What are the most significant challenges that migration students face with cultural and social barriers to their access to and engagement in learning?
"From his comparative research Ogbu has concluded that (1) no minority group does better in school because it is genetically superior than others" (Simons, 1998).
What? Really? This was research from the late 20th century!? Were people really still asking such profoundly ethnocentric questions in the 80's when Ogbu studied this, and in the 90's when Simons reviewed the work?! Was this really research from the Graduate School of Education University of California, Berkeley?! Seems ridiculous. Well - thank you Mr. Ogbu and Mr. Simons - we can finally lay that lame question to rest. It's good to know that minority groups aren't genetically inferior. Now I can sleep at night! Thanks.
So, since it's not due to racial inferiority - then what could be the cause of Ogbu's observation that certain minority groups tend to not fare as well in school? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that people in society (including himself) continued to ask such a question? This was, in fact, what his research seemed to prove. It is not a physical thing, but a societal thing that has everything to do with how people think about themselves and others.
His observations didn't seem to find much ground to stay on racial minority as a factor anyway - but instead, his observations led him to look at minority groups based on immigration status, or that of their mindset - whether it was voluntary or involuntary - and that brought him to see that it was the minority group that was immigrant, but not of their free, will who struggle most in school (if they are in school at all). He also found that voluntary immigrant groups do very well.
"More specifically, to understand why minority groups differ among themselves in school performance we have to know two things: the first is their own responses to their history of incorporation into U.S. society and their subsequent treatment or mistreatment by white Americans. The second is how their responses to that history and treatment affect their perceptions of and responses to schooling." Ogbu, and his reviewer Simons probably weren't trying to throw some white hate with this statement; "white" people were the majority people group in the nation Ogbu was studying.
Ogbu was, himself, a racial minority who was an immigrant. Ogbu was a voluntary immigrant. He moved from sunny Nigeria to the sometimes sunny California bay area to study and eventually teach for 40 years at UC Berkley (encyclobedia.com, 2019). He did very well for himself. Did this color his lenses when looking at the data for his science? Probably. Anthropology is riddled with people trying to explain humanity from their own point of view. It reminds me of another anthropologist, Samuel Morton, who asked a similar question about whether race equated with intelligence - and came to conclusions based on the data he gathered. He also determined that his particular demographic was especially successful. It wasn't really called racist for about a hundred years, until it was reviewed in 1978 (around the same time Odbu was starting his research) by Stephen Jay Gould, and determined it to be so (O'Toole, 1978). This is not to say that Ogbu was wrong in his observations that some immigrant minority groups do better than others - and it certainly doesn't cast any shadow on his research or intentions. For that matter, one can argue that Morton was trying to do pure science, and simply couldn't see past himself - despite his best scientific efforts (Funk, 2018). Data collection and interpretation are both highly influenceable things - and so much of it comes down to how people think about themselves and others. Hmmm… sounds familiar.
Still - to come around to our driving question: What are the most significant challenges that migration students face with cultural and social barriers to their access to and engagement in learning? It makes sense to me, with or without the data, that so much of it comes down to, has everything to do with, how people think about themselves and others - including all parties in that "viewing themselves and others" thing. We all play a part.
There is no doubt that being an immigrant presents it's challenges. I have been a voluntary immigrant a couple of times in a couple of places (and it looks like I may be a somewhat involuntary immigrant returning to my home country soon). I can say from firsthand experience that attitude means a lot - both my attitude and the way I perceive the attitudes of those in whose country I have immigrated - but it doesn't mean everything. There are plenty of outside factors that also contribute to creating challenges, hurdles, and obstacles to the success and ease of an immigrant. There are, too, factors that make for advantages, perspectives, understandings and opportunities that one wouldn't have otherwise.
For the part about challenges - there are things that we can do to make the transition for others better. Besides the obvious - being nice to others - which is probably the best, there are some practical ways that schools can help.
According to Andreas Schleichter, Director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development there are many challenges that immigrant students face, including finding a sense of belonging, falling into disadvantaged areas and schools, language barriers, performance penalties for late arrivals, and schools limited openness to ethnic diversity. He suggests some practical strategies that schools and nations can take:
It is also worth noting that there are certain advantages that an immigrant will always have: an outsider's perspective. With the knowledge of a different culture, there comes another way of seeing and experiencing. This can, and should, be taken as an advantage, and not a disadvantage by schools, and by students. Sometimes it is, and other times it isn't.
I think of an anecdote from my brother, who was taking a certain geography course from a teacher who was pontificating about a place she had only read about, but my brother had actually lived in. Rather than wisely drawing on the resource of the experiences of the person she had in the room there in the seat in front of her, my brother, she chose to pass over him and stick with her own canned knowledge gathered from reading. It seemed as though she was threatened by an outside perspective. That was a missed opportunity, and likely they type we have happening too often. It seems to me that a good teacher can learn more from his students than his students can learn from him.
Since this is a blog post and not something more fancy, I'll stop here and just suggest that we can all help by being nice… to ourselves and to others - or as another immigrant minority, Jesus, once said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Luke 6:31). That seems like a really good idea no matter who you are!
____________________________________________________________________________
sources:
"From his comparative research Ogbu has concluded that (1) no minority group does better in school because it is genetically superior than others" (Simons, 1998).
What? Really? This was research from the late 20th century!? Were people really still asking such profoundly ethnocentric questions in the 80's when Ogbu studied this, and in the 90's when Simons reviewed the work?! Was this really research from the Graduate School of Education University of California, Berkeley?! Seems ridiculous. Well - thank you Mr. Ogbu and Mr. Simons - we can finally lay that lame question to rest. It's good to know that minority groups aren't genetically inferior. Now I can sleep at night! Thanks.
So, since it's not due to racial inferiority - then what could be the cause of Ogbu's observation that certain minority groups tend to not fare as well in school? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that people in society (including himself) continued to ask such a question? This was, in fact, what his research seemed to prove. It is not a physical thing, but a societal thing that has everything to do with how people think about themselves and others.
His observations didn't seem to find much ground to stay on racial minority as a factor anyway - but instead, his observations led him to look at minority groups based on immigration status, or that of their mindset - whether it was voluntary or involuntary - and that brought him to see that it was the minority group that was immigrant, but not of their free, will who struggle most in school (if they are in school at all). He also found that voluntary immigrant groups do very well.
"More specifically, to understand why minority groups differ among themselves in school performance we have to know two things: the first is their own responses to their history of incorporation into U.S. society and their subsequent treatment or mistreatment by white Americans. The second is how their responses to that history and treatment affect their perceptions of and responses to schooling." Ogbu, and his reviewer Simons probably weren't trying to throw some white hate with this statement; "white" people were the majority people group in the nation Ogbu was studying.
Ogbu was, himself, a racial minority who was an immigrant. Ogbu was a voluntary immigrant. He moved from sunny Nigeria to the sometimes sunny California bay area to study and eventually teach for 40 years at UC Berkley (encyclobedia.com, 2019). He did very well for himself. Did this color his lenses when looking at the data for his science? Probably. Anthropology is riddled with people trying to explain humanity from their own point of view. It reminds me of another anthropologist, Samuel Morton, who asked a similar question about whether race equated with intelligence - and came to conclusions based on the data he gathered. He also determined that his particular demographic was especially successful. It wasn't really called racist for about a hundred years, until it was reviewed in 1978 (around the same time Odbu was starting his research) by Stephen Jay Gould, and determined it to be so (O'Toole, 1978). This is not to say that Ogbu was wrong in his observations that some immigrant minority groups do better than others - and it certainly doesn't cast any shadow on his research or intentions. For that matter, one can argue that Morton was trying to do pure science, and simply couldn't see past himself - despite his best scientific efforts (Funk, 2018). Data collection and interpretation are both highly influenceable things - and so much of it comes down to how people think about themselves and others. Hmmm… sounds familiar.
Still - to come around to our driving question: What are the most significant challenges that migration students face with cultural and social barriers to their access to and engagement in learning? It makes sense to me, with or without the data, that so much of it comes down to, has everything to do with, how people think about themselves and others - including all parties in that "viewing themselves and others" thing. We all play a part.
There is no doubt that being an immigrant presents it's challenges. I have been a voluntary immigrant a couple of times in a couple of places (and it looks like I may be a somewhat involuntary immigrant returning to my home country soon). I can say from firsthand experience that attitude means a lot - both my attitude and the way I perceive the attitudes of those in whose country I have immigrated - but it doesn't mean everything. There are plenty of outside factors that also contribute to creating challenges, hurdles, and obstacles to the success and ease of an immigrant. There are, too, factors that make for advantages, perspectives, understandings and opportunities that one wouldn't have otherwise.
For the part about challenges - there are things that we can do to make the transition for others better. Besides the obvious - being nice to others - which is probably the best, there are some practical ways that schools can help.
According to Andreas Schleichter, Director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development there are many challenges that immigrant students face, including finding a sense of belonging, falling into disadvantaged areas and schools, language barriers, performance penalties for late arrivals, and schools limited openness to ethnic diversity. He suggests some practical strategies that schools and nations can take:
- Provide information to immigrant parents on the schooling options available for their children.
- Limit the extent to which advantaged schools can select students based on socio-economic status.
- Retain and attract more advantaged students in schools that also host immigrant students.
- Integrate language and subject learning from the earliest grades.
- Help teachers to identify students who need language training.
- Tailor programs to the needs of pre-school migrant children.
- Monitor the quality of early childhood education and care programmes.
- Provide specific, formal training on diversity, intercultural pedagogy and language development for leaders and teachers.
- Offer incentives for teachers and school leaders to work in disadvantaged schools.
It is also worth noting that there are certain advantages that an immigrant will always have: an outsider's perspective. With the knowledge of a different culture, there comes another way of seeing and experiencing. This can, and should, be taken as an advantage, and not a disadvantage by schools, and by students. Sometimes it is, and other times it isn't.
I think of an anecdote from my brother, who was taking a certain geography course from a teacher who was pontificating about a place she had only read about, but my brother had actually lived in. Rather than wisely drawing on the resource of the experiences of the person she had in the room there in the seat in front of her, my brother, she chose to pass over him and stick with her own canned knowledge gathered from reading. It seemed as though she was threatened by an outside perspective. That was a missed opportunity, and likely they type we have happening too often. It seems to me that a good teacher can learn more from his students than his students can learn from him.
Since this is a blog post and not something more fancy, I'll stop here and just suggest that we can all help by being nice… to ourselves and to others - or as another immigrant minority, Jesus, once said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Luke 6:31). That seems like a really good idea no matter who you are!
____________________________________________________________________________
sources:
- Funk, Anna, Lost Research Notes Clear Up Racial Bias Debate in Old Skull Size Study, The Crux, Funk Nov 1, 2018 2:37 AM, retreived from https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/lost-research-notes-clear-up-racial-bias-debate-in-old-skull-size-study
- "Ogbu, John U. ." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. . Retrieved January 24, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/ogbu-john-u
- SIMONS, HERBERT D., 1998, Voluntary and Involuntary Minorities: A Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance with Some Implications for Education JOHN U. OGBU Department of Anthropology University of California, Berkeley
- O'Toole, Thomas, 1978, Historic Study of Skulls Called Racist 'Finagling' The Washington Post, April 29, 1978 retreived at https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/04/29/historic-study-of-skulls-called-racist-finagling/bf37d4e6-5370-428c-b8fe-06e6d183c555/
- Schleicher, Andreas, (2015) Helping immigrant students to succeed at school – and beyond. OECD retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/Helping-immigrant-students-to-succeed-at-school-and-beyond.pdf
- New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, Luke 6:31, New International Version, 2011