The Development of Cultural Identity

The Development of Cultural Identity

The process of human development influences nearly all areas of learning and personality development. For example, a person's cultural identity is an important aspect of personality that has a considerable impact on his or her ability to profit from instruction. Atkinson, Morten, & Sue (1993) have proposed a stage theory of minority identity development. As the table below shows, persons who recognize themselves as being somehow different from the dominant culture are initially likely to lean toward conformity to the status quo.

For example, if young Black children view themselves as part of a minority different from the dominant White majority, they are likely to initially regard White individuals as superior and adopt a negative stance towards both themselves and other Blacks.

At the next stage, they begin to be upset by their awareness of the incongruity in society. For example, young Black children may become aware of and upset about racism and the lack of respect that members of their race irrationally receive from others.

At the third stage, the members of the minority group begin to resist the injustices that they face and to take action against specific wrongs. Anger is a characteristic of this third stage.

During the fourth stage, the members of the minority group become more thoughtful and introspective in their appreciation of the unique characteristics that make them different from the dominant culture. For example, at this stage many Black children become more interested in Black pride than in opposition to the White culture.

During the final stage, the minority members appreciate their own heritage while simultaneously being more sympathetic to other minority groups. For example, Black youths may view Whites selectively - some with good and some with bad qualities - but the overall effects of past and current racism remain in perspective.

The preceding examples have focused on Black ethnic identity; but a similar course of development would occur for young females who perceive themselves in a culture dominated by male values or for young Appalachians growing up in a northern, urban environment.

There are three important considerations regarding a stage theory like that shown in the table above.

First, not everyone is assumed to go through all the stages. For example, some members of minority groups may stop at the second or third stage and never progress to the fourth and fifth stages.

Second, social conditions influence these stages. For example, since the Black identity movement went through the third stage in the 1960s and 1970s, it is likely that young Black children of today will be able to move more readily beyond the third stage than their predecessors of the 1950s.

Finally, it is possible that other characteristics of individual children will override the processes assumed to be at work in this stage theory of minority development. For example, a child who is the happy offspring of one White and one Black parent, who lives in an environment where both the extended families and the people of the community are generally supportive, may consider these cultural factors to be interesting but not as important as other features of her life. It is not at all obvious that if she were to identify herself as being a member of a minority group that she would have to go through the first three stages before moving on to the more adaptive final stages of minority identity development.

The value of a stage theory is that it offers guidance to teachers working with students at different levels of identity development.

A common question is how important is it that students should be taught as often as possible by teachers from the same culture? The answer, according to the stage theory summarized in Table 4.7, is that it would depend on the student's stage of identity development and the goals of the instructional unit. Here are some examples of how stage theory would influence the importance of a cultural match:

1. If the child from the minority culture is at stage 2, teachers from a dominant culture could experience difficulties teaching this child almost any subject matter, because of the obvious possibility of resistance. Does this mean that only teachers from the minority culture can succeed at teaching this child? No, it merely means that the non-minority teacher is likely to have difficulties. If the non-minority teacher is aware of this problem and successfully overcomes the resistance, this teacher would be able to teach academic subjects successfully. However, if the goal is to help the child move to a higher level of identity development, then a teacher from the minority culture would very likely be more effective.
2. If the child from the minority culture is at stage 1, a non-minority teacher could teach academic subjects to this child, but the unintended result may be to encourage the child to remain in a stage of conformity.
3. If the child from the minority culture is at stage 5, the teacher's cultural status doesn't really matter. Stage 5 learners are likely to benefit from teachers who know about and can draw examples and applications from the minority culture, but they possess no characteristics that impede their ability to benefit from teachers from other cultures.

There are many reasons for hiring minority teachers. This discussion has ignored such important factors as job discrimination and has focused exclusively on the psychological benefits and obstacles to instruction that are likely to occur when there is a match or mismatch between the culture of the child and that of the teacher. By being aware of minority identity development theory, a non-minority teacher working with a child at stage 1 or 2 would know that conformity or resistance would be a serious problem and that it would be advisable to seek additional help from other teachers, parents, community leaders, or other role models in order to enable students at lower stages to move to higher stages.