Contesting Stereotypes and Creating Identities

CONTESTING STEREOTYPES AND CREATING IDENTITIES CONTESTING STEREOTYPES AND CREATING IDENTITIES Social Categories, Social Identities, and Educational Participation Andrew J. Fuligni Editor Russell Sage Foundation • New York The Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation, one of the oldest of America’s general purpose founda- tions, was established in 1907 by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” The Foundation seeks to fulfill this man- date by fostering the development and dissemination of knowledge about the country’s political, social, and economic problems. While the Foundation endeavors to assure the accuracy and objectivity of each book it publishes, the conclusions and interpretations in Russell Sage Foundation publications are those of the authors and not of the Foundation, its Trustees, or its staff. Publication by Russell Sage, therefore, does not imply Founda- tion endorsement. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Thomas D. Cook, Chair Kenneth D. Brody Jennifer L. Hochschild Cora B. Marrett Robert E. Denham Kathleen Hall Jamieson Richard H. Thaler Christopher Edley Jr. Melvin J. Konner Eric Wanner John A. Ferejohn Alan B. Krueger Mary C. Waters Larry V. Hedges Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Contesting stereotypes and creating identities : social categories, social identities, and educational participation / edited by Andrew J. Fuligni p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-87154-298-4 ISBN-10: 0-87154-298-6 1. Educational sociology—United States. 2. Educational equalization—United States. 3. Minorities—Education—United States. 4. Stereotypes (Social psychology)—United States. 5. Group identity—United States. I. Fuligni, Andrew J. LC191.4.C665 2007 306.43—dc22 2006038384 Copyright © 2007 by Russell Sage Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy- ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Reproduction by the United States Government in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American Na- tional Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Ma- terials. ANSI Z39.48-1992. Text design by Suzanne Nichols. RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 112 East 64th Street, New York, New York 10021 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Contributors vii Introduction 1 Andrew J. Fuligni PART I HOW SOCIAL CATEGORIES AND THEIR MEANINGS SHAPE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS Chapter 1 Past as Present, Present as Past: Historicizing Black Education and Interrogating “Integration” 15 Anne Galletta and William E. Cross, Jr. Chapter 2 Essentialism and Cultural Narratives: A Social-Marginality Perspective 42 Ramaswami Mahalingam Chapter 3 Relations Among Social Identities, Intergroup Attitudes, and Schooling: Perspectives from Intergroup Theory and Research 66 Meagan M. Patterson and Rebecca S. Bigler PART II HOW SOCIAL IDENTITIES FACILITATE OR CHALLENGE ACHIEVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOL Chapter 4 Racial-Ethnic Identity: Content and Consequences for African American, Latino, and LatinaYouths 91 Daphna Oyserman, Daniel Brickman, and Marjorie Rhodes vi Contents Chapter 5 Social Identity, Stereotype Threat, and Self-Theories 115 Catherine Good, Carol S. Dweck, and Joshua Aronson Chapter 6 Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, and School Valuing Among Children from Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Families 136 Jason S. Lawrence, Meredith Bachman, and Diane N. Ruble Chapter 7 Women of Color in College: Effects of Identity and Context on Contingent Self-Worth 160 Julie A. Garcia and Jennifer Crocker PART III HOW SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS MEDIATE THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL CATEGORIES AND IDENTITIES Chapter 8 The Meaning of “Blackness”: How Black Students Differentially Align Race and Achievement Across Time and Space 183 Carla O’Connor, Sonia DeLuca Fernández, and Brian Girard Chapter 9 The Role of Peers, Families, and Ethnic-Identity Enactments in Educational Persistence and Achievement of Latino and Latina Youths 209 Elizabeth Birr Moje and Magdalena Martinez Chapter 10 Family Identity and the Educational Persistence of Students with Latin American and Asian Backgrounds 239 Andrew J. Fuligni, Gwendelyn J. Rivera, and April Leininger Index 265 CONTRIBUTORS Andrew J. Fuligni is professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Department of Psychology at the Uni- versity of California, Los Angeles. Joshua Aronson is associate professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University. Meredith Bachman is survey research associate at Consumer Reports National Research Center. Rebecca S. Bigler is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Daniel Brickman is an NIMH Prevention Research Fellow and a doctoral student in social psychology at the University of Michigan. Jennifer Crocker is Claude M. Steele Collegiate Professor of Psychol- ogy and research professor at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan. William E. Cross, Jr., is Professor and Head of the Doctoral Program in Social-Personality Psychology as well as the coordinator of the African American Studies Certificate Program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Carol S. Dweck is Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Sonia DeLuca Fernández is a doctoral student in the School of Educa- tion at the University of Michigan. Anne Galletta is assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Services at Cleveland State University. Julie A. Garcia is assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at California Polytechnical State University, San Luis Obispo. viii Contributors Brian Girard is a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Catherine Good is assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University. Jason S. Lawrence is assistant professor of psychology at the Univer- sity of Massachusetts, Lowell. April Leininger is a social worker with Los Angeles County–Univer- sity of Southern California’s Inpatient Psychiatry Services. Ramaswami Mahalingam is assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Magdalena Martinez is a doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Elizabeth Birr Moje is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Education at the University of Michigan. Carla O’Connor is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and associate professor of education at the University of Michigan. Daphna Oyserman is a professor at the University of Michigan with joint appointments in the Department of Psychology, the School of So- cial Work, and the Institute for Social Research. Meagan M. Patterson is a doctorial candidate in psychology at the Uni- versity of Texas at Austin. Marjorie Rhodes is an NIMH Prevention Research Fellow and doctoral student in developmental psychology at the University of Michigan. Gwendelyn J. Rivera is a doctoral student in the Department of Psy- chological Studies in Education at University of California, Los Ange- les. Diane N. Ruble is emeritus professor at New York University. Introduction Andrew J. Fuligni ducational achievement and opportunity often differ according to the social categories with which societies divide up their Eworld, such as ethnicity, race, gender, or caste (Buchmann and Hannum 2001; Shavit and Blossfeld 1993). Within the United States, inequalities in attainment and opportunity continue to be an entrenched feature of the educational landscape in the twenty-first century. Al- though the high school completion rate of African American youths has improved over the last thirty years, a significant gap in the graduation rates of African American and white students has remained for the past ten to fifteen years (Laird et al. 2006). The graduation rate for Latino students has fluctuated over the last three decades, but it is essentially unchanged since the 1970s and is substantially below the rate for white students. Given the poor quality of the educational resources available to African American and Latino children, it is unlikely that these differ- entials in attainment will be reduced any time soon. Even after decades of awareness of substantial inequalities in education, ethnic-minority students continue to be more likely to attend schools that are over- crowded, dangerous, and limited in the opportunities they offer for ad- vanced course work with experienced teachers (Fuligni and Hardway 2004). A central thesis of this volume is that persistent disparities in educational opportunities and achievement are often created and sustained by academic stereotypes that are ascribed to different social groups by the larger society and its institutions. In particular, groups in the minority and with limited socioeconomic standing become characterized as lacking in academic potential, motivation, and engagement with education. The authors of the chapters in this volume, while not ignoring the role of traditional demographic and economic variations across social groups, highlight how the educational stereotypes associated with social categories have a life of their own and can powerfully shape the ed- 1 2 Introduction ucational opportunities and experiences of children and adolescents. As the authors

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