Multicultural attitudes of prospective teachers: The influence of multicultural ideology and national pride

Attitudes toward multiculturalism in educational contexts – i.e., multicultural attitudes – are desirable qualities for good teaching practices. Unfortunately, little is known about the antecedents of prospective teachers’ multicultural attitudes. Before this backdrop, we argue that prospective teachers’ multicultural ideology, national pride, and intergroup contact are related to their multicultural attitudes. Studying these relationships can offer valuable insights for initial teacher education programs. We assessed prospective teachers’ (n = 72) multicultural attitudes (adapted version of the Teachers’ Multicultural Attitude Survey), multicultural ideology (Multicultural Ideology Scale), national pride (single item from large scale studies) and intergroup contact (experiences in multicultural classrooms and intergroup friendship). Results showed that higher multicultural ideology and lower national pride were related to more positive multicultural attitudes. We found no such relation for intergroup contact. Based on these new insights into prospective teachers’ multicultural attitudes, we argue that initial teacher education programs should reinforce and develop prospective teachers’ multicultural ideology and consider the role of national pride.     

Teachers Moving Forward on a Cultural Self-Awareness Spectrum: Diverse Children,Museums, and Young Adult Literature

This case study research investigated preservice and in-service teachers’ (N = 23) experiences and understandings as they participated in a multicultural children and young adults’ literature course that incorporates visits to a Holocaust museum. A graduate level course was redesigned within a framework of social justice pedagogy by focusing on critical analysis of multicultural literature, teacher inquiry, as well as a civic engagement project. Findings from this study illuminated how this course design encouraged teachers to move beyond a focus on tolerance and acceptance, and toward a social justice orientation through critical exploration of issues such as racism, oppression, and the ways bias and privilege operate within their own lives, schools, and society.     

Seeking balance between the past and the present: Vietnamese refugee parenting practices and adolescent well-being

This qualitative study examines the resources that Vietnamese refugee parents use in raising their adolescent youth in exile and how they, and their adolescents, regard their experiences of different parenting styles. The study is based on 55 semi-structured interviews and several focus groups performed with a small sample of Vietnamese refugee parents and their adolescent children. Three main themes from the interviews were identified: the role of the extended family and siblings in bringing up children; language acquisition and cultural continuity and, finally, religion and social support. Our findings suggest extended kin are involved in the raising of adolescent children, providing additional family ties and support. Parents regarded Vietnamese language acquisition by their youth as facilitating both communication with extended kin and cultural transmission. Several parents stressed the importance of religious community to socialising and creating a sense of belonging for their youth. Vietnamese refugee parents seek a balance between Vietnamese values and their close extended family social networks, and the opportunities in Norway to develop autonomy in pursuit of educational and economic goals. Together these parenting practices constituted a mobilization of resources in support of their youth. These findings may have important implications for future research on resiliency and the role of these strategies as protective factors mediating mental health outcomes. They may also have implications for treatment, in terms of the types of resources treatment can access and for prevention strategies that maximize key cultural resources for Vietnamese refugee youth.     

Mindsets about language learning and support for immigrants’ integration

People rely on their lay theories, or mindsets, to make meaning of their experience in intercultural contact. Given that proficiency in the local language is a crucial social marker of immigrants’ integration, we argue that language mindsets (i.e., beliefs about whether language learning ability is fixed or changeable) guide members of the receiving society to make inferences about immigrants’ language ability (e.g., “can immigrants improve their language ability?”). This social inference, in turn, predicts their willingness to interact with immigrants and support immigrants’ language education. In a correlational study (n = 231) and an experimental study (n = 106), we investigated whether and how language mindsets influence participants’ support for immigrants’ intercultural contact. We found that trait and experimentally-induced fixed (vs. growth) mindsets led to negative judgments of immigrants’ potential to develop their skills in the local language, which in turn predicted avoidance of contact with migrants and opposition to governmental funding of immigrants’ language education. The effects held even after controlling for participants’ political orientations, perceived difficulties of the English language, and judgments of target immigrants’ language fluency. These findings suggest that promoting growth mindsets about language ability can lead to more positive intercultural attitudes that impact the acceptance of migrants. We discussed the implications of language mindsets for understanding the processes of intercultural communication and forming positive intercultural relations.     

Weblog narratives of Japanese migrant women in Australia: Consequences of international mobility and migration

This paper draws attention to the personal weblogs written by Japanese migrant women in Australia. Entries in these weblogs elucidate their daily experiences, thoughts, concerns, and feelings. Blog data provide rich personal accounts of migrant experiences from the first-hand experiences of migrants. Based on collected blog entries, this paper details Japanese spouses’ settlement experiences in Australia by highlighting issues of language and culture, and critiques celebratory attitudes toward international mobility by discussing the disadvantages of migration. While mobility to western countries is often romanticized and regarded as a symbol of emancipation for Japanese women, diasporic subjects still confront social exclusion and marginalization in an adopted society. Migrants’ struggles and difficulties remain even in Australia, which is a country generally perceived as a multicultural society that has a large number of migrants and a long history of immigration.     

“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.     

Uncovering the Hidden Power of Language: Critical Race Theory,Critical Language Socialization and Multicultural Families in Korea

This study utilizes critical race theory and critical language socialization to unpack embedded ideologies regarding language usage and immigrant wives’ heritage language transmission within multicultural families in Korea. Specifically, this study unveils hidden structures and beliefs which hinder or promote immigrant women’s use of heritage languages, and its intergenerational transmission. According to Sizemore, the language used by various ethnic group members often reflects their interethnic relationships. Exploring Asian female immigrants’ experiences of marginalization in Korea, this study uncovers the complex interethnic relationship among Asians, as well as show how immigrant wives’ language usage reflects power relations within Korea.     

The influence of preschool rural migrant composition on rural migrant children’s early development in China

A multilevel modeling approach was employed to investigate the relationship between preschool rural migrant composition and the pre-academic and behavioral outcomes of young rural migrant children with different durations of residence in urban China. This study represents a unique contribution because (1) few studies have focused on young Chinese rural migrant children and examined the influence of preschool rural migrant composition on their academic skills and behaviors, (2) few researchers in China have used a continuous (i.e., percentage of rural migrants in school) as opposed to a binary (i.e., mixed school versus rural migrant school) indicator for school rural migrant composition, and (3) few investigations have distinguished groups of rural migrant children by the duration of urban residence (i.e., short-duration (SD) rural migrant children versus long-duration (LD) rural migrant children). Based on data of 1213 Chinese children (2.7–6.17 years of age) and their parents and teachers from 81 urban preschools in Beijing, we found that SD rural migrants (≦2.5 years) were rated significantly lower in oral language and numeracy skills and that LD rural migrants (>2.5 years) were rated as having significantly more behavioral problems than their urban counterparts after controlling for the children’s gender, age, family socioeconomic status (SES) and preschool SES. Cross-level interactions indicated that SD rural migrant children in preschools with proportionally more rural migrant peers fared better in terms of oral language skills, and LD rural migrant children had fewer behavioral problems when there were more rural migrant peers in their preschools, whereas urban children performed worse in terms of oral language skills and displayed more behavioral problems in preschools with a high rural migrant composition. These findings provide insights into improving the early development and adaptations of rural migrant children.     

‘Let us understand each other and work together in the child’s best interest’ – Exploring the narratives of newly arrived refugee parents in Sweden

Complex and multi-layered socio-economic and cultural challenges face refugee parents resettling in a new country. The aim of this study was to describe refugee mothers and fathers’ experiences of parenthood by lifting up their own voices, illuminating the challenges they face and laying the basis for designing interventions to provide well-informed and culturally tailored support programmes for families in need.The study combined narrative research with focus group discussions with 50 refugee mothers and fathers in Sweden. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. The main theme identified: Navigating the changing landscape of parenthood, captured refugee parents’ experiences of navigating their parenthood through the new socio-political, cultural, and economic setting in Sweden.The study results demonstrated how acculturation challenges undermined the role of parents, threatened the family cohesion and led to alienation of children from their parents. Despite the plethora of challenges faced by families, parents struggling to navigate two differing cultural paradigms, envisioned a path of dialogue and reconciliation between newcomers and the host society as a way to foster true integration and understanding between immigrant and native communities.     

Predicting adjustment of U.S. college students studying abroad: Beyond the multicultural personality

This longitudinal path analysis tested Yakunina et al.’s (2012) partially mediated model of the relationship between the five multicultural personality factors (MPQ) measured at Time 1 and psychological adjustment measured at Time 2 in 120 U.S. students studying in Costa Rica for a semester. With the addition of other individual and social variables, this model also was tested as a predictor of students’ sociocultural adjustment. Individual (multicultural personality traits, openness to diversity, study abroad goals, language proficiency), social (homestay experience, amount of contact with co-nationals, amount of contact with locals), and structural factors (participation in structured group programs) were considered. Results for psychological adjustment mostly supported Yakunina et al.’s findings except for the relationship between openness to diversity and adjustment, raising the question of whether level of openness to diversity itself changes over the course of the study abroad experience. For sociocultural adjustment, a partially mediated model was the best fit, with social interaction with locals serving as a mediator of students’ MPQ level of open-mindedness and the quality of the homestay experience. Level of language ability at Time 1 was a direct predictor of this type of adjustment. Thus, the two types of adjustment have different predictors, with language proficiency and social interactions with locals being most important for sociocultural adjustment. Implications of the results for study abroad programs and future research are discussed.     

“OK,I Get It! Now Tell Me How to Do It!”: Why We Can’t Just Tell You How to Do Critical Multicultural Education

As educators who work with preservice teachers on critical multicultural education, we often struggle with our students’ desire for us to provide them with the how-to’s of multicultural education—a kind of “answer list.” In this paper, we share the analogies we have developed and found effective in explaining to our students why the list that they imagine not only doesn’t guarantee success, but could actually result in undermining core principles of critical multicultural education.     

“Sharenting,” parent blogging,and the boundaries of the digital self

ABSTRACT

This article asks whether “sharenting” (sharing representations of one’s parenting or children online) is a form of digital self-representation. Drawing on interviews with 17 parent bloggers, we explore how parents define the borders of their digital selves and justify what is their “story to tell.” We find that bloggers grapple with profound ethical dilemmas, as representing their identities as parents inevitably makes public aspects of their children’s lives, introducing risks that they are, paradoxically, responsible for safeguarding against. Parents thus evaluate what to share by juggling multiple obligations—to themselves, their children in the present and imagined into the future, and to their physical and virtual communities. The digital practices of representing the relational self are impeded more than eased by the individualistic notion of identity instantiated by digital platforms, thereby intensifying the ambivalence of both parents and the wider society in judging emerging genres of blogging the self.     

Welcome or not? – Natives’ security feelings,attachment and attitudes toward acculturation of immigrants

Cultural diversity due to immigration has become a key topic in many societies today. The question of how the native population experiences these developments is of prime importance for intercultural relations and sets the base for acculturation of immigrants. Drawing on attachment and multiculturalism research, we supposed here that general and specific feelings of security might be related to more positive attitudes toward cultural diversity, whereas feelings of threat might be related to less openness. More precisely, the present study investigated how natives’ general attachment (secure or fearful) as well as their specific feelings of (cultural or economic) security might be related to their expectations about acculturation of immigrants in the multicultural context of Luxembourg. The sample included N = 134 Luxembourg nationals with an average age of M = 45.02 (SD = 17.41) who filled out an online questionnaire. Results revealed that self-reported fearful general attachment was positively related to more unwelcoming acculturation orientations. Relations between general attachment and acculturation orientations were mediated by feelings of cultural security, which had strong effects on host nationals’ (un)welcoming acculturation orientations over and above general attachment. Findings suggest that (un)welcoming orientations toward immigrants, entailing openness for cultural contact and exchange, are related to feelings of cultural and economic security which are partly biased by a general secure or fearful attachment. Feelings of security seem thus to provide a secure base for tolerance and openness to cultural diversity which are needed in order to deal successfully with the challenges of today’s multicultural societies.     

Interethnic parenting experiences in raising mixed-ethnicity children: A systematic qualitative review

There has been growing interest over the years in examining interethnic unions to explore their unique parenting configurations and associated mixed-ethnicity children’s outcomes. One aspect that determines parenting is how parents perceive and experience their parenting role in relation to one another, to their children, and to society at large. The present review aimed to narratively and systematically synthesize the existing literature on the strengths and challenges that parents experience in interethnic unions about themselves, their partners or co-parents, or their mixed-ethnicity children. A total of 49 studies were identified through a systematic search. Included studies were dissertations and published journal articles that contained qualitative and quantitative findings. Five themes were identified about the interethnic parenting experience: (1) strengths in parenting mixed-ethnicity children, (2) challenges in interethnic parenting, including the specific challenge of negotiating cultural differences between parents, (3) strategies to overcome cultural differences, (4) self-reflections about parents’ own ethnocultural backgrounds, and (5) similarities in parenting between interethnic and non-interethnic parents. A Model of Interethnic Parenting Experiences summarizing the identified themes is outlined. The review findings are discussed with reference to gaps in the literature and potential moderators of the known parameters regarding interethnic parenting. Recommendations for future research are made that may further elucidate the nuanced experience of interethnic parenting.     

Issues of integration abroad and readjustment to Japan of Japanese returnees

Returnees, or Japanese parents and children who live overseas and then return to Japan, often have anxieties about their ability to both cope with life abroad and to successfully readjust to Japanese life upon their return. The issues of returning are particularly acute for children, who face difficulties of reintegrating into both their peer group and the Japanese educational system. In this study, 21 returnee families, with a total of 40 children, were investigated. In general, it was found that most parents felt they had successfully integrated abroad and readjusted to Japan. Children were evaluated as being even more successful at integrating abroad, but almost all had a series of problems readjusting to Japan. However, most of these problems were resolved within a year or two after return. It was found, though, that the problem of cultural identity seems to linger as a continuing issue for returnee children. It was also found that, in general, children retained their degree of competence in English even after several years back in Japan, and that active (as opposed to merely expressed) parental support was important in motivating the children to continued English study.     

Teacher Efficacy as a Conduit for Enhancing Attitudes Toward Teaching Reading to African-American Students

Through this study the authors aimed to determine the impact of a reading course and tutoring for elementary school youth enrolled in an after-school program in a low-income community. They conclude that multicultural field-based tutoring experiences connected to a content area course can increase teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and teacher efficacy when teaching low-income, African-American students.     

Naming a Personal “Unearned” Privilege: What Pre-service Teachers Identify After a Critical Multicultural Education Course

This qualitative study systematically documents pre-service teachers' responses to a writing prompt asking them to name a personal “unearned” privilege on an end-of-term final assessment. Findings suggest that typical White/European heritage pre-service teachers can name privileges that have advantaged their own lives, even after one 14-week critical multicultural education course. Categories reveal patterns in participants' responses about their own privilege that are traditionally attended to in critical multicultural education curriculum, such as White privilege. However, student responses show that students are most comfortable talking about inherited privileges related to social class and race is named at a lower rate. Other responses show a range of privileges that students can draw on when they reflect on the structured nature of privilege in society. Overall, our findings suggest that when opportunities are created for students to grapple with complex, personal, emotional concepts, the vast majority of students are willing and able to perform this type of reflection and analysis. This work begins a discussion of what kinds of social privilege are more easily discussed in a high stakes assessment after experiences in critical multicultural education. Our findings provide nuanced understandings of how typical pre-service teachers name their own personal unearned privileges and deconstruct their experiences of privilege. Our findings suggest that attention to privileges associated with social class could provide powerful entry into examinations of other personal privileges in critical multicultural education.     

When in Rome… A longitudinal investigation of the predictors and the development of student sojourners’ host cultural behavioral engagement

International educational mobility is an important instrument for immersing multicultural diversity into the thinking, feeling, and acting of young global citizens. Yet, little is known about the development of students’ host-cultural behavioral engagement during a stay abroad and the individual characteristics that predict it. We adapted the theory of planned behavior to investigate the dynamic longitudinal interplay between individual predictors and students’ host-cultural behavioral engagement over the course of the stay abroad. Data come from the first four waves of the project Mobility and acculturation experiences of students (MAPS; N = 1,225). Results confirmed the influence of acculturation attitudes, subjective norms, and multicultural self-efficacy on host-cultural behavioral engagement over time. Simultaneously, host-cultural behavioral engagement was identified as a relevant predictor of adolescents’ individual development abroad.     

Does normative multiculturalism foster or threaten social cohesion?

The study advances a tri-dimensional model of multiculturalism that highlights the importance of perceived societal norms, i.e., the extent to which one’s society is perceived as characterized by culturally diverse groups in contact with one another (Multicultural Contact, MC), a widespread appreciation of cultural diversity (Multicultural Ideology, MI), and multicultural policies and practices (MPP) to support and accommodate that diversity. A community sample of 143 Hispanics and 141 non-Hispanic Whites in the United States completed an online survey that examined perceptions of normative MC, MI and MPP as predictors of trust and national attachment, key indicators of social cohesion. The results indicated that MI, MC and MPP predict greater national attachment and that MI predicts greater trust; however, the positive effects of MI are limited to Hispanics and not found for Whites. The findings point to the conclusion that normative multiculturalism is more likely to foster than to threaten social cohesion.     

The Mutual Symbiosis Between Inclusive Bi-lingual Education and Multicultural Education

In this article the authors postulate a mutual symbiosis between multicultural and inclusive bi-lingual education. Combining bi-lingual and multicultural education to create a symbiotic relationship can stimulate reform in schools and can promote inclusive educational systems, thereby keeping native languages and cultures alive for minority students and enhancing native English speakers’ language and cultural understandings.