Deculturalization

How and Why?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to

repeat it." George Santayana

Manifest Destiny

• A belief that the new nation, the United States, would expand its borders to the Pacific Ocean.

• Manifest Destiny was justified by beliefs in the superiority of the culture, political institutions, and morality of the new nation.

Dominated Cultures

Cultures that others have attempted to:

• Change

• Control

• Eliminate

Government Strategies

• The United States Government used two formal strategies to control dominated cultures:– Deculturalization– Segregation

These strategies became part of the dominant cultural fabric of the United States

Deculturalization

• Is the process of stripping away the culture of a people:– Enslavement and

exclusion of African-Americans

– Displacement and boarding schools for Native Americans

– Eurocentric curriculum– English only laws

Segregation

Segregation:

• Primarily occurs in situations of economic exploitation

• Creates a sense of inferiority among members of the minority cultures

• Creates a feeling of superiority among the members of the dominant culture

THINK AND SHAREPrejudice and discrimination

Think of an example in our nation’s history where some minority group has been treated by:

Extermination – genocide, ethnic cleansing

•Domination/enslavement

•Expulsion

•Segregation/apartheid

•Assimilation/integration

•Pluralism/multiculturalism

Schooling and Children from Underrepresented Groups

The Achievement Gap

The United States has large numbers of minority groups

• Some groups have developed reputations for high achievement in school– Chinese Americans

• Other groups have developed reputations for low achievement in school – African Americans

Background (Continued)

Researcher John Ogbu (1983) studied Chinese Americans and African Americans in Stockton, CA between 1968-70 and found that:

• Although the two groups experienced similar discrimination and came from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, Chinese Americans achieved in school and African Americans did not

Ogbu developed a conceptual framework to help explain the pattern

Typology of Minorities

• Autonomous

• Immigrants

• Castelike or Involuntary

Autonomous Minorities

• May be victims of prejudice, but are not dominated in subordinated groups politically, economically, or in a rigid caste system

• Often such groups have a cultural frame of reference that encourages and demonstrates success

• Not characterized by disproportionate and persistent school failure

Examples of Autonomous Minorities

• Amish

• Mormons

• Jews

Immigrants

• Groups of people who have moved more or less voluntarily to the US

• Their reference group is the population "back home" or the peers in their neighborhood

• Not characterized by disproportionate and persistent school failure

Examples of Immigrants

• Chinese

• Filipinos

• Japanese

• Koreans

• Caribbeans

Castelike Minorities

• Have been involuntarily incorporated into the dominant society as a subordinate group

• Have little or no political power and are economically subordinate

• Their disproportionate representation in menial jobs is used by majority culture to argue that low status is appropriate

• Are characterized by disproportionate and persistent school failure

Examples of Castelike Minorities

• Native Americans

• African Americans

• Mexican Americans

• Puerto Ricans

Conceptual Framework

This conceptual framework can help to explain minority group performance in different cultures:

• The Buraku people are castelike minorities in Japan who experience persistent, disproportionate school failure there

• Buraku immigrants in the US do as well as other Japanese Americans in school

School, Work, & Status Mobility

• Ogbu argued that schools play an important role in an economy and fulfill this crucial role in three ways:– Teaching children beliefs, values, and attitudes which

support the economic system– Teaching skills and competencies required to make

the system work– Credentialing them to enter the work force

• During their education, children develop cognitive maps or shared knowledge about how the economic and status-mobility systems work

Cognitive Maps

1. Structured inequality– unequal power relationship permits the

dominant group to control minority access to education and jobs

2. Artificial job ceilings– Limitations on the upward mobility of castelike

minorities

Cognitive Maps (continued)

• These two factors define different realities for the dominant group, castelike minorities, and immigrants

• Circumstances can change over time

Immigrant Cognitive Map

• Many members of immigrant minorities believe that if they accommodate to the majority they will achieve greater rewards than they could achieve if they were "back home".

Castelike Cognitive Map

• Castelike minorities may tend to see most of their problems in terms of systemic discrimination

• Many members of castelike minorities do not believe that effort will achieve objectives or that objectives achieved will lead to rewards

• Locus of Control and Expectancy theory

Locus of Control

Many children from low SES groups have been found to have an external locus of control

• Perceive that they are powerless

• Credit other sources for what occurs –including personal successes and failures

Expectancy Theory

• These cognitive maps have major implications for student and teacher motivation given the expectancy theory of motivation. This theory rests on two assumptions:– People make decisions about their behavior based on

reasoning and anticipation of future events– People subjectively and intuitively evaluate the

expected outcomes of behavior and then choose how to behave

WORK OUTCOME Expectancy Can I achieve the outcome? ---------No--No Motivation Perceived probability that certain degree of effort will produce specified performance level Yes Instrumentality Does the outcome lead to Reward? –No --No Motivation Perceived probability that given level of performance will produce reward

Yes

Valence Is the reward something I value? ----No --No Motivation Perceived value of outcomes/rewards

Yes

WORK MOTIVATION

Coping/Survival Strategies

• Collective Struggle --Civil Rights Movement• Clientship --Go along to get along; passive

resistance • Alienation --Creation of a "Black Culture" which

is defined by its opposition to much of what is espoused by the dominant culture– Internalized racism – Norms against "acting White" – Acceptance of alternative economy for status mobility,

even if illegal.

Coping/Survival Strategies

• Assimilation --Adapting to and fitting in with the dominant culture

• Accommodation --Operating according to established rules of the dominant culture while maintaining positive cultural identity

Accomodation

Kao and Tienda (1995) reported that parental contributions to the academic achievement of children from voluntary immigrant families include:

• Accommodation without assimilation

• Optimism

What About Language?

In the US, how important is the use of standard English to:

• School success?

• Career success?

• Economic success?

• Political success?

• Social success?

Questions• Bilingual Education and

Ebonics have been controversial issues in education

– What are the controversies and concerns?

– What are your opinions on these matters and what, if anything, should be done in education to address these issues?