Demystifying Cultural Theories and Practices: Locating Black Immigrant Experiences in Teacher Education Research.

Abstract

The number of immigrants of color residing in the United States reached 13.5 million in March 2005, the highest in U. S. history (Camarota, 2005). By 2010 the number of Black immigrants and their children is estimated to reach five million, and will represent twelve percent of the Black population in the United States (Rong & Brown, 2001, 2002 a & b). To date, the majority of Black immigrants in the United States are from Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Haiti, and Jamaica, but substantial numbers of immigrants also come from various African countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa (Rong & Brown, 2001, 2002 a & b). As a result of these demographic trends, educational researchers have increased their focus on how Black immigrant youth fare once in the United States. This scholarly attention is varied, emanating from three primary conceptual perspectives: Cultural Ecological Theory, Culture-Centered Theory, and Critical Race Theory. Cultural Ecological Theory (CET) explores how culture, identity, and societal forces impact the educational outcomes of minority groups. Culture-Centered Theory (CCT) examines the use of students’ cultural backgrounds as a point of reference for preparing those students academically and socially. Critical Race Theory (CRT) explores the sociopolitical consequences of race in educational settings from a progressive legal perspective. While these theories are promising in providing insight into the experiences of Black immigrant youth, none of them comprehensively capture the intragroup differences and identity processes that affect Black immigrant youth in social and educational settings. This article will address this gap in the literature in three ways: (1) it will discuss the extent to which these three theories do contribute understanding of the sociocultural experiences of Black immigrant youth in U. S. schools; (2) it will identify and problematize the shortcomings in these three theories vis-a-vis Black immigrant students; and, finally, (3) it will suggest possibilities for the advancement of a more detailed and otherwise robust theory that more adequately describes the sociocultural experiences of Black immigrant youth and supports their educational development. It is important to note at the outset of this work that U. S.-based racism has imbedded in the psyche of most people in the world images and associated definitions of “Black American ‘culture’” that are, at once, not Black, not Black American, and not culture, much less anything akin to an accurate depiction and/or description of all that is the richness of what is truly Black American culture, and the history from which it emerged and in relationship to which it continues to grow and develop in myriad important ways. The degree to which Black American culture (along with Black Americans themselves) has been reduced to the inferior and violent imagery perpetuated by corporate mass culture in service to the almighty dollar is nothing short of genocidal, and yet, through the utter resiliency of the Black American spirit, the true culture of Black Americans persists in profoundly robust manners through literature, art, music, science, and mathematics, among many other arenas. At focus in this article is the manner in which U.S.-based racism has begun to negatively impact the educational experiences of Black immigrant youth largely because of the connections that have developed between these youth and the false, highly destructive, socially constructed view of “Black American ‘culture.’” Thus, it is of utmost importance to keep in mind the absolute falseness of this view of Black American culture in seeking effective solutions for improving the academic success of all Black students (Black immigrant and Black American alike) in the United States (Perry et al., 2003).