In
Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture, and
Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools, Prudence Carter evaluates the
ways in which students develop a sense of “cultural flexibility,” which she
defines as a “social and psychological process” (116) that describes a
student’s tendency to navigate across peer groups belonging to different
cultural or social settings. Carter
contends that schools play a principal role in this development because they
provide a site for the creation of social organizations, or peer relations, and
mixing of cultures. After collecting
data from four schools, Carter states that schools effectively encourage a
student’s cultural flexibility through individual, social, and outside factors.
Similarly,
James Coleman’s outside-in approach, with which the context of the situation
and social organizations are first examined, showed that peer cliques in
schools provide students with social support through a subculture (a collection
of practices and beliefs that differ from the mainstream adult culture). Coleman concludes that the achievement gap,
which refers to the discrepancy of standardized test scores between different
classes and races, cannot be explained only by a school’s resources, but must
be understood by taking into account differences in culture, such as a student’s
parents’ academic backgrounds. In fact,
“even if a segregated school provides a solid education, studies suggest,
students are at a disadvantage” (New York Times). This is partially due to a lack of diversity that
would allow for cultural diffusion, the spreading of practices from one social
group to another. Furthermore, Carter finds
that “1) the context of feeling personally and collectively secure, 2) social
relationships influenced by academic course placement… and 3) societal norms
and enduring practices regarding intergroup contact, specifically racial and
ethnic interactions” (105) are the most important factors that must be
considered. Therefore, if schools are
the settings in which students become comfortable with their identity, create
friendships, and interact with students of different backgrounds, then they prove
to be an essential component to the extent in which its student are culturally
flexible, regardless of resource or economical differences.
After
dividing the four schools into either majority-white or majority-minority, Carter
finds that the Black students who were most prone to cultural flexibility were
those in the majority-minority schools, in which these students had a higher
self-esteem and confidence due to their exposure to the cultures of other
minority groups when forming social relationships. As a result, a student with a high
self-esteem and who is socially confident in a diverse school will be most
likely to be culturally flexible. Carter’s
concept of cultural flexibility is reminiscent of “multicultural navigation,” another
term she helped to conceptualize, which implies that youth are more likely to
be successful if they are able to navigate across both youth-centered and
adult-centered cultures as well as across different cultures.
Resources
Carter,
Prudence L. "Cultural Flexibility: The (Un)Making of Multicultural
Navigators."
Stubborn
Roots: Race, Culture, and Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools. New
York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.
"How
Often Do You Interact With People of Another Race or Ethnicity?" The New
York Times.
18 May 2012. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. <http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/
america-is-more-diverse-than-ever-but-is-your-life-integrated/>.
