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?