Acculturalization: assimilation-integration-rejection-deculturalization

Notes on
Berry, J.W. (1989). The acculturalization process and refugee behavior. Context: Southeast Asians in California, 10 (75), 1-4.


Acculturalization- is when 2 autonomous cultures meet and one becomes the dominant while the other either assimilates to the new culture, integrates into the new culture while maintaining their identity, rejects the new culture, or deculturalizes all together ( removes from both cultures).

*Good point-groups who were minorities in their homeland have different acculturalization experience than groups who were the dominant cultures in their societies.

Multiculturalism- is not just having many cultural groups- * it also needs to have a society that pursues multi-cultualism- like signs in Canada being multilingual

This article brings to mind the acculturation of the Aztec indians by the Spanish conquistadors. Many died and lost their language of Nauhtl, but the religious ideologies remained. They saw many similarities in Catholicism. Catholics had many saints and the Aztecs has many Gods that they worshipped. When the Aztecs were forced to go and pray at church they hid their statues of their deities inside the saint statues. It is similar with their infrastructure. Many of the pyramids still existed and were hidden under the churches and buildings that the Spanish built. Therefore I would say despite Spanish best efforts to force assimilation upon the Aztecs, the Aztecs managed to integrate into the European culture.

Noel Chapter.4

Classroom Orientations and Learning Styles

Deficiency Orientation- the mode of thinking that the student is deficient is something. There is a set norm and those who don't think in that way are norm and can either conform or fail. It blames the students community and family life for those deficiencies.

Differences Orientation-the mode of thinking that the student is an individual and has the teacher responsible for taking action in investing in the student's personal intelligence strengths and teaching to that.

Learning styles and intelligences
Multiple intelligences- there are many types of intelligences-everyone has a different mind modes of thinking and therefore modes learning.

Noel Chp.3

Immigration
                                                   Societal Concepts
Types of Immigrants                   Assimilation a+b+c=A
   1. voluntary minorities             Melting pot a+b+c =d
    2.involuntary minorities          cultural pluralism a+b+c= a1+ b1+c1
     3.autonomus minorities          classical pluralism a+b+c=a+b+c
      4. refugees


push pull model-
   - people are pushed out of their homelands for reasons of expulsion (economic, political)
   -people are pulled and attracted to a place (economic and political advantages)
  
        US Immigration- melting pot
            Dominant population of Western European settlers overtook the native americans
            1800s Nativism- old immigrants were the true Americans-
                      Americanization (assimilation) of students 1900's
                       Standardized testing biases- 1920's IQ scores used for political purposes
                         (those who scored higher were those who had been in the US longer)
 =>Superiority of European heritage=> National Origins Act- 1924- restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter to a % of the ones already in the US with the exception of the old immigrants
 This is how the dominant culture remained dominant. Wasn't changed until 1965.
                        1862 U.Grant banned Jews from Tennessee

                       Irish-Catholics-anti Irish sentiment mid-1800s
                       Chinese due to economic prejudice- Chinese exclusion act
                       Japanese- illegal to own land (no asian rights in court)
                       Mexican- migrant laborers 1929-1934 US repatriated 400,00 Mexicans- sent them home
                               200,000 were US citizens: Bracero program- migrant workers
                               (more recently border crossing)
                       Puerto Ricans-1917 US citizens- circulatory migration as a way of life
                        kinship immigration-sending members of families over gradually

     Refugees-a person who is given asylum in a country- from persecution of race, politics, religion,    nationality, social group...not poverty
     1982- Plyer v. Doe - children cannot be denied free education based on their immigration status
     1990s Proposition 187- illegal immigrants were not allowed the freedoms of daily life- illegal                    
      immigrants therefore cannot attend school at all, no nonemergency medical care, including child
      shots- this proposition was ended, but certain states fine landlords for renting to illegal immigrants
      
****Very important point***** The immigration status of the family has a large impact of the student.
-parents may not want to attend school, library or any government/  public functions for fear of the INS
I have faced the challenge of imparting this to teachers and administrators who complain about the lack of parental support from immigrant parents. I wish more teachers realized that all government/ public functions in immigrants minds are connected. Although we may see no major risk in attending a school Halloween party, the immigrant may think there are men with guns there ready to take them away; depending on their schemata.
  
      Stages of Immigrant Americanization
        _arrival survival
        _culture shock
        _coping
        _acculturation-mainstreamed and may take leadership roles within their cultural communities

4 categories of identity in relation to cultural groups
    1. traditional  2.bicultural  3. acculturated  (adapted to new society) 4.marginal (at ease nowhere)


General cosonance- family relations after the family has moved
General disconsonance- when one acculturates and the other doesn't leading to role reversal and family conflict

Imposition- of a new culture resulting in the destruction of original culture

Native Americans- killed, moved from sacred homelands, moved to reservations, American schooled their children- where they beat the culture and language out of them
Blacs and Mexicans were intentionally not educated to maintain the dominant culture
  


  
          

Stereotypes, Prejudices Noel Chapter 2

Reactions and notes on Chp.2


Noel, J. (2008). Developing multicultural educators (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland.

• hermenuetical consciousness of prejudice-to recognize that context-society, its traditions, its prejudices - is not isolated from our identity. 
• stereotyping -creation of mental categories in order to group people, items, or events.  
• Noel says here this is a cognitive process not emotional
• Forming of stereotypes-why? in order to sort out the overwhelmingness of the world- simplify
• How? minds focus on distinctive stimuli
• huerist thinking- mental shortcuts to make quick and efficient judgements
• Social identity theory- people get their self-worth from the groups to which they identify- the in-group. People will associate positive attributes to the in-group and the adverse to the out-group
• non-dispositional characteristics- are behaviors outside of one's control that is not her "fault".
• dispositional characteristics - consistently displayed is stable over time and is in control of the individual (can be dangerous if applied to the whole group without evidence to support)
• attribution error- when people make assumptions about a group based on the individual behavior

Pre-judge->prejudice

-Racial and cultural difference theory- people instinctively fear and dislike cultures that are different

-Economic competition theory- feel that a loss of control- someone or something is causing my hardships

     (especially during times of turmoil)

-Traumatic experience theory develops as a result of trauma in combination with other factors

-Frustration-Aggression theory- certain personalities are more prone to prejudice 

               [completely surprised at the percentage of hate crimes being towards Jews]

Racism- belief in superiority on one's own race

       social upheavel- times of turmoil

       idealism- replaces religion

       need to belong

       ambition

       power

       self-hatred

individualized racism +power= institutionalized racism

semiotics-mainfestations such as signs and symbols that represent racism within a society

Education-achievement gaps, quality gaps, tracking, subtractive schooling- the removal of one's own language & culture self-fufilling prophecy

• 
  

Second language learning personal accounts

Reflections on article

Pavalenko, A. (2003). I never knew I was bilingual:Reimagining teachers identities in TESOL.
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, (2)4, 251-268.


Reading this article reminded me of all of the emotions that one encounters in learning a second language.
It is easy to feel stupid, like a child and like you will never be successful. Many native speakers actually treat you that way. Giving the L2 learner the boost in self-esteem by redefining what it means to be bilingual to using the language in some function on a daily basis, is helpful.

Imagined Communities

A brief reflection on the article

Kanno, Y., & Norton B. (2003). Imagined communities and educational possibilities: Introduction.  Journal of Language Identity and Education, 2(4), 241-249.

The concept of imagined community is the idea that groups of people who share a cultural bond that have never met one another and never will meet one another. The relationship is imagined and not based on reality. Imagined communities can cause issues if the ideals of individual in the perceived community are not met or if the fears become a hinderance in living their real life. The movement towards globalization is enabling people to join many more imagined communities because the possibilities of the internet are endless.

[I love this concept of the imagined communities. I often like to reflect on the fact that the majority of my concerns are not based in tangible or real danger. It is reassuring for me to think that money is literally just paper. All that divides us are imaginary lines drawn with a magic marker.]

Pluralization & Culture Shock

Notes and reflections based on the reading
Kim, Y.Y. (2008) Intercultural personhood: Globalization and a way of being. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 32, 359-368.

• Due to globalization pure culture no longer exists- at some point people's cultural views are faced with another culture and identities shaken and questioned
• Kim's refers to intercultural personhood as a concept of the modern day dynamic cultural identity that relates and adapts to multiple different cultures
• Pluralism-multi-culturalism Novak claims that the "point about the melting pot is that it did not happen" Instead there were ethnic power movements [This is very true throughout history. I just look at the history of the town of Milford, MA were I went to high school. There was a very large deep seeded Italian population who controlled the politics in the town. Then there was an influx of Portuguese. We used to joke about the Portuguese mafia. Portuguese families own the seven coffee shops in town. The main function halls are the Macagaino Club and the Portuguese Club. During the 1990's there was influx of Puerto Ricans. About ten years ago the Brazilians brought in their version of the Portuguese language and are currently dominating downtown Milford. The Portuguese and the Brazilians do not get along. Most recently I was actually translating for the Milford school system to a group of indigenous people from Guatemala that spoke Quechua and come from an agrarian society. Interestingly enough the police were now faced with questions of how to deal with families who are killing pigs in their bathtubs. The school system needs to learn how to aid immigrants in how to brush their children's teeth. In Milford racial tensions are high. There is adaptation, but for the most part it is just periodic ethnic power movements. The Italians and Portuguese have now  moved to the middle-class, while the newcomers are impoverished.]
• positivity bais- the dark side of culture "cultural identity at any cost"-trying to keep pure cultures is impossible "cultural consumers are not dupes." We will adapt what works from each culture.
• "Open system"- everyone can adapt their own culture
• Culture shock -acculturalization & deculturalization- culture shock comes in waves and is extremes in emotion that lessen over time until adaptation occurs. People adapt better, if they experience a lot of stressful situations in the beginning of moving to the culture
• Identity transformation- [I equate this with Tantra- my religion] move from the individual to the universal- realizing we are all humans and have the same needs and wants
• Intercultural personhood is a positive move in society because of the experiences are helping shape who we are today. [Yin sees a lot of good in this move towards globalization. I wish I did. I see a lot of negative. Not because I am into maintaining pure and authentic cultures, but the reality of racial tensions, spread of poverty and disease. The loss of traditional families. The spread of a culture that values profit over people around the world. I truly feel this attitude will be the extinction of the human race.]