Cultural Diversity Research on Learning and Development: Conceptual, Methodological, and Strategic Considerations

In this article we identify two major conceptual and methodological limitations to current treatments of cultural diversity in social science research: (a) the tendency to treat race, ethnicity, culture, and social class as fixed and often essentialized categories rather than as multi-faceted, situated, and socially constructed processes; and (b) the tendency to focus on single levels of analysis rather than to look across levels, especially by linking individual and community-based experiences to larger structural, institutional, discursive, and ideological practices. We propose a set of strategic guidelines for mitigating these limitations, and illustrate them with examples from our ongoing research on two projects: (a) a qualitative-centered research program on Latina/o bilingual children’s work as translators, interpreters, or para-phrasers;1 and (b) quantitative-centered research on African-American culture retainers.

[1]  M. Cole,et al.  The psychology of literacy , 1983 .

[2]  S. Graham.  "Most of the subjects were White and middle class": Trends in published research on African Americans in selected APA journals, 1970–1989. , 1992 .

[3]  C. Howard,et al.  Race-related socialization, motivation, and academic achievement: a study of black youths in three-generation families. , 1985, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.

[4]  M. F. Orellana,et al.  Talking the Walk: Children Reading Urban Environmental Print. , 1999 .

[5]  Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary,et al.  Quantitative Educational Research with Ethnic Minorities. , 1995 .

[6]  Gloria J. Ladson-Billings,et al.  Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education , 1995, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[7]  J. Ogbu,et al.  Origins of Human Competence: A Cultural-Ecological Perspective. , 1981 .

[8]  P. G. Zukow.  Sibling interaction across cultures : theoretical and methodological issues , 1989 .

[9]  H. McAdoo,et al.  An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. , 1996, Child development.

[10]  P. Bowman,et al.  Unmarried African American Fathers: A Comparative Life Span Analysis , 1998 .

[11]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[12]  C. Herring,et al.  Skin deep : how race and complexion matter in the "color-blind" era , 2004 .

[13]  M. Waters.  Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities , 1999 .

[14]  Marjorie Faulstich Orellana,et al.  The Work Kids Do: Mexican and Central American Immigrant Children's Contributions to Households and Schools in California. , 2001 .

[15]  B. Rogoff.  Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context , 1990 .

[16]  Robert W. Johnson,et al.  Children's ethnic socialization: Pluralism and development , 1988 .

[17]  J. Mandara.  The Typological Approach in Child and Family Psychology: A Review of Theory, Methods, and Research , 2003, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[18]  Cross,et al.  Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity , 1991 .

[19]  R. Parmentier.  Exposing Prejudice: Puerto Rican Experiences of Language, Race, and Class. , 1998 .

[20]  Lisa M. Dorner,et al.  In Other Words: Translating or “Para‐Phrasing” as a Family Literacy Practice in Immigrant Households , 2003 .

[21]  P. Bowman.  The adolescent-to-adult transition: discouragement among jobless black youth. , 1990, New directions for child development.

[22]  R. Gallimore,et al.  Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Social Context , 1988 .

[23]  Concha Delgado-Gaitán.  Literacy for empowerment : the role of parents in children's education , 1990 .

[24]  G. Stocking,et al.  Growing up to New Guinea , 1974, Isis.

[25]  B. Rogoff,et al.  Investigating the Coordinated Functioning of Multifaceted Cultural Practices in Human Development , 2002, Human Development.

[26]  Julia T. Wood.  Talk of Love: How Culture Matters , 2003 .

[27]  M. Cole.  Cultural psychology: a once and future discipline? , 1996, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[28]  M. Mead,et al.  Coming of Age in Samoa. , 1930 .

[29]  Sarah Michaels,et al.  “Sharing time”: Children's narrative styles and differential access to literacy , 1981, Language in Society.

[30]  J. E. Davis,et al.  African American Males in School and Society: Practices and Policies for Effective Education , 2002 .

[31]  M. F. Orellana.  Space and place in an Urban Landscape: Learning from children's views of their social worlds , 1999 .

[32]  M. Mead,et al.  Coming of Age in Samoa , 1929 .

[33]  J. Helms,et al.  Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research, and Practice , 1990 .

[34]  Donna Y. Ford,et al.  The Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education , 1996 .

[35]  Tabbye M. Chavous,et al.  Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity: A Reconceptualization of African American Racial Identity , 1998, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[36]  Jaekyung Lee.  Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gap Trends: Reversing the Progress Toward Equity? , 2002 .

[37]  M. F. Orellana,et al.  Year-round schools and the politics of time , 1998 .

[38]  P. G. Zukow.  Sibling Interaction Across Cultures , 1989 .

[39]  Robert T. Carter,et al.  Cultural Values: A Review of Empirical Research and Implications for Counseling , 1991 .

[40]  M. Spencer.  Children's cultural values and parental child rearing strategies☆ , 1983 .

[41]  A. Paton.  WAYS WITH WORDS , 1995 .