John U. Ogbu

1
John U. Ogbu

• Research Question How do African Americans
  interpret and respond to cultural and language
  differences based on the nature of their
  collectivity or group experience?
• Examining educational beliefs and behaviors of
  different minority groups and why they believe
  and behave as they do
• Cultural-ecological theory focus on the
  historical, economic, social, cultural, and
  language situations of minority groups
  (adaptations to US society and minority status)
• The system
• Interpretation and response
• School adjustment and academic performance

2
The System and Community

• The System the overall treatment of minorities
  by U.S. society including instrumental
  discrimination, relational discrimination,
  symbolic discrimination
• Education policies such as school segregation,
  unequal funding and staffing of schools
• Treatment of minorities in schools such as
  tracking and low teacher expectations
• Unequal rewards for educational accomplishments
• The Community the way a groups perceives and
  responds to education as a result of their
  histories in US

3
Explanations for the Achievement Gap

1. Viewing education as a formula for preparation
   for contemporary society vs. viewing education as
   a process of assimilation and hegemony
2. Presence in society as a product of choice vs.
   force
3. Immigrant status (voluntary) vs. non-immigrant
   status (involuntary)
4. Peoples understandings of the social reality
   that guides their thoughts and actions
5. These understandings support their behaviors and
   performances in school

4
Adaptations and Education

• Voluntary Minorities
• Positive dual frame of reference
• Folk theory hard work, following the rules, and
  getting a good education result in employment and
  success
• Trusting relationships with whites and
  white-controlled institutions
• Different collective identity
• Children held responsible for achievement

• Involuntary Minorities
• Negative dual frame of reference
• Folk theory discrimination is institutionalized
  and cannot be overcome through hard work and a
  good education
• Distrusting relationships with whites and
  white-controlled institutions
• Oppositional collective identity
• Schools and teachers held responsible for
  achievement

5
Conclusions

• Involuntary minorities are doing less well in
  school than voluntary minorities
• The system is responsible for some of these
  results
• Community forces and perceptions of education
  (involuntary minorities) are responsible for some
  of these results
• Some Recommendations
• Black community must help their children develop
  better academic orientation and effort (trust and
  edu programs)
• Schools develop academic identities for black
  students through clubs that recognize achievement
• Schools emphasize learning the curriculum for
  future jobs rather than as a threat to ones
  identity
• Schools need to address low teacher expectations

6
Ima- Testing the American Dream

• Model-Minority Myth Asian students academic
  achievements surpass other students of color and
  many times white students due to family support
  and cultural beliefs that emphasize education
• Implications
• Poor schooling outcomes are a result of
  dysfunctional family practices
• The source and therefore the remedy of the
  problem is not the schools themselves

7
Behind the Model-Minority Myth

• Significant groups of Asian immigrants are at
  risk of school failure (Specifically Southeast
  Asian Refugees)
• Southeast Asian refugees as high achievers but
  many fail to graduate and attain English fluency
• Cambodian Refugee and Latino drop-out rates are
  similar
• 2/3 of Southeast Asian students are limited
  English Proficiency and therefore in lower tracks
• Southeast Asian refugees are more likely to enter
  postsecondary school but less likely to be
  employed or in school 3 years after graduation
• Surge in Asian gang activity in SD

8
Asian Immigrants and Education in San Diego

• Asian students make up 19 of enrollment in SDCS
  (2/3 foreign born)
• Lack of adequate responses to newcomers in
  schools
• Lack of bilingual programs, bilingual personnel,
  primary language materials resulting in
  unsuccessful English submersion programs
• Lack of proper pedagogic techniques that address
  students cultures
• Lack of capacity to address the unique concerns
  of refugees
• Lack of funding to make the proper adjustements

9
History of Womens Education in US

• Girls not granted any form of access to education
  until 1767 (Providence Rhode Island)
• Womens education focused on transforming girls
  into strong, intellectually able mothers
  (professionalizing motherhood)
• 1820s High Schools for girls
• Coeducation as a result of financial necessity
• 1850s Miner Normal School for Colored Girls
• Feminization of Teaching

10
Women and Higher Education

• 1833 Oberlin admits white men and women as well
  as men and women of color
• Ladies Courses
• Duties of female students on campus Wash mens
  clothes, care for their rooms, serve men at the
  tables, listening to orations, general silence
• Elite Universities still opposed admittance of
  women
• Harassment and ridicule
• Maculinities and Femininities
• Devaluing of the system of higher education
• 1901 Johns Hopkins Medical School opened to women
• Increased opposition craniology, impacts of
  study and competition on reproduction

11
Social Change?

• Until the 1970s women were funneled into 4
  occupation areas secretarial, nursing, teaching,
  mothering
• 1972 Title IX sex discrimination is schools as
  illegal
• 1978 Federal funding for sex equity research
• 1980s Backlash
• Women in education today?
• Women in math and the hard sciences
• Women as tenured faculty?
• Commensurate pay between men and women with the
  same degrees?