the yard or in other peer situations to seetheir verbal skills at work. To evaluate language,observe them in small groups or pairs as theycomplete academic tasks. Evaluate proficiencythrough both individual and group discussion orthrough other formal measures both oral andwritten.

(c) Allow students to present oral work in groupsso that even when they are the only person talk-ing, they are part of their group at the front ofthe class thus alleviating their stress in speakingout alone.

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You Are the Bridge15 minutes

(Overhead 26) While Bridging Cultures may seemto emphasize differences between individualism andcollectivism, the foremost idea of the Project is ac-tually about making bridges between cultures. Bothindividualism and collectivism have their benefitsand disadvantages, and a person may be more indi-vidualistic or collectivistic in different situations,depending on the people in those settings. The goalsof this workshop are to make the invisible culturaldifferences discernible and to suggest teacher-con-structed learning experiences that truly bridgecultures.

Overhead 26You are the Bridge

You Are the Bridge

Envision that you are building a cultural bridge.

1 .What does the bridge connect?

2. How long and wide would it be?

3. What materials would be used to constructthe bridge and who would build it?

4.What would the bridge look like?

Draw the bridge.

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Handout 3You are the Bridge

To help educators focus on what they can doto bridge cultures, an activity to help visualizethe symbolic bridge between individualism andcollectivism is offered. Participants report thatthis activity has been enormously valuable forseveral reasons:• It allows them to get in touch with their

own cultural experiences in a visual manner• It provides a situated reality of others' ex-

periences• It lingers as a potent image for educators

when they are confronted with home-school conflict

Distribute Handout 3 or blank paper. Sharingcan be done in groups of five or fewer followedby a short debriefing with specific examplesand insights. If the group is not too large, in-vite as many as wish to share and describebridges.

Examples have included:

• A toll bridge which exacts a heavy pricewhen a person tries to be bicultural

• A frightening suspension bridge, wobblyand faltering, causing great fear and trepi-dation

• A brick bridge so wide that many peoplecan cross it arm-in-arm and in sync. It hasbenches and footlights. It can be a restingplace or a place to see things in a new waythat could not be predicted by those on onlythe individualistic side or the collectivisticside.

Bridge Activity

(Handout 3) Now it is your turn to construct a cul-tural bridge. In this activity, you will use your imagi-nation and creativity. Pause for a moment and closeyour eyes. Slow your breathing and clear your mind.How would you build a cultural bridge? Spend amoment to envision your cultural bridge.

1. What does the bridge connect?

2. How long and wide would it be?

3. What materials would be used to constructthe bridge and who would build it?

4. What would the bridge look like? Now, drawthe bridge you see!

Who would like to share their bridge?

Questions from the audience (as time permits).

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Evaluation10 minutes

NOTES

(Handout 4) It is time to complete a written evalua-tion to help you integrate your learning whileproviding important feedback for the instructor.Please provide as much information as possible onthe evaluation form.

Handout 4Bridging Cultures betweenHome and School Evaluation

Distribute handout. This is a prototype of anevaluation and, as mentioned earlier, you areencouraged to create your own, addressingyour unique questions and concerns. The mer-its of evaluation data are discussed in the nextsection.

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Effect of the Moduleon Pre-Service Teachers

What kind of impact can a teacher-educator ex-pect to have on teachers in a matter of three hours(plus a little follow-up, if one is fortunate enoughto find the time)? I was very interested in answer-ing this question as I began to integrate theBridging Cultures framework into my educationcourses at California State University, Northridge.This chapter describes my attempt to answer thisquestion. In 1997, I presented a version of thisModule to my college students, all of whom wereteachers-in-training. Since that initial field testof the Module, many refinements and improve-ments have been made. Nevertheless, the data Icollected on three occasions during that semestercontain the "voice" of the students as they learnedabout the framework of individualism and collec-tivism and reflected on it during the semester. Thestudents' voice is presented in this chapter becauseit provides a glimpse of what can be accomplishedin a single three-hour course period. Before pre-senting the outcomes, the context of the course,students, and instruction is described.

The Course

All students were enrolled in a course titled"Psychological Foundations K-12," designed toprovide "an overview of the theoretical positionson learning, development, and instruction whichattempt to shape the outcome of elementary andsecondary education" (California State UniversityCatalog, 1996-1998, p. 243). The course is offeredas an upper division undergraduate requirementfor students seeking a teaching credential at ei-ther the elementary or secondary level. In the fallof 1997,1 offered two sections of the course. Eachsection met for three hours (4:00 p.m.-7 :00 p.m.)one day a week for 15 weeks. The course includedtopics such as theories of development and learn-ing, motivation, classroom planning andmanagement, and assessment.

61

Chapter

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The Students

About two-thirds of the students were under-graduates and the other third were graduatestudents. Approximately one-third were alreadyworking in classrooms as emergency-credentialteachers or substitute teachers; about two-thirdshad not had previous teaching experience. How-ever, all students were required to complete 15hours of classroom observation and participationas part of the course so that everyone had directexperience with elementary or secondary studentswho might come from diverse cultural back-grounds. The ethnic identification of the studentswas not available several years after the evalua-tions were conducted. I recall that they were about70% European American, 20% Latino, and 10%African American, Asian Pacific Islander, or fromother ethnic or cultural backgrounds. (At the timeI pilot-tested the Module in 1997,1 could not haveimagined the impact it was going to have, and thus,I did not collect background information on mystudent-participants.) Student age ranged fromearly twenties to early fifties. One course wastaught on the main campus of CSUN (n = 25, 20women, 5 men) and the other at the satellite cam-pus in Ventura, California (n = 29, all women).Some students did not participate in all three evalu-ations described in this chapter due to absenceson a given day.

The Instructor

During the semester the course was offered, Ihad been a staff researcher on the Bridging Cul-tures Project for the two years of its existence.Using the individualism and collectivism frame-work as a basis for longitudinal teacherprofessional development had an impressive im-pact on in-service teachers. Therefore, I was

curious about its usefulness forteachers-in-train-ing. At the time, I had been teaching at CSUN forover 10 years, but this was the first semester Itaught the Psychological Foundations, K-12course.

Procedure

In the second month of the semester, studentswere told that the class session would focus on aframework for understanding cross-cultural val-ues in school. The Bridging Cultures Project wasintroduced as a collaboration among researchersat WestEd (a regional educational laboratory), theUCLA Department of Psychology, CSUN, andseven bilingual teachers from elementary schoolsin the greater Los Angeles area. The Module waspresented in the same format to each class duringthe same week of the semester. Each presentationlasted slightly less than three hours, allowing timefor academic housekeeping prior to presenting theModule and break time.

Bridging Cultures ModuleAssessment Results

The impact of the Module was assessed onthree separate occasions. First, credential studentswere asked to evaluate Bridging Cultures imme-diately after the presentation. The secondevaluation occurred three weeks later as part of amidterm examination in which students were askedto "describe the five most salient parts of theBridging Cultures model." The third evaluationconsisted of a total course review in the context ofa final exam. To prepare for the final exam, stu-dents were instructed to think back over the wholesemester and prepare a response to the following:"Describe the five most valuable things you

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learned in the course and cite how each might beapplied in your own classroom."

The data derived from each of these threeevaluations is included in this chapter because ittends to validate the content and process suggestedin the Module. However, without pretests orbaseline information, it is impossible to gauge howmany students may have entered the course withprior knowledge of the concepts of individualismand collectivism. Furthermore, I have no way ofknowing if there were differences between the el-ementary and secondary education majors.Although most of the examples in the Module havecome from elementary schools, my experience inusing the Module since 1997 has shown that theexamples translate reasonably well to teachers-in-training of early childhood and secondarystudents, as well as school counselors-in-train-ing. In general, participants seemed adept atconnecting the framework to their own lived ex-periences, fieidwork placements, and worksites.Nevertheless, the following results do not tell usanything about the long-term effects of the Mod-ule after the semester of training, and we have noway of knowing if the initial enthusiasm for theBridging Cultures Project has been translated intopractice.

Can other professors or professional develop-ment specialists expect the same level of successpresented here? As a staff researcher, I was deeplyimmersed in the framework and knew the mat-erial very well. As a result of classroom observa-tions and interviews with each Bridging Culturesteacher, I had firsthand knowledge of how theframework worked in practice and my studentsknew I was enthusiastic about the Project. Clearly,the evaluation data presented are influenced by myknowledge and passion for cultural diversity.

However, the data also represent my very firstpresentation of the Module, and so in that sensethey represent the experiences of a novice pre-senter. In the time since the original Module wasdrafted, pilot-tested, and evaluated, it has becomemore sophisticated and fine-tuned. Although thedata reported in this chapter may have benefitedfrom my zeal, peers who have used the Modulehave reported similar positive outcomes. More-over, when I first presented it, I was a relativenewcomer to the field of multicultural education.Educators with prior experience, study, or train-ing in cross-cultural or multicultural educationwould be more adept at integrating the Moduleinto other diversity training material.

Evaluation 1Exit Evaluation ofthe Bridging Cultures Module

At the end of each of the two Bridging Cul-tures classroom presentations, education studentswere asked to evaluate the experience. Both thecontent and the method of the presentation wereassessed. Overall, students were very positive(n = 46 of 47 respondents). The results of the open-ended questions revealed five major themes:

• A new awareness of cultural influences oneducation

• The relevance of the framework to teachersand their students, families, and schools

• The economical value of the framework,which organizes interrelated ideas into a twopart system

• A sense of generativity—thinking beyond theimmediate applications offered in the class tonew ways of solving classroom problems

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• Personal meaning that could be applied to cul-tural beliefs about self, family, and friends aswell as students and schools

The complete set of responses to the questions,"What is the relevancy of the model for you?" and"How can you apply the model to yourself andyour work?" is offered in the next section. Theresponses are organized around the five themesidentified above, along with a brief narrative in-troduction of each theme. Students' comments arejust as they crafted them. They are all marked as"Written Comments."

New Awareness and Understanding

Becoming aware that all people have culturesand that no one culture is inherently better thananother is the first goal of the Module. Before edu-cators can work effectively with students andfamilies from diverse cultures, they must becomeaware of their own culture. Yet this can be prob-lematic for students (typically EuropeanAmerican), who sometimes report that they don'thave a culture! Once educators understand thateveryone has a culture, they can begin to appreci-ate the culture of others as well as recognize thenuances of school culture. In addition, awarenessis an important first step in reducing cultural con-flict (Brislin & Yoshida, 1994; Guerra & Garcia,2000). Did students gain a new awareness of cul-tures as a result of the Bridging Culturespresentation? Did the framework of individualismand collectivism promote new understanding?

Written Comments

What interested me most about the lecture wasthe notion that most of us have preconceivedideas regarding the way we think people want tobe taught/treated. For example, I was surprisedthat the Latino culture does not value being

"outstanding". I assumed that every parent wouldlove to hear a teacher exclaim how their childstands above the rest. After learning how[different] cultures value helpfulness and collec-tivism rather than competition and individualism,I have acquired a heightened respect for theirculture.

It is a new concept for me in relation to contactwith other cultures. It helped me to take onemore step beneath the surface of relating toothers. It will help me understand or at least beopen to bridging rather than judging.

There is a lot to learn about the thinking processof other cultures. [I have] awareness of potentialfor misunderstanding and the value of othercultures perspectives.

We need to be aware of this in order to help ourstudents and enrich their lives. Good examples.Opened my eyes.

I am better aware of cultural differences. I wasnot aware that teachers could offend by promot-ing individualism. In the future, I may be facedwith other cultures and word choice will beimportant. The examples bring in the relevance.

Having an understanding of this model will helpgive me insight so I can be more emphatic[empathic] to people's differences.

It makes me aware of how students come toschool with different attitudes and expectations. Ican appreciate the differences among people.

[It] Leads to a greater understanding of thedifferent perspectives I should be looking at inmy classroom.

It made my understanding more clear. It's a topicthat generally comes up in social conversationswith my friends and husband. Some of it holdstrue to my own personal philosophies.

Good at giving personal awareness and under-standing where students are coming from.

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Well I think it is very eye-opening to understandthe differences and I will be excited to see howboth are used and if [they are] in harmony.

To serve our students better with both priorities[we] should be aware and open to differencesand try to find some mid-ground where bothparties are content.

When I become a teacher, I will try to under-stand the population of children and their culture.On a personal note, we are a collective family.On an educational note: it gives me a greaterunderstanding into the conflict of parent andschool.

I have gained a fuller understanding of wherestudents are coming from.

Even though I've been exposed to these cul-tures, it is from the outside in. I feel like I got aclear view from the inside.

By understanding the differences, I will try tobridge the gap between the two. It was veryinformative, interesting and wonderful. I'm gladthat I've learned a lot from this presentation.

It put some of my past experiences into perspec-tive. This model will allow me to be more awareand recognize some cultural differences.

Relevance

Did the Module provide a framework thatteacher-credential students could find applicableto their future careers with students and families?Students cited the usefulness of the examples toworking with parents as being particularlyrelevant.

Written Comments

I can relate the model to my classroom experi-ence—to understand my students and work oncommunication. Almost all of my students are

Latin[o] immigrants. I will remind myself daily(almost daily) that my students have a differentbackground . . . and are motivated by differentthings.

[The model] relates directly to how one interactsnot just in the classroom but everywhere withpeople who practice collectivism. I will listen tothe parents based on what I have learned aboutcollectivism and will present informationdifferently.

Information is relevant only when I can take itback to the classroom—which I could with thisinformation. In talking with Hispanic parents Ican be more aware of why they may react theway they do.

This would be so useful for teachers to beeducated on this so we can apply it in ourclassrooms. We are constantly being informedon how cultural differences affect studentlearning. This module gave me actual ways ofhandling these differences.

The model of individualism and collectivism is ofgreat interest to me because I am sure when Iam hired as a teacher I will come into contactwith similar experiences. This offers me a newperspective. The striking examples mentioned inclass offered a clear view of the different devel-opmental scripts.

The concrete examples and the historicalbackground [contributed to the success of theModule].

It was helpful, [it is] important to have thisknowledge when dealing with parents and tolearn more about different cultures.

I have heard of this before but it was nice to berefreshed. I need to be aware of different culturalpatterns and to match my communication (verbaland non-verbal).

When I teach, I will integrate it.

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Economy

We like to say that the framework of individu-alism and collectivism is economical because itintegrates many seemingly separate elements intoa two—part system. Although our goal has neverbeen to oversimplify, the framework does consoli-date several elements of cultural variation and thusit provides an efficient way of thinking about thepossibilities of cultural value differences. Didteachers—in—training gravitate to the economy ofa two part framework?

Written Comments

There are so many different theories mentionedin various courses, but to be given enough in-formation and examples of one really makes itapproachable, interesting, and sparks a want formore. I will consider these when working withchildren and when evaluating parent involvementand interaction as well as in relations with co-workers.

This helped unite several fragments. It helpsexplain why certain children act or react in theway they do.

It seemed to bring everything into perspectiveand made excellent sense . . . the whole ideaand background of collectivism and individualismand why that affects schools . . . I think there is astrong need for this subject in a course such asthis.

I have always been interested in the conflictbetween the individual and society. ThinkingAmerica has become too fragmented in subcul-tures—and individual needs grossly out weighthe collective whole. It clarified and articulatedsome confusion I have with my Latino friend.

[The model is] very understandable and relevant.Examples were clear and very pertinent. It ishelpful in dealing with others—to be aware of

their needs . .. What I liked best was its concise-ness of much theory.

Generativity

From the initial training with the seven el-ementary school teachers, we learned that "theframework's power lies in the way it generatesinsights and understanding that enable teachers tobridge cultural differences the way it gets usquestioning, trying to identify for ourselves whatsocial expectations and ethical values are at work"(Trumbull, et al., 2000, p. 4). Would the same betrue for teachers-in-training after only one pre-sentation?

Written Comments

[I will] be more aware of cultural backgroundsand ways of relating to students and parents. [Iwill] encourage Euro-American children to be-come more collective and from other culturesmore independent with an understanding of bothto bring them into a common ground comfortablefor both.

[It] Definitely made me think about how tochange my approach in the future as teacherand things to be aware of that I would not havethought about.

I teach ESL [English as a Second Language]and find many cultural differences specificallyrelated to individualism and collectivism. [I will]keep my eyes open and be culturally sensitive tomy students.

It reinforced some of my common sense suspi-cions about how knowing a person's culture canaid in teaching them.

I can see new ways to mix my culture with thestudents and parents.

I will try to practice more collective practices

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after having studied it by helping others workingin groups.

I'm an extremely individualistic person, many ofmy students are not. I may try to find ways mystudents can work together to reinforce eachother and work more with the class as a group.

I see the individual attitude I come from andmust be mindful of those who come with a dif-ferent perspective. I can use this model in myclassroom and in our family. I would like to studythe model further.

Personal Meaning

Just as awareness is critical to understanding cul-tural value orientations, making the frameworkpersonally meaningful is essential for long-termapplication. The original seven teachers in theBridging Cultures Project have cited many ex-amples of how the framework was personallymeaningful (Rothstein-Fisch, et al., 1997; Trum-bull, Diaz-Meza, et al., 2001). Could the same betrue of education students after only a three-hourtraining?

Written Comments

I could really relate to [the model] because I'vebeen the student having conflict between schooland home. It felt good to know that more peoplethought similar to my upbringing and couldactually put [it] into words that made sense toothers. I think having the situation explained tous first and seeing the results later was veryhelpful. [This person was reared until age WinCuba.]

It allowed me to understand a specific incidentthat occurred to me. It will help me analyze myreactions and it will help me analyze my teachingand allow me to be a better teacher. It will helpme in my self-reflection enabling me to know

when I'm behaving individualistically and why Ireact the way I do and why others (students)react in their ways.

It clearly explains the major differences betweencultures. I am able to understand why myMexican-American boyfriend and I thought sodifferently about everything including education. Ithink it will be extremely helpful when workingwith children and parents from different back-grounds.

This model will make me look at myself and eva-luate, then look at my work and evaluate how Ihandle myself.

I have been trying to incorporate this kind ofmodel in my work as well as personally. Learn-ing more about it will help me explain it to otherpeople.

I was raised to be individualistic, but I wish I wasraised in more of a collectivistic way. I would liketo be a bridge—as a teacher, be sensitive tothe whole spectrum.

A Critical Concern

One student had concerns that the model couldbe misinterpreted or misused:

I don't believe individuals, regardless of theirbackground, neatly fit into each category. I feel Ihave traits from both individualism and collectiv-ism. I'm sure most people feel this way.

This student saw the framework as a way todichotomize people rather than as a way to guideunderstanding of differing cultural value systems.This legitimate concern has been directly ad-dressed and integrated into the current Module (seethe Preface and the Facilitator's Script), with ca-veats regarding overgeneralizing the frameworkexplicitly stated.

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Evaluation 2Midterm Exam

As part of the midterm exam offered threeweeks following presentation of the Bridging Cul-tures Module, students were asked to describe thefive most salient parts of the framework. At thattime, supplementary readings had not yet beendeveloped to support the learning process; there-fore, the responses may contain slight errors thatwould probably have been corrected if the presentReadings were available.

Typical responses indicated that students ap-preciated learning about the differences betweenindividualism and collectivism (n = 12) and con-flict between home and school (n = 12), with therecognition that the independent individual needno longer be viewed as the only model for learn-ing and education. The classroom-based examplesin the presentation also seemed salient, with stu-dents citing the Seven Points of Conflict relatedto the role of property (n = 9), praise versus criti-cism (n = 7), parent versus teacher roles (n = 7),emphasis on social role of objects (contextualized)versus cognitive role of objects (decontextualized)(n = 7), independence and interdependence (n =6), and sharing and helping (n = 6). Overall, stu-dents indicated valuing both individualism andcollectivism and wrote about their intention towork toward greater harmony between home andschool. The full responses that follow are presentedin their contextualized format that is to say, justas the students crafted them. Again, although theresponses are persuasive, there are areas wherestudents demonstrate some confusion. This evalu-ation does not conform to the same pretest, posttestdesign employed in the original research with theseven in-service elementary school teachers.

Midterm Descriptions of the MostSalient Parts of Bridging Cultures

Written Comments

I found the BC [Bridging Cultures] model to bevery insightful. I had not really given muchthought to "us vs. them" with regard to howdifferently our mainstream culture views thingsas compared to most minority cultures. Thefollowing components are ranked in order ofimportance to me.

1. Individualistic society views the child inschool as the parent's responsibility vs. col-lectivistic cultures viewing it as the teacher'sresponsibility.

2. Individualistic view of cognitive importancevs. collectivism view of social importance.

3. Individualistic emphasis on independencevs. collectivism's emphasis on interdepen-dence.

4. Individualistic society's use of praise vs. useof criticism by collectivistic societies.

5. Individualistic view of possession of objectsvs. importance of sharing in collectivism.

I ranked #1 the most important as it most directlyrelates to me as a teacher. It's important to knowwhat expectations I should have with regard tohomework and other school related activitieswhen it comes to some minorities. I think it willhelp ease my frustration, and assist me withsome possible strategies to "bridge" the gap.

One of the most interesting things I learned fromthe BC model was the concept of individualismvs. collectivism. The insight into the ways thatother cultures think was exciting. The concept ofownership vs. sharing was interesting. Learningin a social context was also new to me. The ex-ample of the teacher asking about an egg, andthe child starting to tell the story of her grand-mother cooking was an important insight for me.Also the saying "the nail that sticks out getspounded" is so different from the achievement

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praise orientated way in which I am in. I alsothought it was important to be aware of the dif-ferences in what the teacher's role is perceivedto be. In our society, the teacher is a guide tohelp children learn. In other societies the teacheris considered to be the authority.

The most important part of the BC model wasthe way it addressed the differences betweencollectivism and individualism. I had no idea thatthe USA was so individualistic, and I did notknow the concepts of individualism which are:child seen as individual, personal property, roleof parents, and the importance of oral expres-sion. These all create a student [who] is moreisolated. I believe that collectivism is more posi-tive. For example, the child is seen as a part ofthe family, value placed on sharing, helpfulnessis positive, it is the teacher's role not parents toteach, and need to respect elders. I believe themost important aspect of [the] BC project will beways to address how to become more collectiv-istic in teaching.

The BC model is based on the concept of indi-vidualism and collectivism. Individualisminvolves mainly the viewpoint of white-Europeanthinkers. Collectivism refers to the viewpoint ofimmigrants. The key points of these view[s] canbe stated as follows:

individual - collectivechild as individual - child as part of the familyobjects belonging to person/school - objects

for everyone to usework independently - work to help groupteacher as public servant - teacher as

authority figurepraise: good self-esteem - criticism: make

sure the child doesn't stick out.

The most helpful, insightful aspect of BridgingCultures was the way in which Individualist andCollectivist groups view the child. Obviously theIndividualist views the child as an individual, but I

had not considered the collectivist view—thechild within the context of the family. Secondly,praise to boost self esteem versus the collectiv-ist who will criticize behavior to attain normativebehavior. This can be very important to knowwhen meeting a parent and praising (errone-ously!) his child when this may be interpreted asnon-normal behavior. The notion of ownershipversus sharing was a third quality of differencethat I had not considered. Your example of [thechild] attempting to "share" toys was a vivid re-minder of the importance of being aware of thisdifference.

In order of importance:

(1) most immigrants are collectivistic, (2) we areindividualistic, (3) the bridge, (4) the effects ofculture on teaching and learning.

The most salient parts of the BC Model are thelist of the characteristics of the individualistic andthe cooperative [collectivistic] viewpoints. Theexamples given when the model was presentedand the realization of how these differences canaffect a student's success in the classroom.They were most salient to me because theywere concrete examples of the model. I find my-self thinking about the model when I observebehaviors of people from other cultures. What Imay have previously considered as "rude" be-havior makes more sense now when I look at itfrom the perspective of the "cooperative" out-look. From most important to least important:

Possessions vs. sharing;Individualism vs. interdependence;Cognitive skills vs. social skills;Praise vs. criticism;Understanding the physical world vs. under-

standing human relationships.

[The five most salient parts of the frameworkare:]

Praise vs. criticismindependence vs. interdependence

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direct exposure vs. human relationshipspersonal property vs. sharingindividual vs. collective-group

The five most salient parts of Bridging Culturesfor me were:

1.1 never realized how biased and EuropeanAmerican-based all our teaching is—i.e. ourlimited view of the motivating factors that in-fluence and guide learning in other cultures.2. Individual differences between collectivisticcultures3. Our preoccupation with possessions4. The different family values in our students5. The enormous benefits we all can achieveby valuing, accepting, and building upon thestrengths/gifts of various cultures in ourclassrooms.

The five most salient parts of the BC model forme include the awareness that:

1. Immigrant cultures value collectivism vs.individualism.

2. The conflict that students experiencebetween home and school values.

3. The meaning and value that collectivismcan contribute to a class.

4. The mainstream value of American educa-tion is individualism.

5. The conflicts that can arise in parent-teacher conferences due to differing socialand learning values.

The most salient points of the BC Framework:1. The striking differences between collectiv-

ism and individualism were very interestingbecause the examples were very familiar.

2. The goal of having a deeper awareness ofthe differences in cultures and recognizingthat this awareness will affect a teacher'swork in the classroom in a very positiveway.

3. The differences between different cultures

has such an emotional effect on people. Igot this from the example given in class ofthe boy who told the girl that what they wereplaying with was his.

4. It is such a collaborative effort that includedresearchers and teachers.

5.1 was interested to hear how people an-swered the beginning problem of the boywho wasn't feeling well. People had manydifferent ideas that reflected collectivism andindividualism.

[The five most salient parts of the frameworkare:]

individualism vs. collectivismfacts vs. social context learningprivate ownership vs. sharingpraise vs. negative criticismrole of the teacher

The most salient point about the BC model forme is that parents may have far different valuesfor their children than those that public schoolshave traditionally embraced. Once that is under-stood, it goes on to examine the differences, so Ithink that the second important point to remem-ber is that differences do not necessarily implythat one set of values is more or less worthwhile.That leads to the third point, namely that teach-ers must incorporate and accept broaderviewpoints than their own (for example, the girlwhen speaking of eggs, segued into a storyabout her grandmother). This is of course noth-ing more than valuing and learning from others.The fourth point would be the watch, listen, andask . . . what is actually transpiring and . . .whether any intervention is actually necessary.And fifth, I think children need to be praised fornot only skills representing mainstream valuesthat they've attained (e.g. cognitive skills andoral expression) but also for more collectivisticskills such as respecting authority, sharing andhelpfulness. When a teacher can model a bndge

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and accommodate and build on the different cul-tures in a classroom, I think all the students areenriched.

The most important part of the BC frameworkwas seeing the individualism vs. collectivism dis-harmony. The idea of understanding physicalobjects by direct exposure is something I tookfor granted. I always thought that dealing with anobject was the important part. I did not realizethat people thought so much about how an ob-ject is used in relationships. It is something toconsider when asking children to describe whatan object is. Also, sharing vs. personal propertywas interesting. I would think that sharing wasjust being nice. Being possessive was eitherhogging something or holding on to needed re-sources. Why share if you are counting on aresource? Next, praise vs. criticism was very im-portant to learn about. I would think that allpraise was good and effective and very little criti-cism could really be called constructive. It helpsmy mom and I to better understand how my dadwas raised. He was criticized more than praisedwhen in our U.S. culture, we would think that hisbehavior deserved the reverse. This seems to belinked to independence vs. interdependence. Mymom figures that the criticism was my dad'sfather's way of keeping him, he might feel likedeserving independence. This way if he wascriticized for not bringing enough money home tohis family, he would work even harder so thatthis family could benefit. As a teacher, I can tryto be more aware of how to use praise and criti-cism. I never knew this was all based on cultureand not just the family environment.

The child working for a group vs. themselvesis also insightful. At first glance, a child whohelps the group is just caring and helpful and theindividualistic person is quiet. But, I have learnedthat a child may be quiet for the group. They donot want to show off because it was not valuedto stand out in their culture. When I'm quiet in aclass, it is because I may know the answer, but I

let others answer and have a chance. I do notconsider it based on home culture, but schoolculture. No one likes the know-it-all kids. I nevercared for the show-off.

From this module, I have learned how indi-vidualistic I am and my culture is. I have alsoseen how my dad's Mexican culture is more dif-ferent than our U.S. ways. Individual vs.collectivistic does not just involve economic posi-tions, as it is the only way I'd considered thembefore.

Evaluation 3Final Exam

The Five Most Valuable Thingsfrom the Course

Three months after the Bridging CulturesModule was presented, 54 students responded tothe final exam requirement to "indicate the fivemost valuable things you learned in the course andcite an application of how this might be applied inyour own classroom." The most frequently citedconcept in the 15-week course was the BridgingCultures framework, mentioned by 23 students.Students stated that they would apply their knowl-edge of individualism and collectivism in theirwork with parents and children, allow for groupcollaboration, and function with a greater under-standing of parental goals. Bridging Cultures farexceeded the next two most valuable concepts:Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (Eggen& Kauchak, 1997) and the role of classroom or-ganization (mentioned 14 times each; see Table 1for the full set of responses).

It is possible that the students, knowing thattheir instructor had a personal stake in the frame-work, inflated the ratings for Bridging Cultures.However, informal (and undocumented) class dis-

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cussions seemed to diminish the likelihood ofover-inflation because the students routinely dis-covered new applications of the framework,connecting it to other topics in the course and intheir fieldwork placement. In addition, studentscould have answered the final exam question byusing concepts contained in the test itself, draw-ing on material from the second half of the courseas a trigger for their responses. This would nothave included the Bridging Cultures concepts be-cause it had been presented in the first half of thesemester. The course presented a broad view ofeducational psychology, and the Bridging Culturesframework was only a small part of the totalcourse. Other concepts such as developmentaltheory, learning theory, and reflective practicewere central themes throughout the entire course.

In summary, it appears that the Bridging Cul-tures framework (including the theory, research,and field-based examples) was highly valued byteachers-in-training. They were able to envisionways to apply the Bridging Cultures frameworkto their own past experiences as well as the newones they were encountering or expected to comeacross as classroom teachers. As with any train-ing, the knowledge and skill of the facilitator (orin this case, professor) are important aspects ofthe fidelity of implementation. Although we can-not know whether students ended the course withthe ability to apply their knowledge to an array ofclassroom situations, they did seem to respond veryfavorably to the Module. Of course, more follow-up data on the students from these two classeswould be ideal, particularly to understand the trans-lation of a three-hour session into direct classroomexperiences. However, student teachers are notoften afforded the opportunity to shape the pre-vailing school culture while they are in training,and thus, the long-term effects remain untested

and unknown.In the final evaluation of the Module, it does

seem that both undergraduates with little teachingexperience and graduate students working as emer-gency-credential teachers found the BridgingCultures framework relevant and useful. Return-ing to the Module objectives, participants were ableto:

• Gain awareness and understanding that allpeople have cultures and no one culture is in-herently better than another

• Identify the features of individualism and col-lectivism

• Examine their own cultural orientations

• Cite examples of home-school conflict

• Describe strategies that apply knowledge ofboth individualism and collectivism that couldhelp students achieve their full potential

Teachers equipped with models that can in-form them of both visible and invisible aspects ofculture will truly meet the educational needs of anincreasingly diverse student population. Theframework of individualism-collectivism hasproven helpful in this endeavor, if only to maketeachers aware that they themselves operate withcultural value assumptions. Teachers' awarenessthat this value dimension exists helps them to rec-ognize, understand, respect, and validate aperspective other than their own. Making implicitcultural values visible can prevent the harm tochildren and families that may arise from conflictsbetween the values of home and school.

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Table 1. Most Valuable Things Learnedin Psychological Foundations, K-12, Fall, 1997

Number of responses Concept

23 Bridging Cultures framework of individualism-collectivism.

14 Classroom organization. Gardner's theory1.

13 Motivation.

11 Constructivism.

8 Assessment: formal/authentic. Focus on individual needs.Metacognition. Reflective practice. Social learning theory.

7 Developmental models. Maslow's theory1. Steps for effective teaching.

6 Classroom observations. Learning contexts and examples. Use of praise.

5 Behaviorism. Piaget1.

4 Bloom's taxonomy1. Classroom management. Communication.High expectations. Information processing. Learner-centered classrooms.Meaningfulness. Open-ended questions. Scaffolding.

3 Baseline information on pupils. Lesson planning. Problem solving.Rules of discipline. Successful discussions.

2 Attitude of teachers. Classroom rules. Cooperative learning.Disabled students. Good feedback. Wait time.

1 Attention to learning. Checking for meaningfulness. Checking for understanding.Concept webs. Enthusiasm. Erikson's theory1. Flexibility. Goal setting.Individual Educational Program for students with special needs.Instructional alignment. Instructor as a role model. Learning takes time.Physical health of students. Role of authority. Teachers' health. Test construction.Theories in general. With-itness (i.e., knowing what is going on in the classroomat all times).

Note: Students were asked to indicate the five most ' Descriptions of these theories were all containedvaluable things they learned on the final exam for in the course text, Eggen & Kauchak (1997).the course and to support each with a specific class-room application. (N = 54 respondents with fiveitems each written in essay format.)

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Overhead Transparency Masters

75

Chapter

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Bridging Cultures Workshop Agenda

• Introduction to the Bridging Cultures Project

• Solving a Classroom Dilemma• Description of the Bridging Cultures Framework

• The Seven Points of Home-School Conflict• Break• Envisioning the Cultural Bridge• Questions and Applications

• Evaluation

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 77). Copyright © 2003 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. wVemeaQ I

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The Bridging Cultures Project

Initial training, 1996

ParticipantsSeven bilingual Spanish-English elementary teachers(four Latino, three European American)

MethodThree videotaped workshops over four months

OutcomeAll teachers learned to understand and applythe Bridging Cultures framework

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 79). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 2

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The Bridging Cultures Project

Shifting roles, 1997-2001

Bi-monthly meetings provided opportunities tocontinue applying and researching the framework

Teachers moved from being teacher-participants toteacher-researchers, finding new examples andapplications of Bridging Cultures in their schools

Teachers became conference presenters,publication co-authors, and school leaders

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 81). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 3

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Solving a Classroom Dilemma

The Jobs Scenario

It is the end of the school day, and the class iscleaning up. Salvador isn't feeling well, and heasks Emanuel to help him with his job for the day,which is cleaning the blackboard. Emanuel isn'tsure that he will have time to do both jobs.

What do you think the teacher should do?

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 83). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From Raeff, C , Greenfield, P., Quiroz, BConceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability in tlsocial construction of the child (pp. 59-74). New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, No. 87. Copyright © 2000 by Wiley. Reprinted with permissionConceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability in the Ox/orhoaH A.

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Jobs Scenario: School One

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 85). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From Raeff, C., Greenfield, P., Quiroz, B.Conceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability insocial construction of the child (pp. 59-74). New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 87. Copyright © 2000 by Wiley. Reprinted with permissionConceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability in the OworhioaH ^

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Jobs Scenario: School Two

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 87). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From Raeff, C., Greenfield, P., Quiroz, B.Conceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability in.social construction of the child (pp. 59-74). New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 87. Copyright © 2000 by Wiley. Reprinted with permission.Conceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability in the OworhoaH ft

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The Cost of Home-School Conflict

"[We came to feel that] the rules at school weremore important than the rules at home. The schooland the teachers were right. As a child, you beginto feel the conflict. Many of my brothers stoppedcommunicating with the family and with my fatherbecause he was ignorant."

Amada Irma PerezThird-Grade Teacher

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 89). Copyright © 2003 Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 7

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IndividualismRepresentative of

mainstream U.S. culture

Fosters independence andindividual achievement

Emphasizes the physicalworld, private property,and objects out of context

Promotes individual needs,self-expression, andpersonal choice

CollectivismRepresentative of many

immigrant culturesand 70% of the world

• Fosters interdependence,family, and group success

• Emphasizes the socialworld, shared property, andobjects in social contexts

• Promotes norms, respectfor authority and elders,and group consensus

.Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 91). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 8

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Hofstede's . ™* *Australia 90

Individualism Great Britain 89Patinnc Canada SORatlll9S Italy 76

France, Sweden 71Germany 67

Israel 54Spain 51India 48

Argentina, Japan 46Iran 41

"Arab countries," Brazil 38Philippines 32

Mexico 30"East African countries" 27

Hong Kong 25Singapore, Thailand, 20

"West African countries"South Korea 18

Costa Rica 15Indonesia, Pakistan 14

Guatemala 6

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 93). Lawrence Ertbaum Associates, Inc. Adapted fromHofstede, G. Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations (p. 215). ,~ , , QCopyright © 2001 by Geert Hofstede. Used with permission of the author/copyright holder. Vj VSmeSQ v7

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Risk: Overgeneralizing

Socioeconomic status, amount of formal education,and rural or urban origins are powerful predictors ofindividualism and collectivism.

All cultures, like people, are both individualistic andcollectivistic and change over time. However, despitecultural shifts toward the mainstream, child-rearingvalues can persist over many generations.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 95). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. VjVemeaCI 1 U

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Benefit: Understanding

The individualism-collectivism framework:

• Provides a tool for uncovering cultural variation• Opens the door for understanding others• Helps foster meaningful interactions• Suggests solutions to conflicts

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 97). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. \J\lQi\lQaQ I I

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Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

Individualism

Independence

Personal property

Cognitive skills andobjects out of context

Child as individual

Parents' role to teach

Praise-* positive self-esteem

Oral expression

Collectivism

Helpfulness

Sharing

Social skills andobjects in social context

Child as part of a family

Teacher's role to educate

Criticize-^normative behavior

Listening to authority

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 99). Lawrence Ertbaum Associates, Inc. From Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, C.,& Greenfield, P. M Bridging Cultures in Our Schools: New Approaches That Work. Copyright © 2000 by WestEd Reprinted with permission. Overhead 12

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Whose Blocks?

Picture this: At preschool, a European Americanboy was playing with blocks. Nearby, Jasmine,daughter of immigrant Latino parents, took one ofthe blocks that the boy was not using and beganto play with it. In response, the boy hit Jasmineand she began to cry.

What might the teacher think or feel?

What will the teacher do?

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 101). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From Greenfield, P. M , Raeff, C , & Quiroz,B. Cultural values in learning and education. In B. Williams (Ed.) Closing the Achievement Gap: A Vision for Changing Beliefs and Practices (p. 43). Copyright ^x h^orl "\ Q©1996 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (www.ascd.org). Reprinted with permission from ASCD. All rights reserved. LJVemeaQ I O

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Crayons in the Classroom

A teacher-mentor came to visit a bilingual kindergartenclassroom. The mentor observed that the crayons weresorted into cups by color—all the red in one cup, all theblue in another, etc. — and that the class was sharingall the crayons in all the cups.

The mentor suggested putting each child's name on acup which would contain multicolored crayons whichwould be used by only that particular child.

Rothstein-Pisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 103). Lawrence Ertbaum Associates, Inc. From Quiroz, B & Greenfield, P.M. Cross-cultural valueconflict: Removing a barrier to Latino school achievement. In Greenfield, P. M., Isaac, A., Quiroz, B., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Trumbull, E, et al. Bridging Cultures in Latino Immigrant . , . . .Education. Copyright ©forthcoming Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY10021. Reprinted with permission. \JVerhe3Cl 14

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Shared School Supplies

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 105). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 15

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How Would You Describe an Egg?

A kindergarten teacher showed herclass an actual chicken egg that wouldbe hatching soon. She explained thephysical properties of the egg and askedthe children to describe eggs by thinkingabout the times they had cooked andeaten eggs.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 107). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From Greenfield, P. M , Raeff, C , & Quiroz,B. Cultural values in learning and education. In B. Williams (Ed.) Closing the Achievement Gap: A Vision for Changing Beliefs and Practices (p. 44). Copyright x-v • • * r*©1996 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (www.ascd.org). Reprinted with permission from ASCD. All rights reserved. L/VSinGaQ IO

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Science from StoriesStudent experience

Carolina's story• Carolina was playing inthe garden with hergrandmother

• She saw a hummingbirdnear the cherry tree

• It "stood in the air"• Carolina tried to get closeto the pretty bird, but itkept moving away

Scientific information

Hummingbird qualities• Brownish with bright irides-cent green and red coloringaround head and neck

• Wings beat rapidly• Can hover, fly in any direction• Must eat frequently becauseconstant energy is requiredfor movements

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 109). Copyright © 2003 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 17

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School Breakfast

There had just been a major crisis involving thefederally funded school breakfast program. Theproblem, as seen by the school, was that immigrantLatina mothers were accompanying their childrento school, bringing younger siblings, and eating theschool breakfast together with their children; as aconsequence, eating food that "belonged" only tothe school children.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 111). Lawrence Ertbaum Associates, Inc. From Quiroz, B. & Greenfield, P.M. Cross-cultural valueconflict: Removing a barrier to Latino school achievement. In Greenfield, P. M., Isaac, A., Quiroz, B., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Trumbull, E., et al. Bridging Cultures in Latino Immigrant ^. , , + QEducation. Copyright ©forthcoming. Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY10021. Reprinted with permission. \jVQTl\Q3Q I O

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School Sign

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 113). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. vJVSmGaQ I &

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Sifl rarely,-*vi.. i

Brenda SteppesPrincipal

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 115). Copyright © 2003 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. (JvBl \\GaQ £\J

United School District C. AlenaGreenfield Elementary School superintendent of schools448 Ninth Street, Greenfield, CA 90000 Brenda Steppes

Principal

Novembers, 1997

Dear Greenfield Parents:

As many of you know our school is a closed-campus school. This was decided afterincidents which we felt could put the children in danger. The entrance for adults in ourschool is the main door on Eighth Street. This helps the office and other personnel keeptrack of adults on campus. It also limits strangers or others from coming into school byclosing down all other gates.

In addition, federal regulations prohibit us from allowing anyone other than registeredschool students in the lunch area. We receive a free meal program schoolwide and therules are that these meals are to be served only to students. Unfortunately, sitting withyour child in the lunch area could cause us to lose this privilege. Losing this privilegewould mean that your child's breakfast would cost $ .60 and lunch $ .85 a day for a totalof $7.25 a week per child. The other option would be to have each child bring his/her ownmeals.

Please understand that we are enforcing these rules in order to keep our campus safe andour meal program fee.

All parents are welcome to get involved in our school activities and we also encourageyou to visit our parent center for more information about our parent services.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding in these matters.

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Parents' Role versus Teacher's Role

In a study of immigrant Latino families, Valdes foundthat mothers "saw themselves as participating activelyin their children's education, that is, in raising childrento be good and well-behaved human beings. They didnot, however, see themselves as adjunct schoolteachersThey did not see their role as involving the teaching ofschool subjects. In their own experience in school, thishad been the province of the teacher."

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 117). Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc.From Valdes, G. Con Respeto. Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools (p 166) Copyright OvPrhPflfi 91© 1996 by Teachers College, Columbia University. All rights reserved Reprinted by permission of the publisher. w VCII ICaU £. \

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Group Homework Practice

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 119). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 22

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Praise versus CriticismA Mexican immigrant mother recalls herexperience in a parent-teacher conference inwhich her child's teacher called her daughter"outstanding." According to this mother, "I did notknow what to do about her being 'outstanding':I had tried to show my daughter not to 'show ofTor be cruel to others, but it seemed it was notworking. I blamed her 'bad habit' of standing out'on this country's social influences as I had seenon TV and in my personal observations."

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003) Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 121). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From Quiroz, B. & Greenfield, P.M. Cross-cultural valueconflict: Removing a barrier to Latino school achievement. In Greenfield, P. M , Isaac, A., Quiroz, B., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Trumbull, E , et al. Bridging Cultures in Latino Immigrant ^ , , nr\Education. Copyright © forthcoming. Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY10021. Reprinted with permission. wVernedQ ^O

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Oral Expression versusRespect for Authority

In individualistic cultures, it is often saidthat "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."

In collectivistic cultures, it's often said that"the nail that sticks up gets pounded down"!

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 123) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 24

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Guilt in thePrincipal's

Office

UVerneaO ^O Rothstein-Rsch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p 125). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Ertbaum Associates, Inc

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You Are the Bridge

Envision that you are building a cultural bridge

• What does the bridge connect?

• How long and wide would it be?

• What materials would be used to constructthe bridge and who would build it?

• What would the bridge look like?

Draw the bridge.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 127). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Overhead 26

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Handout Templates

129

Chapter

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HANDOUT 1Solving a Classroom Dilemma: The Jobs Scenario

A "scenario" is a brief vignette. This one demonstrates how differing value orientations lead todifferent interpretations of the same event or of different behaviors in the same circumstances.

It is the end of the school day, and the class is cleaning up. Salvador isn't feelingwell, and he asks Emanuel to help him with his job for the day, which is cleaningthe blackboard. Emanuel isn't sure that he will have time to do both jobs.

What do you think the teacher should do?

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 131). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. From:Raeff, C., Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2000). Conceptualizing interpersonal relationships in the cultural contexts of individu-alism and collectivism. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C. Super (Eds.), Variability in the social construction of the child, New Directionsfor Child and Adolescent Development, 2000 (87), 66. Copyright © 2000 by Jossey-Bass Publishers. Reprinted with permission.See Readings Article 5.

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HANDOUT 2Seven Sources of Home-School Conflict

1. Independence versus Helpfulness

Example: Should a student help a sick friend clean the chalkboard? Data reveal that parentsand children from immigrant Latino families solved this problem differently fromEuropean American families.

Application: Allow students to help each other by suggesting several monitors to get a classroomjob done or use the whole group to help. Allow students to assist each other withacademic work.

Notes:

2. Personal property versus Sharing

Example: Sharing blocks or crayons may be more natural for some students than maintainingpersonal temporary ownership of classroom materials.

Application: Encourage students to share. Be clear that although materials belong to the whole class,in some instances it might be appropriate to ask permission to use certain ones.

Notes:

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 133). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.See: Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. Bridging Cultures in our Schools: New Approaches that Work.Copyright © 2000 by WestEd. Reprinted with permission. See: Readings Article 1.

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HANDOUT2

3. Cognitive skills and objects out of context versusSocial skills and objects in a social context

Example: Having children share their stories about real life experiences (such as withhummingbirds) connects their lived experiences with cognitive concepts.

Application: Encourage students to share stories as valuable in themselves as well as being startingpoints for connecting lived experiences with academic topics.

Notes:

4. Child as an individual versus Child as part of the family

Example: Federal regulations prohibiting family members from sitting with their children duringsubsidized meals caused a crisis because families were accustomed to eating together.Likewise, parents sought to maintain the family as a unit rather than discussing onlyone child during parent-teacher conferences.

Application: When nonnegotiable school policies conflict with families' prevailing values, offerclear explanations as to why the policies exist and welcome parents' participation andinvolvement in meaningful, sincere, and sustaining ways. During parent-teacher con-ferences, ask about the well-being of the whole family.

Notes:

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 133). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.See: Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. Bridging Cultures in our Schools: New Approaches that Work.Copyright © 2000 by WestEd. Reprinted with permission. See: Readings Article 1.

2

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HANDOUT2

5. Parents' role to teach versus Teacher's role to educate

Example: Teachers often expect parents to teach academic subjects at home, whereascollectivistic parents may believe that academic instruction is strictly the role of theteacher.

Application: Establish realistic homework practices (that might include homework practice in class)and possibly rethink student-led conferences in favor of group parent conferences.

Notes:

6. Praise versus Criticism

Example: Praise is often used as a way to encourage students, but it backfired when immigrantLatino students felt it was insincere.

Application: Using praise in private and in specific ways such as "interesting word choice" or "well-punctuated" is helpful. Praise may work best for the whole class, so as not to single outany one student. Encourage students to ask themselves, "Is this my best work?"

Notes

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 133). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.See: Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. Bridging Cultures in our Schools: New Approaches that Work.Copyright © 2000 by WestEd. Reprinted with permission. See: Readings Article 1.

3

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HANDOUT2 4

7. Oral expression versus Listening to authority

Example: Because he did not speak up or look the principal in the eye in his own defense,a student was believed to be guilty of a school-related crime. Some students learnbetter by listening with respect compared to speaking out in class.

Application: Support listening to and respect for authority. Offer a variety of speaking options,including one-on-one, choral responses, small groups, and whole group.

Notes:

Rothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 133). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.See: Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. Bridging Cultures in our Schools: New Approaches that Work.Copyright © 2000 by WestEd. Reprinted with permission. See: Readings Article 1.

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HANDOUT 3You Are the Bridge

Envision a cultural bridge.

1. What does the bridge connect?

2. How long and wide would it be?

3. What materials would be used to construct the bridge and who would build it?

4. What would the bridge look like?

Now, draw the bridge you see.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 141). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc

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HANDOUT 4Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module Evaluation

1. What are the most helpful ideas or insights you gained from the Bridging Cultures presentationand why are they useful?

a)

b)

c)

2. What suggestions do you have to improve this presentation?

3. How will you use what you learned about Bridging Cultures in your work?

Rate the session overall:

5 4 3 2 1_

very informative somewhat informative not informative

Name (optional but useful):

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 143). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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HANDOUT4 2

Your story: Describe one experience you have had that might be explained by the framework ofindividualism and collectivism. Tell the story of what happened and how cultural values might havebeen in conflict. Give as much detail as possible. Feel free to add additional paper.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module (p. 141). Copyright © 2003. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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Appendices

147

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Appendices 149

APPENDIX 1 Bridging Cultures Project Participants

Core Researchers

Patricia Greenfield Department of PsychologyUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Blanca Quiroz Graduate School of EducationHarvard University

Carrie Rothstein-Fisch Michael D. Eisner College of EducationCalifornia State University, Northridge

Elise Trumbull Culture and Language in EducationWestEd

Teacher Participants

Marie Altchech Los Angeles Unified School DistrictStoner Avenue School

Catherine Daley Los Angeles Unified School DistrictMagnolia Elementary School

Kathryn Eyler Los Angeles Unified School DistrictHoover Elementary School

Elvia Hernandez Los Angeles Unified School DistrictGriffin Avenue Elementary School

Giancarlo Mercado Los Angeles Unified School DistrictWestminster Avenue School

Amada Perez Ocean View School DistrictMar Vista Elementary School Oxnard, CA

Pearl Saitzyk Los Angeles Unified School DistrictWestminster Avenue School

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Appendices 151

APPENDIX 2 The Hofstede Study and Expanded Data Set

Discussions of cultural value systems often raisea question about countries of origin: To what de-gree are ancestral countries individualistic orcollectivistic? Overhead 9 includes a partial listof countries and regions studied by Geert Hofstede(1980,1983,2001), but participants may ask aboutother countries. Therefore, a complete list of thecountries and regions studied by Hofstede is in-cluded to help answer the question, "Howindividualistic or collectivistic is my country oforigin?"

The Hofstede (2001) study is described herevery briefly, followed by some important warn-ings about misinterpreting the data. As participantslook at the list of their home countries or theirancestor's native countries, remind them that theyare seeing an index of individualism. Encouragethem to calculate the complementary collectivismindex-subtracting the individualism score from100-and ask them how this might relate to theirown cultural values system.

The Hofstede Study

Between 1966 and 1978, a large multinationalbusiness corporation (IBM, International BusinessMachines) employed social psychologist GeertHofstede. While working in the European head-quarters, he noticed how people from a variety ofcountries and regions behaved differently in thesame situations, despite common company rules.He also noticed that he and his family interacteddifferently with schools compared to indigenousfamilies. He gathered a vast array of data frompaper-and-pencil surveys of employees, cover-ing 72 countries twice, in 1968 and 1972.

The survey questions tapped employee val-ues and beliefs. Taking the cultural value systemas a whole within a country, Hofstede (1980,1983,2001) distilled four dimensions:

1. Power distance: The extent to which a societyaccepts power being unequally distributed.

2. Uncertainty avoidance: The level of discom-fort members of a society experience whenfaced with ambiguous situations.

3. Masculinity: The degree to which a societysees sharp sex role differences.

4. '"''Individualism on the one side versus itsopposite, collectivism is the degree to whichindividuals are supposed to look after them-selves or remain integrated into groups, usu-ally around the family." (Hofstede, 2001,p. xx)

Some important cautions should accompanythe interpretation of Hofstede's work (1980,1983,2001). First, the research has been criticized fornot providing an adequate representation of eachcountry, and it is likely that the original studiesmay already have been skewed toward individu-alism because a large corporation would requirepersonnel to work in urban areas rather than ruralregions where collectivism is more prominent.Hofstede (2001) responds, "The country scoresobtained correlated highly with all kinds of otherdata, including results from representative samplesof entire national populations" (p. 73). However,the methods used assumed reasonably high levelsof literacy and do not represent the immigrantfamilies targeted in the Module. Second, there hasalso been a shift toward greater individualism as-sociated with increases in national wealth. Whatwould scores look like now? Third, would therebe differences among the countries grouped by re-gions? Most important, the data reported is basedon countries or regions, not on how any single in-dividual responded to questions about values andbeliefs.

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152 BRIDGING CULTURES Teacher Education Module

Hofstede's Values for Fifty Countries and Three Regions

The "Index of Individualism" is how each country or region was rated on a scale from 0 to 100, fromleast individualistic to most individualistic (listed in alphabetical order).

Regions grouped as aggregate data in the original study were: East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanza-nia, Zambia) 27; West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone) 20 ; and Arab Countries (Egypt, Iraq,Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) 38.

Table 2. Index of Individualism

Arab countries 38Argentina 46Australia 90Austria 55Belgium 75Brazil 38Canada 80Chile 23Columbia 13Costa Rica 15Denmark 74East Africa countries 27Ecuador 8Finland 63France 71Germany 67Great Britain 89Greece 35

Guatemala 6Hong Kong 25Indonesia 14India 48Iran 41Ireland 70Israel 54Italy 76Jamaica 39Japan 46Korea (South) 18Malaysia 26Mexico 30Netherlands 80Norway 69New Zealand 79Pakistan 14Panama 11

Peru 16Philippines 32Portugal 27South Africa 65Salvador 19Singapore 20Spain 51Sweden 71Switzerland 68Taiwan 17Thailand 20Turkey 37Uruguay 36United States 91Venezuela 12West Africa countries 20Yugoslavia 27

Note: From Hofstede, 2001, p. 215.

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Author Index

157

A

Altchech xii, 12

B

Banks 1Barry xBrislin xi, 53, 64

C

Cocking x, 2, 4

D

Daley 27Derman-Sparks 8

E

Eggen 71, 73

F

Finkelstein x, 10Frasure-Smith 5

G

Garcia xi, 53, 64Geary 64Girard 10Greenfield ix, x, xii, xiv,l, 2, 4, 5, 8, 12,

13,25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38,39,42, 43, 46, 48

Gudykunst ixGuerra xi, 53, 64

H

Hale-Benson xHasan xi, 4, 5, 13Hofstede xii, 21, 22, 23, 151, 152

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158 BRIDGING CULTURES Teacher Education Module

JJoint Committee to Develop a Master Plan 62

K

Kauchak 71, 73Koch 10Koester xi, 53Kohn 50

R

Raeff ix, xii, 1, 4, 12, 17, 42, 43, 46Rothstein-Fisch xi, xii, xiii, xiv, 1, 2, 4, 5,

8, 13, 15, 27, 34,36, 41, 46, 54, 55,67\j i

sSingelis xiSuzuki 5, 25, 38

L

Ladson-Billings xLambert 5, 25Lustig xi, 53

M

Mahoney xMesa-Bains 9Moles 62

N

National Education Goals Panel 59

T

Triandis xi, xii, xiv, 22Trumbull 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 15, 27, 46,

52, 66, 67

V

Valdes 25, 45, 46

Y

Yoshida 53, 64

I^CUlUliCU £

P

Perez 27Philips 8Pickert x

Q

Quiroz ix, xii, xiii, xiv, 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 13,15, 26, 29, 31,32,33, 38, 39, 42,43,45, 46, 48