EDUCATION THEORIES

Education Theories

Education Theories

Introduction

Culture has been defined as the unique values, symbols, lifestyles, institutions, and other human-made components that distinguish one group from another, and has been shown to influence cognitive and behavioral development. Although it is widely recognized that varying degrees of heterogeneity may exist within cultural groups, it is also commonly acknowledged that regularities in values and behaviors may be shaped by individual and group participation in cultural experiences and practices (Zeichner, 1991). One cultural context that greatly influences cognitive development is the American public school. Far from being culture-free, instruction in mainstream schools represents specific cultural values and beliefs, particularly individualism and competition.

Kanu, Yatta (2005, 2009) stated that however, because families are considered to contribute most directly to the early socialization and education of children, these mainstream values may not reflect the cultural values of many racial/ethnic minority students. For example, the specific cultural themes that have been found to be present and preferred in the home socialization activities of Latina/o students and their parents include collectivism. Finally, the research on culturally relevant pedagogy suggests that many racial/ethnic minority students prefer culturally relevant learning environments which in turn improve their engagement in school. In addition, a very limited number of studies indicate that academic performance is enhanced for racial/ethnic minority students who are exposed to their home cultural values at school (Vence, 2005). However, regardless of these findings, the majority of public school teachers continue to utilize mainstream cultural values in their classrooms. Therefore, in order to increase academic performance, researchers have called for the use of culturally compatible instructional practices for racial/ethnic minority students in schools and for classroom instruction that reflects students' out-of-school, or home, cultural values and behaviors.

Discussion

Cultural Discontinuity

Cultural discontinuity is conceptually defined as a school-based behavioral process where the cultural value-based learning preferences and practices of many ethnic minority students—those typically originating from home or parental socialization activities are discontinued at school?. Cultural discontinuity has been variously termed cultural misalignment, cultural incongruence, cultural dissonance, cultural conflict, cultural mismatch, and cultural collision. Researchers have utilized the idea of cultural discontinuity to further explain the dynamics behind racial/ethnic minority student success or failure, hypothesizing that students who feel more culturally aligned with the school systems of which they are part will feel more motivated and be more academically successful, while cultural discontinuity may contribute to poor academic and psychological outcomes in culturally diverse students in schools (Roberts, Hart, 1997).

Schick, C (2003) said that although there may be discontinuities between the home and school lives of any student, home-school discontinuities are assumed to is more pronounced for racial/ethnic minority students? Culture has been defined as ?the unique values, symbols, lifestyles, institutions, and other human-made components that distinguish one group from another, and has been shown to influence cognitive and behavioral development. Although it is widely recognized that varying degrees of heterogeneity may exist within cultural groups, it is also commonly acknowledged that regularities in values and behaviors may be shaped by individual and group ...