Recruiting and Retaining Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education

Donna Y. Ford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000495744
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

One pervasive educational issue is the national underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students in gifted education. Virtually every school district is grappling with having too few students from these groups identified as gifted and served in gifted classes and programs. Recruiting and Retaining Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education addresses this long-standing national problem through the dual lens of recruitment and retention. The focus is on how to equitably recruit (screen, refer, and/or assess) culturally different students and, just as importantly, to retain them. Recruitment and retention require providing academic, cultural, and social supports to culturally different students and ensuring that educators are willing and able to address issues and barriers. No time is better than now to address and correct the underachievement albatross, and the focus on recruitment and retention holds the greatest promise.Nominated for a 2014 NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Literary Work-Instructional Category

Chapter 1

Beyond Colorblindness

Culture and Cultural Differences Among Black and Hispanic Students

DOI: 10.4324/9781003237655-2

He prayed—it wasn’t my religion. He ate—it wasn’t what I ate. He spoke—it wasn’t my language. He dressed—it wasn’t what I wore. He took my hand—it wasn’t the color of mine. But when he laughed—it was how I laughed, and when he cried—it was how I cried—Avery Skirvin (cited in King & Tate, 2004, p. 160).

Purpose

This chapter concentrates on African American and Hispanic students—their culture, their differences, and their needs as gifted students and as culturally different students. The major premise under-girding the chapter (and book) is that all educators must understand, respect, and be responsive to their culturally different students. To be culturally responsive, educators cannot be colorblind/cultureblind.

Topics

• Definitions, models, and theories of culture
• Educational data, language considerations, cultural strategies for Black students
• Educational data, language considerations, cultural and subgroup models and strategies on Hispanic students and subgroups
• Recommendations for being culturally responsive in the recruitment and retention of gifted Black and Hispanic students

Culture: Definitions, Models, and Theories

In a sense, everything in education relates to culture: “Just as hammers and languages are tools by which we get things done, so is culture; indeed, culture can be thought of as the primary human toolkit.” (Erickson, 2010, p. 35)

Like giftedness, countless definitions and views about culture, cultural development, and cultural differences exist. The reality is that seeking the definitive or the one best definition of culture is illusive, impractical, and impossible. It is likely that no treatise, despite its volume, will ever capture the complex, illusive, and ever-changing nature of culture in the United States—no less globally. Our nation and world are so complex, but this reality must not and cannot be used to provide educators, the status quo, and the powers that be with excuses to do nothing and, thus, be culpable and duplicitous in our human-made educational, social, and cultural inequities.

I define culture as those values, beliefs, attitudes, habits, customs, and norms common to a group bound by race, gender, age, geography, religion, income, and/or social class. Shade and Edwards (1987) defined culture as the collective consciousness of a community with its own unique customs, rituals, communication style, coping patterns, social organization, and childbearing attitudes and patterns. Shade and New (1993) defined culture as an accumulation and aggregation of beliefs, attitudes, habits, values, and practices that form a view of reality. Similarly, Manning and Baruth (2009) defined culture as “people’s values, language, religion, ideals, artistic expressions, patterns of social and interpersonal relationships, and ways of perceiving, behaving, and thinking” (p. 25). These patterns function as a filter through which a cultural group views and responds to environmental demands. Cultural patterns are generally invisible and silent, and are experienced by individuals in terms of thinking, feeling, behaving, and being (Hall, 1959). Everyone, including those who are White, has a culture. No one is born with a culture; rather, culture is learned, as Erickson (2010) noted:

Culture shapes and is shaped by the learning and teaching that happens during the practical conduct of daily life within all the educational settings we encounter as learning environments throughout the human life span—in families, in school classrooms, in community settings, and in the workplace. (p. 36)

Culture is dynamic rather than static. We continue to learn new cultures until we die (Erickson, 2010). When one’s culture is in sync with the status quo, that individual or group has cultural capital, which comes with unearned privileges (McIntosh, 1988; Sue et al., 2007). When the values of different cultures are compatible, and when the culture of Black and Hispanic students/groups are appreciated and respected by educators and decision makers, these CD students have a greater probability of reaching their academic potential. However, when the cultures (e.g., beliefs, values, customs etc.) are different, antithetical, or even conflicting, underrepresentation vis-à-vis recruitment and retention is very likely. Educators must be culturally responsive in their beliefs and practice; they must be proactive and assertive at recognizing, understanding, and addressing students’ cultural needs, strengths, and development.

Figure 4, borrowed from Ford (2011a), is the visual model that guides this chapter and informs the entire book. At the heart of recruitment and retention (desegregation and integration) is the student. Educators cannot equitably recruit and retain culturally different (CD) students in gifted education when their approaches are color-blind and/or culturally assaultive, as I explain more extensively in my book, Multicultural Gifted Education.

Figure 4. Key components of multicultural education. Note. From Multicultural Gifted Education (p. 3). by D. Y. Ford, 2011a, New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Copyright 2011 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission.

Three Views of Culture

Despite the significant presence of Hispanic and Black students and groups in our nation, professionals and laypersons hold opposing views about culture and about those who do not share their culture. Three different theories have been used to explain the school performance of culturally different groups: (a) cultural deficit; (b) cultural difference; and (c) cultural conflict. Each view conveys different implications for the recruitment and retention of gifted Hispanic and Black students.

Cultural Deficit Theories

Cultural deficit theories (see Gould, 1996; Menacha, 1997; Valencia, 1997, 2010; Valencia & Solorzano, 1997) contend that the culture in which Black and Hispanic students is reared is inferior or substandard compared to the culture of White Americans. Cultural deficit paradigms carry a “blame the victim” orientation, and supporters look upon racially different groups as culturally, morally, and intellectually inferior. Advocates of this view will be woefully ineffective at recruiting and retaining Black and Hispanic gifted students. They will neither refer nor support such students, whom they deem undeserving and unworthy of having access to gifted education.

Cultural Conflict Theories

Culturally different students must simultaneously manipulate two cultures that may be quite different. Cultural conflict theories and supporters acknowledge cultural differences, with the understanding that distinct cultural beliefs and values can and do conflict with the dominant culture—those in power. When individuals encounter cultural patterns that are different in a situation, they may have difficulty making a cultural transition, known as “cultural shock” (see Oberg, 1954). For gifted CD students, this cultural shock and disharmony can include being placed in a gifted class where students, teachers, and school personnel may not understand or respect their cultural styles, beliefs, values, and traditions. The greater the incongruence between the culture of the home, community, and school, the more difficult and negative will be students’ educational experiences. Cultural conflicts must be reduced (actually eliminated) to recruit and retain Hispanic and Black students in gifted education.

Cultural Difference Theories

When a cultural difference view is adopted, groups are not pitted against each other; right and wrong are pretty much muted. One group’s way of life is not considered superior or inferior to another. Differences are not viewed as deficits; instead, cultural differences are considered just that—different! Educators who are not colorblind and who are culturally competent are more effective and efficacious at recruiting and retaining culturally different students (i.e., Black and Hispanic students) in gifted education.

Black Students: Cultural Considerations

I must be allowed to be as I am.—Agnetha Fältskog

Black students represent 12% of the U.S. population and almost 20% of the school population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008, 2010). African Americans have received more attention than other racially and linguistically different groups, perhaps because they are experiencing the least amount of school success as a group. Ogbu (1988, 1994; Ogbu & Davis, 2003) noted that Blacks are the only culturally different group to come to the U.S. in chains; many other CD groups have come by choice—to search for the American dream or to escape from horrendous conditions in their homeland. They are immigrants. This is not so for descendants of African slaves—African Americans are the primary “involuntary minority” group in the U.S. Although differing from other racially and culturally different groups in this regard, African Americans nonetheless share dismal educational and employment outcomes with many Hispanic Americans and Native Americans and with some Asian Americans (Cartledge, Gardner, & Ford, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2008, 2010).

Cultural Characteristics and Values

As asserted in the preface, every individual and every racial group has a culture. However, too often Blacks are considered acultural—lacking a culture. Herskovits’ (1958) work negated the prevailing belief that Blacks lack a culture. He argued that Blacks retained much of their African culture even after slavery, as do cultural anthropologists and such educational scholars as Boykin (1994; Boykin et al., 2006), Hale (2001), Hilliard (1991, 1992), Irvine (2002), Ladson-Billings (2009), and Shade, Kelly, and Oberg (1997).

Figure 5 presents an overview of Black culture, with a focus on nine key characteristics. The model presents common core characteristics of Blacks as a cultural group; as with any model, stereotyping (all or nothing thinking) must be avoided. Consider this model and the one presented for Hispanic students later as generalizations to help organize your thoughts and to develop strategies (especially regarding attitudes and subsequent underreferrals), along with instruments, policies, and procedures that are culturally responsive rather than assaultive.

Figure 5. Boykin’s (1994; Boykin, Albury et al., 2005; Boykin, Tyler et al., 2006) Afro-Centric Model of Black Culture.

As a cultural group, Black students tend to be communal or socially oriented, as reflected in strong fictive kinship networks and extended families (e.g., Boykin, 1994; Boykin, Albury et al., 2005; Boykin, Tyler, & Miller, 2005; McAdoo, 2006; Shade et al., 1997). They have a strong need for social acceptance, for belonging, for affiliation, and for bonding with others who share similar concerns and interests. In many ways, group support and allegiance represent a mechanism for cultural allegiance, group preservation, and social identity.

Note that cultural identity is an important source of vulnerability for Black students. For their friends, family, and community, they may intentionally underperform in school, sabotage their success, refuse to be in gifted and advanced classes (Ford, 2011a; Ford et al., 2008b), rebel against authority figures (e.g., teachers and school administrators) who are perceived as agents of oppression, and rebel against behaviors associated with Whites, such as dress, speaking, and academics. To protect their overall self-image (i.e., self-esteem, self-concept, and racial identity), many African American students develop ineffective coping styles that alienate them from school and high achievement, and ultimately hinder their academic achievement. For instance, in a pre-dominantly White gifted class, Black students may limit or completely avoid contact with their White peers inside and outside of school to save face and maintain positive relationships with their Black family, friends, and community (see Ford, 2011b).

Furthermore, gifted and high-potential Black students may deliberately exert little effort in school when or if what it takes to succeed is associated with White students. Far too many African American students hide their academic abilities by becoming class clowns, dropping out, and suppressing effort (Ford, 2011b; Weiss, Kreider, Lopez, & Chatman-Nelson, 2010). This antiachievement identity is more likely to develop when the values, attitudes, and behaviors espoused in the community, home, and school are incongruent; this incompatibility or dissonance among these major contexts causes considerable stress for Black students, particularly if school personnel wish and attempt to assimilate CD students by ignoring, trivializing, or eliminating their cultural differences and strengths. Although schools require a high degree of mainstream socialization from non-White students, they seldom provide the environment and supports necessary for Black and Hispanic students to become bicultural—to gain mainstream skills while retaining their own culture (that is, remaining connected to their home and community environment). This culturally insensitive practice and reality hinders both recruitment and retention.

A Special Word About Black English

The above achievement challenges, so profound and so unnecessary, are compounded by language misunderstandings mostly unique to Black students. Just as Blacks are misperceived as acultural, they also face deficit thinking and misidentification if they speak Black English (BE). Black students, unlike other CD students who do not speak mainstream English, are seldom considered, served, and educated as bilingual learners; yet, the majority of African Americans who are low income seldom speak mainstream/standard American English (SAE).

As I write this book, no one more effectively epitomizes all that Black English entails than President Barack Obama. Discussions and debates abound on our President’s...