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INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.
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Discusses purposes of education.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses purposes of education. Common body of knowledge; informed citizens; future employment. Role different societies play in structuring their schools. Asian and American views of the educational process. Culture related factors. Complications of education in U.S. because of the diversity of its society. Ethnic identification & the American system. Outline.
Paper Introduction:
OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION -- The Influence of culture on academic
achievement.
THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION
Creating a body of informed citizens.
Developing the individual's ability to think and reason.
Establishing a common body of knowledge and common socialization.
Preparing students for the future (good jobs and a place in society).
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES also determine differences.
The length of the school day and year.
What kind of testing the system does and when.
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Minorities who chose to join the American culture seetheir choice as adding to their existing background, but involuntaryminorities see themselves as being forced to give up something they valuein exchange for fewer opportunities and admission to a racist society. Many Asian schools, for instance, have longer school days andlonger school years than do Western schools, again because of theirinherent conviction that early education is so critical to later jobsuccess. W. THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION A. JeromeBruner talks about the "discovery of poverty" that happened during thecivil rights movement in the 196 s (1996). Tests are used to see what students have learned and howwell the schools are working. 365-391.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Testing is also done differently among different cultures. Rohlen, T. Almost as soon asstudents begin school, they start taking a series of tests that aredesigned to sort them into categories. B. In America, tests start as a way of measuringeffectiveness. However,culture is a complex issue. D. Creating a body of informed citizens. In America,"gifted" actually means that students have more options, rather than less. III. Every society has its own ways of dealing with different genders, with poor students, and with the "gifted." V. In America, Stevenson notes, language skills areseen as more important than is math for elementary school students, soschools spend less time teaching math and students do not do as well onmath tests as do their Asian counterparts (199 ). Another cultural gap lies in the varying complexity of languages.Goodnow notes that, in English, "the meanings of words can be discovered bychildren," while many of the characters and symbols common in most Asianlanguages are more arbitrary and can only be learned by rote (1998). Greenfield & R. He suggests that these students are caught in an impossible bindbecause of their culture. He found, for example, that Japaneseparents value effort more than innate ability. The culture of education. A second factor tied to culture is economic disadvantage. C. Many Asiancultures, as well as Islamic cultures and a number of Eurocentricsocieties, have different expectations for women. The students inChicago that Stevenson and his colleagues compared with students in Beijingincluded many different cultural backgrounds. Ogbu's argument explains much about why blacks and Hispanicstraditionally perform below the levels of whites and Asians in the sameschools. M. This is true whether that schoolis within his or her own culture or within a different setting. While Chinese and Japanese cultures see mathematics as being moreimportant than it is in the West, cultures such as Malaysian society alsoconsider things such as religion to be important. Theyincluded what John U. M. Goodnow also notes this different kind of emphasis.She sees deeper roots for cultural differences among Asian and Americancultures; she writes that Americans place more emphasis on "being a well-rounded, well-adjusted, happy individual as compared with being a goodstudent" (1998). Some see it as anecessary evil that fights against the child's individuality and specificcultural heritage. Football scholarships are a good example ofthis kind of tradeoff. In American culture, by contrast, a lot of schooling is aimed towardhelping students find out what they have talents for. Even inAmerica, where education is supposed to be available to all, regardless offamily income, poverty can limit a child's performance in school. Mathematical achievement of children in Chinaand the United States. J. Ogbu, J. M. An Asian mothermight decide that her son should be a doctor and encourage him to work hardenough to attain a medical degree. 1 5-127. References Bruner, J. R. C. Americans, on the other hand, believe in creating more well-rounded individuals, and see a school system that takes too much time awayfrom other activities (including playtime) as bad for students. (1998). (1996). The Chinese students allshared a common ancestry and the same basic social context; the Americanstudents included white, black, Asian, and Hispanic youngsters, some bornand raised in the neighborhood, some born thousands of miles away. By contrast, English teachers continue to disagree onthe "best" way to teach the language, since students can (and do) learn toread and write English many different ways. W.; Lee, S. (1998). (1994). However, even in firstgrade, Chinese students are used to taking tests for different reasons, andthese differences might explain some of the gap between cultures. M. Poverty can have a powerfulinfluence on the way children learn and even on their interest in learning. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.----------------------- 1 An American mother might hope her sonhad medical talents but would not expect the schools to force him to goagainst his natural abilities. Cocking (Eds.),Cross-cultural roots of minority child development, pp. Goodnow, J. G. Berkeley: Universityof California Press. If they improve their scores in order to succeedin school, their cultural background warns them that they will be "lessblack" or "less Latino." At the same time, they are likely to continue tosuffer because the culture they have been forced to live in stilldiscriminates against them and gives them fewer chances to realize theAmerican dream. Those categories very quickly beginto decide each student's future. Stevensonand his colleagues (199 ) studied the differences between Chinese studentsand American students on math tests and found that Chinese studentsoutperformed the Americans from first grade on. Y.; Chen, C.,; Lummis, M.; Stigler, J.;Fan, L.; & Ge, F. As aresult, these complex languages are best taught using a more structured,regulated system. Preparing students for the future (good jobs and a place in society). These different views influence how the society as awhole goes about educating its children and how particular children withina society react to school. To Asians, "gifted"means more advanced but also more specific expectations. They may bring some of their cultural expectations with them, suchas the Asian idea that success is all about hard work. (1983). Stevenson has done considerable research comparing Asian and Americanviews of the educational process. Involuntary minorities are not the only ones who tend to be treateddifferently and to perform differently in school. Even in a country asracially distinct as China, students are separately within the same cultureby at least three other factors. Accepting the American system for them meanssurrendering their own identities to a structure that will discriminateagainst them anyway. American schools were one of the mostattractive opportunities, so voluntary minorities tend to do well inschool. For those who chose tocome to the United States, their choice was motivated by the opportunitiesthey saw in this new society. Washington, DC: APA. Ogbu calls both voluntary and involuntary minorities,groups almost completely absent from the classrooms of almost every othersociety in the world. Contexts of achievement. Ogbu differentiates from minorities who have come to the UnitedStates voluntarily and those who have been forced to leave their nativecultures and join the American melting pot (1994). Cultural differences are often the result of physical andpsychological differences in the way different societies structure theirschools. What kind of testing the system does and when. In the society where children were expectedto help their parents bartering and selling, they tended to have bettermath skills than did students in farming communities where math proficiencywas not valued as highly. Child Development, 61, 1 53-1 66. Goodnow (1998) notesthat a firm understanding of Islam is important to an individual's abilityto do well in many professions, so schools spend much time teachingreligion in order to assure that students will be able to get a good joband do well in society. Education in America is much more complicated than almost anywhereelse in the world because of the diversity of its society. Thomas P. This is a discussion of the influence of culture on academicachievement. Stevenson, H. In E. They are expected toperform below boys on tests and are frequently given fewer educationalopportunities. In theUnited States, the "gifted" label often happens later, as a student isfinishing elementary school, while Asian schools often spot students readyfor advanced teaching as soon as they start school. Americans are also used to the idea of tradeoffs, which is a foreignconcept to the Asian mind. Asian schools do not think of nonacademic skills ascompensation for work in the classroom, yet the idea is common in America. II. Japan's high schools. Understanding an individual's cultural heritage can sometimes predicthow that student will perform in school. (199 ). Societies that think education is most important in providing acommon body of knowledge, for instance, focus more on giving studentscertain specific skills. Whichever of these purposes a particular culture findsmost valuable will determine how that culture sets up its schools andmeasures individual progress. PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES also determine differences. Stevenson, H. Paris &H. A third factor that has cultural significance is the designation ofbeing "gifted." Students who are labeled this way are given specialconsideration, though that consideration varies among societies. Jacqueline J. From cultural differences to differences incultural frame of reference. P. The kinds of tradeoffs each society finds acceptable. It can help createa pool of informed citizens with a developed ability to think and reason.It can be used to establish students who share a common body of knowledgeand who share socialization into the way things are done in a particularsociety. Ogbu's concept of voluntary and involuntary minorities is relevant in the United States, yet has little bearing in a culture with no real ethnic or racial diversity among its population. In the United States, by contrast, sorting happens much laterbecause, in part, Americans do not look at education alone as the mostimportant factor in deciding careers. IV. In cultures steeped inAsian philosophies, the individual can work hard to achieve a particularjob. For involuntary minorities, however, doing well in school representscultural betrayal. OUTLINE I. This presentation looks at why students in somecountries consistently outperform those in other places and why certainbackgrounds may make success very difficult for children from variouscultures, whether or not they are attending school in their own society. In Asiansocieties, testing is always a way to categorize students in terms offuture careers. U. THE SOCIETY'S INHERENT DIVERSITY is also a factor. A. Rohlen (1983) observes that inJapanese schools, this is the most critical factor. Stevenson (1988) looked at students inthree different parts of Peru. A. The length of the school day and year. How a student does in elementaryschool will undoubtedly make some difference in where he or she goes tocollege and, ultimately, in what kinds of jobs choices he or she can make.However, most Americans see the elementary school experience as being moreimportant in developing an "educated" person, who can then make educatedcareer choices. Establishing a common body of knowledge and common socialization. HHHHow each feels about the impact of hard work or innate ability. INTRODUCTION -- The Influence of culture on academic achievement. Culture is more of an indication of whatan individual is likely to think school ought to do and whether or not itis succeeding in meeting those expectations. Some see it as the formal startof a process of socialization that began with birth. D. E. In some cultures, economics has less of an effect, though many of the moretechnologically advanced Asian societies do not have the kind of dramaticextremes in income that characterize life in the United States. Lerner; & M.Perlmutter (Eds.), Child development in life-span perspective, pp. In P. It can also be used to prepare individuals for good jobs and aplace in society. In S. It can indicate the likelihood of success, butit is not an absolute guarantee. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press. The importance the society places on specific subjects. The degree to which gender determines expectations isculturally related. In societies in which being female is seen as aweakness, girls usually do not do as well on tests. CONCLUSIONS -- This is a complex issue and some comparisons, while interesting, should not be used to condemn one system over another. Many Asian societies, for instance, see schools as critical indeciding their children's future. Different cultures see education as having different goals.Some see school as the beginning of the child's lifelong quest to get thebest job possible and do well in society. The first is gender. Hetherington; R. Harold W. Developing the individual's ability to think and reason. Wellman (Eds.), Global prospects for education: Development,culture, and schooling, pp. B. Formal education can serve a number of purposes. 241-258. B. Culture and schooling: Influences oncognitive development.
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