Cultural Nuanced Learning

Yvette G. Flores, Ph.D.Chicana/ Studies U.C. Davis

Where are we on the road to increased cultural attunement?

We have explored the learning experiences of EL students

We have learned about the 5 E’s We have begun to explore how culture influences

children’s learning The importance of context Learning style differences Issues of “face and shame” Help seeking patterns The role of microaggresions on students’ academic

disengagement Roles of acculturative stress

Migration and its impact on children

Migration and changes in meaning systems- the culture of the school, the home and the community

The context of immigrant children and the children of

immigrant parents ELL students typically are first or second

generation United Statians Often they straddle multiple worlds – the

cultural world of the home and the school, the parents and the peers, the family and the community

Often these worlds conflict and/or contradictory meanings

For optimal learning, children and youth need bridges to these worlds educators can provide or serve as those bridges

Journey of Migration and culture change

• Migrations are massive ecological transitions in time and space

• Long term experience• Full of loss and disarray• Propitiates vulnerability, physical and

mental distress, including substance abuse• Opportunity for change and adaptation

Group activity

Discuss in your table what you recall about your last migration?

What stories have you heard about your parents’ or grandparent’s migrations?

What stories have your students shared?

Migration and acculturation crisis points

• Negotiating “cultural borderlands”~ the zones of similarity and differences between and within cultures

• Negotiating the cultural meaning systems and cultural expectations which can be disrupted by a migration

• Acculturation implies adoption of new behaviors, attitudes and sometimes values which can cause conflict within the family and between student and school system

How migration affects families

Changes in the meaning systems (Falicov, 1998) Geographic Social Cultural

Changes in value systems Role changes Role strain Transgenerational changes

Migration and meaning system changes

Migration involves the uprooting of at least 3 meaning systems: physical, social, cultural

Physical meaning system: geographic change with loss of familiar places,

people, things, often results in the need to create a metaphoric home and/or in psychological homelessness

Creates a vulnerability to alcohol and other drug use, misuse and abuse

Cultural meaning systems

Cultural uprooting leads to changes in meanings as these are changed or lost

Uprooting of established ways of thinking and doing, and the abrupt and massive exposure to a new language and way of life can precipitate psychological distress or culture shock

Culture shock: reactive process resulting from the simultaneous exposure to the new and the loss of grieving of the old and familiar

Family – school relationships

In Latin America and Asia teachers are highly respected Viewed as the authority who educate by

imparting knowledge The family educates for life: values,

morals, traditions Parents defer to the expertise of the

teacher Parental involvement may take a different

form than PTA participation Student obedience and deference is

expected

Social meaning system Social uprooting compounds sense of physical

alienation and intrapsychic confusion Social marginality and social isolation leads to

reduced self esteem, depression, anxiety It is critical to connect or reconnect with

compatriots or create new systems of support Can contribute to the creation of adolescent

peer groups that disengage from school if the school is not perceived as relevant Or if the youth experience subtractive teaching

Group activity

Reflecting on the information presented over the past four days, discuss your observations of your own EL students How are these students coping with the

changes in their meaning systems? How may your teaching assist or support

them through that journey of culture change and adaptation?

In what ways are parents involved?