3.5.1 How might individual students' negotiations of home, peer, and school cultures be contributing to the puzzling situation?

As mentioned in CIP question 3.5, previous CIP questions have focused attention on various cultural influences that can impact students. The focus in this question is on how individual students make sense of and negotiate these various influences, i.e., the multiple cultural "worlds" in which they participate.

In studying a broad sample of adolescents in urban desegregated high schools Phelan, Davidson and Yu (Phelan, Davidson, & Cao, 1992; Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998; Phelan, Yu, & Davidson, 1994) found that the adolescents identified a wide range of family, peer and school influences on their academic engagement. The researchers were particularly interested in "how meanings and understandings from students' worlds combined to affect their engagement in classroom and school settings" (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998, p. 4). Drawing on Erickson's (1993) work, Phelan, Davidson and Yu (1998) posited that cultural differences do not in themselves inhibit success; the important issue is how these differences are valued and treated. Cultural "boundaries" are differences that are politically neutral; cultural "borders" develop when differences in one world are more highly valued and rewarded than in another (Erickson, 1993). Students in Phelan, Davidson and Yu's (1998) study reported that they encountered many different kinds of borders: sociocultural borders, socioeconomic borders, psychosocial borders, linguistic borders, gender borders, heterosexist borders, and structural borders. Students emphasized sociocultural, psychosocial, socioeconomic and structural borders as affecting their engagement in school. Navigating such borders sometimes had high personal and psychic costs for students (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998).

Based on their research, Phelan, Davidson and Yu (1998) developed the Students' Multiple Worlds Model, which identified six "generic" patterns of border and transition experiences among students:

1. Congruent worlds/Smooth transitions

Students indicated that the cultural beliefs and norms were consistent across their home, peer and school worlds; and they found transitions across the worlds to be easy. These included European American, middle to upper-middle class students and some minority students.

2. Different worlds/ Border crossings managed

Students perceived differences in their worlds, but developed strategies to cross the different worlds successfully. These included high-achieving minority students.

3. Different worlds/Border crossings difficult

Students perceived differences in their worlds, and they found transitions among them to be difficult. These included students with uneven academic performance (i.e., those did well in one or more classes but not in others).

4. Different worlds/Border crossings resisted

Students perceived the differences across their worlds to be insurmountable, and they actively or passively resisted transitions. These included low-achieving students and some high-achieving students who did not connect with peers or family.

5. Congruent worlds/Border crossings resisted

Although these students described their worlds as congruent, they were not able to successfully transition among the worlds. These included students who did well on standardized tests but who were low achievers in school.

6. Different worlds/Smooth transitions

Students perceived differences across their worlds, but were able to easily negotiate transitions. The few students who fit this pattern described their worlds as supportive of transcultural identities.

This model and the individual studies presented by Phelan, Davidson and Yu (1998) highlight the variability in students' experiences of their different worlds and in the ways students negotiate their worlds. The model is potentially useful for understanding both different patterns across cultural groups and variability within cultural groups.

Other research has described how individual students negotiate their different worlds. For example, Fordham and Ogbu (1986) described how individual African American students negotiated a peer culture that viewed succeeding in school as "acting White." Holland and Eisenhart (1990) discussed how individual women negotiated the peer culture of romance.

Success Stories & CIP Studies Related to Individual Students' Cultural Negotiations

Consider next question: 3.5.2 
Gather information on this question: 4.5.1