The adaptation of African students to American societyLa adaptación de estudiantes Africanos a la educacion NorteAmericanaL'adaptation d'etudiants Africains a l'education Americaine

This report summarizes the results of a questionnaire study involving 296 sub-Saharan African students from a representative set of nine American campuses. Some of the results suggest that African students in this country in the middle 70s: are predominantly Christian and middle-class in origin. coming mostly from cities of over 10,000; Nigerians vastly outnumber those from any other country; are two-thirds undergraduates and one-third graduate students, with at least a third having started their American education in a community college; are mostly supported by their families or themselves. Their major problems at first are in the areas of climate, communication with Americans, discrimination, homesickness, depression, irritability, and tiredness. Only a minority feel comfortable with the basic elements of American culture, though the vast majority are pleased with the education they arc receiving. It was possible to identify several correlates of adjustment, defined as happiness and freedom from various problems. Students have a more positive attitude toward American values if they are from more prominent families, have attended an orientation to American education, and spend time with Americans rather than other Africans. Contact with the foreign-student office on campus seems to he an effective bridge to American culture and also engenders positive attitudes toward American education.     

The Ins and Outs of Succeeding in Mathematics: African American Students' Notions and Perceptions

This article presents the results of a research study that investigated the mathematical experiences of two African American female college students. The study examined the students' perceptions of and responses to their mathematical experiences. The study sought to determine how these students viewed their experiences in mathematics classrooms, particularly their interactions with mathematics teachers and sought to identify factors that contributed to their succeeding in mathematics. The students' stories suggest a need to raise questions about traditional teaching practices that may be oppressive for African American mathematics students. Their stories also engender hope due to the support of caring educators whom they called "good teachers" and who contributed to their success with school mathematics.     

Navigating multiple worlds of Ghanaina-born immigrant adolescent girls in US urban schools

African immigrant populations are among the fastest growing immigrant populations in the United States, yet they are understudied and are invisible immigrant group in the educational literature, particularly, in the context of educational discourses in the United States urban schools. Drawing on Phelan et al.’s multiple worlds model, we analyzed individual and focus group interviews of forty students, thirty-six parents, and twelve teachers from two schools. Findings showed that Ghanaian-born immigrant students undergo several complex transitional paradigms combining two worlds (school and home) of Ghanaian culture, past educational experiences, family values, and adapting to new school environments to achieve success in American educational systems. In addition, they faced racial and ethnic discrimination and stereotypes from peers, which negatively impacted their academic progress and social adjustments in school. The authors recommend that teachers should establish new ways of understanding the multiple worlds of African-born adolescent immigrant girls by accounting for their culturally diverse ways of navigating their worlds of school, peers, and families to achieve academic success in US schools.     

Pedagogies of Black Eldership: Exploring the Impact of Intergenerational Contact on Youth Research

This article examines the interactions between a collective of self-described “African American,” “multiracial,” and “African immigrant” high school youth researchers, and two African American community elders. Drawing from a year-long critical ethnographic study of the youth research collective, the author documents how pedagogies of Black eldership overlapped with youth participatory action research to open new possibilities for preparing youth as researchers. The study highlights how an out-of-school educational space afforded alternative pedagogical opportunities by specifically examining how pedagogies of Black eldership helped youth researchers historicize and politicize their research, pushing them to move from embodied knowledge to self-knowledge. Drawing from African-centered and critical theory, the study explicates aspects of the pedagogies of Black eldership. Without bounding these pedagogies, the author uses two narratives of teaching and learning to illustrate how intergenerational contact impacted the trajectory of the youth researchers. They transformed their research after meeting with the elders to be more introspective and examine how their worldviews were being constructed and influenced. The findings in this study serve as an impetus for further research examining the educational context of Black eldership and youth research.     

“I disagreed with a lot of values”: Exploring Black immigrant agency in ethnic-racial socialization

Ethnic-racial socialization is a mechanism through which immigrant parents instill in their children a sense of pride in their culture while preparing them for negative experiences with racial and cultural out-groups. For Black immigrant parents, this can include promoting a wariness of Black Americans in their children. Through this lens, we investigated an understudied intercultural dynamic via interviews with 12 first- and second-generation African and Caribbean immigrants. Using deductive and inductive analyses, we first examined the socialization messages they received about Black Americans from their parents, finding that in addition to messages inculcating ethnic and cultural pride, the participants also heard warnings about affiliation with Black Americans. Those messages relied on personal experiences and harmful stereotypes. Second, emergent from the data were examples of the ways the participants rejected their parents’ warnings. Experiences outside of the home appeared to influence views that were alternative to their parents. This novel finding provides avenues for future research investigating Black immigrants’ paths to a sense of connection or distancing from Black Americans.     

A comparative study of African American and European American ethnic identity

Differences between African Americans and European Americans were examined to find how ethnic identity salience was enacted in interethnic conversations, A sample of 126 African Americans and 78 European Americans was recruited from the community using a snowball sampling method. First, different factor structures for the two groups indicated that African Americans conceptualize sociocultural and political identity as separate constructs while European Americans express a singular and social definition of ethnic identity and experience less identity salience than African Americans. Secondly, although our sample is small, those who used the label “African American” expressed greater political ethnic identity salience than those who used the label “Black”. This finding is consistent with others' research indicating a continuing trend toward a positive political posture for African Americans. Third, ethnic identity was found to be negatively related to interethnic communication satisfaction for European Americans. Stronger European American ethnic identity was related to less satisfying interethnic conversational outcomes in less intimate relationships. Ethnic identity salience showed no significant relationship to interethnic conversational outcomes for European Americans communicating with friends nor for African Americans no matter the relational distance.     

Not Stopping at First: Racial Literacy and the Teaching of Barack Obama

In this article the author speaks to the teaching of Barack Obama in U.S. schools. Drawing from scholarly literature on the heroification of American historical figures in public memory, the author argues that focusing on Obama's firstness as an African American may lead students to have incomplete and misleading understandings of what the 2008 election means for American racial politics and progress. Using a racial literacy framework, the author suggests Obama's narrative as an ideal subject for furthering students’ conceptions of race in its historical and contemporary manifestations. The author concludes with pedagogical recommendations for employing Obama's narrative toward improving students’ racial literacies.     

The Heuristic for Thinking About Culturally Responsive Teaching (HiTCRiT)

Michèle was hurrying to class. How, she thought, could she offer the students in her African American English in Society and Schools class a method of understanding, comparing, and abstracting the studies they had been reading in class? The heuristic described in this study evolved from a desire to capture aspects of several seminal studies that illustrated how African American English was deployed in classrooms for productive work with African American students. Michèle recalled that whenever she asked graduate students or practicing teachers what they, other teachers, and schools might do to improve the schooling of students of color, one of the most consistent responses was Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP). However, when pressed and asked what one would detect in classrooms where CRP is being put into practice, few were able to specify what an observer might see. Specifying the dimensions of CRP and its relationship to the heuristic had not been on Michèle’s mind. Even so, it was during the class discussion that the heuristic’s relevance to CRP became clearer. Jonathan, who had been tapped as a teaching assistant in an English language arts methods class, believed HiTCRiT could be modified to use with teacher education candidates, as a substitute for the standardized lesson planning tool used in the department. He piloted its use with the class the following semester. Utilizing HiTCRiT to explain research and existing practices as well as to assist teachers in creating culturally relevant instruction modified and shaped it, creating a more robust tool. Thus, the HiTCRiT came into being and came to inform our thinking and teaching practice.     

Multicultural Education in a Post-Race Political Age: Our Movement at Risk?

The 2008 elections ushered in a new era in U.S. politics with implications for race relations and social justice activity. Drawing parallels between the contemporary African American community and splintering undercurrents in the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), the author urges cross-generational coalescence around an organizational agenda accentuating critical multicultural education for this new era.     

Gender and Race Differences in Middle School Students’ Perceptions of Caring Teacher Behaviors

This study investigated differences in 50 fifth through eighth grade students’ perceptions of caring teacher behaviors. The analyses revealed that African American and female students were more likely to value behavior that encourages academic achievement than were White and male students, who were more likely to value warm interpersonal behaviors.     

Black History,Inc! Investigating the Production of Black History Through Walmart's Corporate Web Site

Social and public sites are becoming a popular medium for intellectual consumption of Black history. Given the educational climate in which many students’ exposure to Black history may come from outside of schools, the authors examine how Walmart's Black History Month Web site produced simplistic and safe narratives about African American history.     

Home of the Slave: The Birth of a Nation and the Persistence of Slavery

Different subgroups in society have diverse motives for remembering or forgetting important events in history. In American history, slavery has had a deep and enduring bad effect on everything that came afterward. There have been attempts to forget or remember this chapter in the national narrative related to the intentions of subcultural groups in the present. The treatment of slavery in American movies has been a powerful factor in these attempts. Recent movies have returned to a focus on slavery at the same time that national opinion has turned away from African American issues and sympathies. The recent movie The Birth of a Nation exemplifies the new emphasis on slavery in the movies and the lack of concern for it in public discourse.     

An American Nightmare: Remembered Wrongs in 12 Years a Slave

Sub-cultural groups that depend on a historical account to validate their thoughts and practices may need to revise and repair those accounts as changing circumstances present new issues affecting them. The year 2013 gave us three movies that dealt with racism, mobility, and political action: Lee Daniels’ The Butler, 12 Years a Slave, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. All based on autobiographical accounts of the real life experiences of the authors, they present a theme of contrast between brutal oppression and benign inclusion. The pattern differs from the popular version of the American Dream, and the movies are grim, provocative documents during a period of apparent African American progress and achievement.     

The role of adoptive parents’ intergroup contact in fostering the well-being of adoptees: The “extended intragroup contact effect”

The present study examines the effects of a new cultural socialization strategy on the well-being of transracially adopted adolescents and emerging adults. Specifically, we propose a novel strategy focused on the role of adoptive parents’ positive contact with members of their children’s ethnic group of origin, which we labelled “extended intragroup contact.” The hypothesis was that observing ingroup members (adoptive parents, belonging to the family ingroup) engaging in contact with another ingroup (members of children’s original ethnic group) would be associated with adoptees’ meaning in life and, in turn, with well-being. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 120 families, each composed of transracial adoptees (all born in Latin American countries) and their adoptive parents. The results were generally supportive of predictions, showing that knowing of positive interactions between members of two different ingroups (family ingroup and ethnic ingroup) had beneficial effects for the well-being of transracial adoptees. The theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed, focusing on the importance of investigating extended intragroup contact as a strategy for improving the well-being of disadvantaged group members.     

Exploring Media’s Impact on African American Women’s Healthy Food Habits in Kentucky

This qualitative study employs the uses and gratifications framework to explore the perspective of African American women in Kentucky, specifically urban Louisville and rural Hopkinsville, to understand their use of media as potential sources for gathering information about healthy food habits. Key findings include how the participants used media for instrumental purposes to educate themselves about healthy food habits, and that the specific media personalities were very important to the participants as they decided to make healthier food selections.     

Acculturation trajectories differ by youth age at arrival and time in residency among Latino immigrant families in a US emerging immigrant context

The present study was designed to examine acculturation trajectories of first-generation, Latino immigrant youth and their parents in an emerging immigrant context. We also examined whether acculturation trajectories differed between families with youth who migrated at different stages of development and who have spent differential amounts of time in the United States (US). A community sample of 217 immigrant families in western Oregon was purposely sampled according to youths’ age at arrival and time in US residency (TR) and assessed three times over a 3-year period. Families were stratified into three TR groups: TR1 = 2–4 years spent in the US; TR2 = 6–8 years spent in the US; and TR3 = 10–12 years. Parents and youth in each TR group completed measures assessing their acculturation to US American and Latino culture. Results from multiple-group latent growth models showed that acculturation trajectories differed for both youth and parents depending on the TR group. Moreover, both youth and their parents within each TR group differed in their acculturation trajectories. Overall, although youth slowly gravitated toward biculturalism over time, their parents remained relatively separated such that they reported high endorsement of their heritage culture and low endorsement of US culture over time. Findings are discussed in terms of prior research and theory.     

Texts

Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Richard Delgado (Ed.), Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995, 592 pages, $29.95 (softcover). ISBN 1–5663–9348–5.

Dreamseekers: Creative Approaches to the African American Heritage. Anita Manley and Cecily O'Neill (Eds.), Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997, 175 pages, $24.50 (softcover). ISBN 0–4350–7045–2.

Places of Memory: Whiteman's Schools and Native American Communities. Alan Peshkin, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997, 150 pages, $22.50 (softcover). ISBN 0–8058–2469–3.     

Flight of the Blackbird: Red Tails and Fighting for American Legitimacy

Red Tails, a recent movie about the Tuskegee Airmen in battle, is the latest in a line of movies that seem to petition for admission to the fellowship of the mainstream American society by showing stories of groups overcoming discrimination and proving their strength and their patriotism. As the most excluded and longest-lasting pariah group, African Americans have enacted this scenario in real life and in the popular culture many times. Movies about war and the military are a powerful means of showing minority group worthiness. Those who will risk their lives in battle on behalf of the homeland and will fight with extraordinary skill should be worthy applicants for inclusion.     

Review Essay: Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal and Measuring Up: How Advertising Affects Self-Image

This analysis argues that Grant Hill advances a critique of internal contradictions within Black communities; offers rival epistemologies of how to be Black, male, and an athlete; as well as connects concrete Black experience within an abstract museum setting. This examination grounds Hill's public statements of what he hopes to accomplish with the exhibition "Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art" within a rubric featuring theme, function, and quantity. Under examination are Hill's messages to understand the ways in which he seeks to demonstrate his multidimensionality and ability to transcend the one-dimensional identity position of Black male athlete.     

Language choice and global learning networks: The pitfall of “lingua franca” approaches to classroom telecomputing 1

This article examines students' narrative responses to reading professional literacy histories. Demonstrating the importance of narrative as a way of learning, it shows how elementary education majors of diverse backgrounds explore their relation with language in a traditional grammar class. Cajun, Creole, and African American students recover their literacy histories and articulate the relation between the loss of language and the loss of culture and heritage. Drawing on the parallels between their discourse histories and the discourse histories of other cultures, these narratives also suggest that the students are now able to establish their linguistic identity and develop a greater sensitivity to the situations of their own students in the multicultural classrooms of southwest Louisiana.