DOCSLIB.ORG

I CULTURAL REPRODUCTION, SEGMENTED ASSIMILATION and the RELIGIOUS SCHOOLING EXPERIENCES of IMMIGRANTS at an ISLAMIC ACADEMY

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
I CULTURAL REPRODUCTION, SEGMENTED ASSIMILATION and the RELIGIOUS SCHOOLING EXPERIENCES of IMMIGRANTS at an ISLAMIC ACADEMY CULTURAL REPRODUCTION, SEGMENTED ASSIMILATION AND THE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLING EXPERIENCES OF IMMIGRANTS AT AN ISLAMIC ACADEMY: LEARNING BY CHOICE A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Suad Lawrence Islam May, 2009 i © by Suad Lawrence Islam 2009 All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT Cultural Reproduction, Segmented Assimilation and the Religious Schooling Experiences of Immigrants at an Islamic Academy: Learning By Choice Suad Lawrence Islam Doctor of Philosophy Temple University 2009 Major Advisor: Dr. Will J. Jordan Introduction: A case study research design was employed to examine various dynamics of the cultural reproduction, segmented assimilation and religious schooling experiences of immigrant Muslim 1 parents and students at an Islamic day school. Three core research questions guided this examination. What is the functionality of Islamic schooling as a vehicle of cultural reproduction? How do religiosity and the presentation of Islamic rituals serve students and families as opportunities for affirmation? What experiences carry the immigrant’s identity? Site Description: The research site was the Nur Islamic Academy 2 a Pre-School-12 th grade licensed private Islamic day school located in a north-eastern city in the United States. The student body composition was 55% immigrant and 45% African-American Muslims. The school was located in an ethnic settlement encapsulated in a neighborhood that was experiencing the impacts of capital flight, uneven development and urban decay. Research Design: A Case Study research design was used. It included principal, staff and parent interviews, an 8 th grade immigrant student focus group, observations, archival investigations an a attitudinal parental survey on school choice. Data Analysis: The transcribed audio-taped interviews were analyzed using the direct responses to the guided interview questions. These statements were classified into themes by content. Observations, archival and organizational reviews served as triangulation tools. The population targeted in this study does not respond well to survey data collection. Therefore, the survey results were inconclusive. Outliers were identified and noted. The interpretation, conclusions and discussions were supported with a literature synthesis. All participants were anonymous. 1. Muslim: The name for members of the Islamic Faith, which means submission to God. 2. The Nur Islamic Academy and all other individual, organizational and institutional names are pseudonyms to maintain their anonymities. iii Findings: The findings of this study suggest that the Muslim expatriates in this urban immigrant settlement consciously used Islamic schooling as an institutional mode of intergenerational cultural preservation and reproduction. They elected to carry and hold their home cultures and Arabian heritage as they nestled into this urban landscape. Conclusions: Nur Islamic Academy created an ethos that affirmed the parents, students and community member’s Islamic belief system. Immigrant Muslim student participants related that Islamic schooling was a viable vehicle for their Islamic identity formation and retention, as well as the preservation of their respective home cultures. They also expressed that they choose Islamic schooling as a way to opt-out of the downward mobility that plagued their home neighborhood schools and lived communities. Students were discreetly exposed to selected mainstream cultural experiences. Opportunities for Interfaith exploration were an integral component of the instructional programming. Staff members and parents voiced that they have forgone full mainstream assimilation. Their preference was to actively participate in selective acculturation and incorporation processes as a segmented component of their day to day lives. This study attempts to expand the scope of literature in the areas of: cultural reproduction, cultural assimilation, segmented assimilation, Western Islamic schooling models, as well as, Muslim and ethnic identity formation and maintenance. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to acknowledge my sincere gratitude to Dr. Will J. Jordan for his relentless service as the Chair of my Dissertation Committee. Throughout my studies he respected and honored my intellectual capacity. His guidance always pushed me to the next level. He allowed my scholarship the room it needed to grow. From day one, Dr. James Earl Davis let me know that I could reach my goal. He always inspired me. He was consistently there to catch me when I fell. Words can not express the profound gratitude I have for his sincere guidance. His thoughtfulness is immeasurable. Dr. Kim Goyette scaffolded my Sociological growth. She always pushed my intellectual envelope. She helped me make meaning of my theoretical passions. I could not have done this without her humanistic instructional style. She is exceptional! This study was fueled by a series of questions that I had about how people use schools as vehicles of reproduction. These questions started years ago when my mother, a displaced Southerner told me that she observed the ways in which successful people used schools, institutions and their cultural practices to reproduce their successes with their children. She narrated how she used these processes as a framework, for what she deemed was a good parenting model for the academic, professional and cultural growth of her family. My mother mapped out a strategic reproduction plan and held to it at every turn. My mother related that rearing successful African-American children in the South was much different then in the North. She stated that in the South, Blacks had institutions, communities and cultural practices that supported individual and communal achievements. She believed that this was not the case for Blacks in the North. “When your Black living in the North you have to devise a clear plan for your children’s success”. These were the ideological underpinnings of my familial practices. My father and mother were involuntary first-generation immigrants. Both were displaced from their south-eastern United States homelands; my father as an adult, my mother as a teenager. They both elected to carry and hold their ancestral heritage. They actively participated in intergenerational cultural reproduction practices with their children. I was reared as a displaced immigrant. In my urban neighborhood (The Hood) we were the only children that went on vacations. We took regular trips to my paternal grandmother’s rural home and the bourgeois households of my mother’s clan. We were the only children in our neighborhood that dressed for dinner, on blistering hot summer evenings. We were the only children whose day to day discourse was riddled with Yes Mame and Thank you. We were taught to be grateful for everything. We were taught that the food that we ate, the sleep that we took, and the treats that we were given were all in preparation for tomorrow’s learning. We were consistently taught to love God, to cherish knowledge and to embrace the arts. My life’s work is a tribute to my beloved father and mother Lawrence and Evans; two displaced immigrants that found each other and commenced on a journey that was enveloped in Love. A special thank you to MBA, my family and all those that have nurtured me. Baraka Allahu Fikum, to my closet friends that held me through the storms. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................1 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................4 Theoretical Framework. ...........................................................................................5 Historical Roots of Religious Schooling in America ...............................................8 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................11 The Urban Landscape ............................................................................................12 Pilot Studies ...........................................................................................................14 Research Questions ................................................................................................17 Site Description ......................................................................................................17 Islamic Schooling in America ................................................................................18 Cultural Reproduction ............................................................................................22 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................25 Introduction ...........................................................................................................25 Religion in Everyday Life ......................................................................................26 Religiosity and American Youth ...........................................................................29 Religious
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Enculturation Trajectories and Individual Attainment: an Interactional Language Use Model of Cultural Dynamics in Organizations
    IRLE IRLE WORKING PAPER #107-16 March 2016 Enculturation Trajectories and Individual Attainment: An Interactional Language Use Model of Cultural Dynamics in Organizations Sameer B. Srivastava, Amir Goldberg, V. Govind Manian, and Christopher Potts Cite as: Sameer B. Srivastava, Amir Goldberg, V. Govind Manian, and Christopher Potts. (2016). “Enculturation Trajectories and Individual Attainment: An Interactional Language Use Model of Cultural Dynamics in Organizations”. IRLE Working Paper No. 107-16. http://irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers/107-16.pdf irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers Enculturation Trajectories and Individual Attainment: An Interactional Language Use Model of Cultural Dynamics in Organizations Sameer B. Srivastava Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley Amir Goldberg* Stanford Graduate School of Business V. Govind Manian Stanford Graduate School of Business Christopher Potts Department of Linguistics, Stanford University How do people adapt to organizational culture and what are the consequences for their outcomes in the organization? These fundamental questions about culture have previously been examined using self-report measures, which are subject to reporting bias, rely on coarse cultural categories defined by researchers, and provide only static snapshots of cultural fit. In contrast, we develop an interactional language use model that overcomes these limitations and opens new avenues for theoretical development about the dynamics of organizational culture. To illustrate the power of this approach, we trace the enculturation trajectories of employees in a mid-sized technology firm based on analyses of 10.24 million internal emails. Our language- based measure of changing cultural fit: (1) predicts individual attainment; (2) reveals distinct patterns of adaptation for employees who exit voluntarily, exit involuntarily, and remain employed; and (3) demonstrates that rapid early cultural adaptation reduces the risk of involuntary, but not voluntary, exit.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Materialism and Behavior Analysis: an Introduction to Harris Brian D
    The Behavior Analyst 2007, 30, 37–47 No. 1 (Spring) Cultural Materialism and Behavior Analysis: An Introduction to Harris Brian D. Kangas University of Florida The year 2007 marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of Marvin Harris (1927–2001). Although relations between Harris’ cultural materialism and Skinner’s radical behaviorism have been promulgated by several in the behavior-analytic community (e.g., Glenn, 1988; Malagodi & Jackson, 1989; Vargas, 1985), Harris himself never published an exclusive and comprehensive work on the relations between the two epistemologies. However, on May 23rd, 1986, he gave an invited address on this topic at the 12th annual conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, entitled Cultural Materialism and Behavior Analysis: Common Problems and Radical Solutions. What follows is the publication of a transcribed audio recording of the invited address that Harris gave to Sigrid Glenn shortly after the conference. The identity of the scribe is unknown, but it has been printed as it was written, with the addendum of embedded references where appropriate. It is offered both as what should prove to be a useful asset for the students of behavior who are interested in the studyofcultural contingencies, practices, and epistemologies, and in commemoration of this 80th anniversary. Key words: cultural materialism, radical behaviorism, behavior analysis Cultural Materialism and Behavior Analysis: Common Problems and Radical Solutions Marvin Harris University of Florida Cultural materialism is a research in rejection of mind as a cause of paradigm which shares many episte- individual human behavior, radical mological and theoretical principles behaviorism is not radically behav- with radical behaviorism.
    [Show full text]
  • Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education of Health Care Professionals
    A Partner for Healthier Communities Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education of Health Care Professionals www.calendow.org Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education of Health Care Professionals Prepared for The California Endowment Edited by M. Jean Gilbert, Ph.D. Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education of Health Care Professionals is a publication of The California Endowment. No part of this publication may be reproduced without attribution to The California Endowment. To be added to The California Endowment database and alerted to upcoming publications, please e-mail us at [email protected]. You may also call us at 800-449-4149, ext. 3513, or write to us at: The California Endowment 21650 Oxnard Street, Suite 1200 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 800.449.4149 Established by Blue Cross of California CM/Principles 02/03 A Table of Contents Preface i Acknowledgments iii Introduction v I. Guiding Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education and Training of Health Care Professionals 1 II. Recommended Standards for the Content of Cultural Competence Education 3 III. Recommended Standards for Training Methods and Modalities 7 IV. Standards for Evaluating Cultural Competence Learning 8 V. Standards Relating to the Qualifications of Cultural Competence Teachers and Trainers 9 VI. Appendices A. Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms 11 B. Appendix 2: Policy Statements and Standards 13 C. Appendix 3: Models for Culturally Competent Health Care 19 D. Appendix 4: Videos and CD-ROMs 34 E. Appendix 5: Web Sites 61 Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education of Health Care Professionals Preface Dear Colleague: The California Endowment is pleased to share our publication Principles and Recommended Standards for Cultural Competence Education of Health Care Professionals.
    [Show full text]
  • 2 the Cultural Economy of Fandom JOHN FISKE
    2 The Cultural Economy of Fandom JOHN FISKE Fandom is a common feature of popular culture in industrial societies. It selects from the repertoire of mass-produced and mass-distributed entertainment certain performers, narratives or genres and takes them into the culture of a self-selected fraction of the people. They are then reworked into an intensely pleasurable, intensely signifying popular culture that is both similar to, yet significantly different from, the culture of more ‘normal’ popular audiences. Fandom is typically associated with cultural forms that the dominant value system denigrates – pop music, romance novels, comics, Hollywood mass-appeal stars (sport, probably because of its appeal to masculinity, is an exception). It is thus associated with the cultural tastes of subordinated formations of the people, particularly with those disempowered by any combination of gender, age, class and race. All popular audiences engage in varying degrees of semiotic productivity, producing meanings and pleasures that pertain to their social situation out of the products of the culture industries. But fans often turn this semiotic productivity into some form of textual production that can circulate among – and thus help to define – the fan community. Fans create a fan culture with its own systems of production and distribution that forms what I shall call a ‘shadow cultural economy’ that lies outside that of the cultural industries yet shares features with them which more normal popular culture lacks. In this essay I wish to use and develop Bourdieu’s metaphor of 30 THE CULTURAL ECONOMY OF FANDOM describing culture as an economy in which people invest and accumulate capital.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Multicultural Education Means Different Things to Different
    Introduction Multicultural education means different things to different people. However, the differences are not as great, confusing, or contradictory as some critics and analysts claim. Many of these differences are more semantic than substantive, a reflection of the developmental level in the field and the disciplinary orientation of advocates. One should expect people who have been involved in a discipline or educational movement for a long time to understand and talk about it differently from those who are new to it. Similarly, educators who look at schooling from the vantage point of sociology, psychology, or economics will have differing views of the key concerns of schooling. Yet, these disparate analysts may agree on which issues are the most critical ones. Such differences over means coupled with widespread agreement on substance are naturally found in discussions of multicultural education. But this diversity should not be a problem, especially when we consider that multicultural education is all about plurality. The field includes educational scholars, researchers, and practitioners from a wide variety of personal, professional, philosophical, political, and pedagogical backgrounds. Therefore, we should expect that they will use different points of reference in discussing ethnic diversity and cultural pluralism. Yet, when allowances are made for these differences, a consensus on the substantive components of multicultural education quickly emerges. Such agreement is evident in areas such as the key content dimensions, value priorities, the justification for multicultural education, and its expected outcomes. Only when these fundamentals are articulated do variations emerge. Some advocates talk about expected outcomes, while others consider the major determining factor to be the group being studied; the arena of school action is the primary focus for one set of advocates, and still others are most concerned with distinctions between theory and practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Adynamic Model of Cultural Reproduction
    03:2013 WORKINGPAPER YNAMIC ODEL OF ULTURAL EPRODUCTION A D M C R SFI – THE DANISH NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, YALE UNIVERSITY A DYNAMIC MODEL OF CULTURAL REPRODUCTION Mads Meier Jæger Richard Breen THE DANISH NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH, COPENHAGEN; DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN; DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, YALE UNIVERSITY Working Paper 03:2013 The Working Paper Series of The Danish National Centre for Social Research contain interim results of research and preparatory studies. The Working Paper Series provide a basis for professional discussion as part of the research process. Readers should note that results and interpretations in the final report or article may differ from the present Working Paper. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including ©-notice, is given to the source. 1 A Dynamic Model of Cultural Reproduction Mads Meier Jæger1,2 and Richard Breen3 1 Department of Sociology 2 The Danish National Centre 3 Department of Sociology University of Copenhagen for Social Research Yale University Øster Farimagsgade 5, B16 Herluf Trolles Gade 11 P.O. Box 208265 1014 Copenhagen K 1052 Copenhagen K New Haven CT 06520-8265 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 16 December 2012 Abstract: We draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction to develop a formal model of the pathways though which cultural capital acts to enhance children’s educational success. We argue that our approach brings conceptual and empirical clarity to an important area of study that hitherto has been short of both.
    [Show full text]
  • ESJOA Spring 2011
    Volume 6 Issue 1 C.S.U.D.H. ELECTRONIC STUDENT JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY Spring 2011 V O L U M E 6 ( 1 ) : S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 California State University Dominguez Hills Electronic Student Journal of Anthropology Editor In Chief Review Staff Scott Bigney Celso Jaquez Jessica Williams Maggie Slater Alex Salazar 2004 CSU Dominguez Hills Anthropology Club 1000 E Victoria Street, Carson CA 90747 Phone 310.243.3514 • Email [email protected] I Table of Contents THEORY CORNER Essay: Functionalism in Anthropological Theory By: Julie Wennstrom pp. 1-6 Abstract: Franz Boas, “Methods of Ethnology” By: Maggie Slater pp. 7 Abstract: Marvin Harris “Anthropology and the Theoretical and Paradigmatic Significance of the Collapse of Soviet and East European Communism By: Samantha Glover pp. 8 Abstract: Eleanor Burke Leacock “Women’s Status In Egalitarian Society: Implications For Social Evolution” By: Jessica Williams pp. 9 STUDENT RESEARCH Chinchorro Culture By: Kassie Sugimoto pp. 10-22 Reconstructing Ritual Change at Preceramic Asana By: Dylan Myers pp. 23-33 The Kogi (Kaggaba) of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Kotosh Religious Tradition: Ethnographic Analysis of Religious Specialists and Religious Architecture of a Contemporary Indigenous Culture and Comparison to Three Preceramic Central Andean Highland Sites By: Celso Jaquez pp. 34-59 The Early Formative in Ecuador: The Curious Site of Real Alto By: Ana Cuellar pp. 60-70 II Ecstatic Shamanism or Canonist Religious Ideology? By: Samantha Glover pp. 71-83 Wari Plazas: An analysis of Proxemics and the Role of Public Ceremony By: Audrey Dollar pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Assimilationist Language in Cherokee Women's Petitions: a Political Call to Reclaim Traditional Cherokee Culture
    Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Plan B and other Reports Graduate Studies 5-2016 Assimilationist Language in Cherokee Women's Petitions: A Political Call to Reclaim Traditional Cherokee Culture Jillian Moore Bennion Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bennion, Jillian Moore, "Assimilationist Language in Cherokee Women's Petitions: A Political Call to Reclaim Traditional Cherokee Culture" (2016). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. 838. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/838 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Plan B and other Reports by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Assimilationist Language in Cherokee Women’s Petitions: A Political Call to Reclaim Traditional Cherokee Culture Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Arts in American Studies in the Graduate School of Utah State University By Jillian Moore Bennion Graduate Program in American Studies Utah State University 2016 Thesis Committee: Keri Holt, Ph.D., Advisor Melody Graulich, Ph.D. Colleen O’Neill, Ph.D. ASSIMILATIONIST LANGUAGE IN CHEROKEE WOMEN’S PETITIONS: A POLITICAL CALL TO RECLAIM TRADITIONAL CHEROKEE CULTURE By Jillian M. Moore Bennion A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in English Approved: ______________________ ______________________ Dr. Keri Holt Dr. Melody Graulich ______________________ Dr. Colleen O’Neill UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2016 ii Copyright © Jillian M.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Multiculturalism in the Classroom: from Theory to Practice
    UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1998 Critical multiculturalism in the classroom: From theory to practice Denise Michelle Dalaimo University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Dalaimo, Denise Michelle, "Critical multiculturalism in the classroom: From theory to practice" (1998). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 3065. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/puxi-p9md This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy subm itted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted.
    [Show full text]
  • The Enculturation Experience of Three Chinese American Adolescents: a Multiple Case Study
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Educational Psychology Papers and Publications Educational Psychology, Department of 2016 The ncE ulturation Experience of Three Chinese American Adolescents: A Multiple Case Study Sherry C. Wang Santa Clara University, [email protected] Vicki Plano-Clark University of Cincinnati, [email protected] Michael J. Scheel University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/edpsychpapers Part of the Child Psychology Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, and the School Psychology Commons Wang, Sherry C.; Plano-Clark, Vicki; and Scheel, Michael J., "The ncE ulturation Experience of Three Chinese American Adolescents: A Multiple Case Study" (2016). Educational Psychology Papers and Publications. 211. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/edpsychpapers/211 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Educational Psychology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational Psychology Papers and Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in The Counseling Psychologist (2016), 34pp. doi 10.1177/0011000016633875 Copyright © 2016 Sherry C. Wang, Vicki L. Plano Clark, digitalcommons.unl.edudigitalcommons.unl.edu and Michael J. Scheel. Published by SAGE Publications. Used by permission. The Enculturation Experience of Three Chinese
    [Show full text]
  • Deciphering the Cultural Code: Perceptual Congruence, Behavioral Conformity, and the Interpersonal Transmission of Culture
    Deciphering the Cultural Code: Perceptual Congruence, Behavioral Conformity, and the Interpersonal Transmission of Culture Richard Lu University of California, Berkeley Jennifer A. Chatman University of California, Berkeley Amir Goldberg Stanford University Sameer B. Srivastava University of California, Berkeley Why are some people more successful than others at cultural adjustment? Research on organizational culture has mostly focused on value congruence as the core dimension of cultural fit. We develop a novel and comple- mentary conceptualization of cognitive cultural fit—perceptual congruence, or the degree to which a person can decipher the group's cultural code. We demonstrate that these two cognitive measures are associated with different outcomes: perceptual congruence equips people with the capacity to exhibit behavioral con- formity, whereas value congruence promotes long-term attachment to the organization. Moreover, all three fit measures|perceptual congruence, value congruence, and behavioral cultural fit—are positively related to individual performance. Finally, we show that behavioral cultural fit and perceptual congruence are both influenced by observations of others' behavior, whereas value congruence is less susceptible to peer influence. Drawing on email and survey data from a mid-sized technology firm, we use the tools of computational linguistics and machine learning to develop longitudinal measures of cognitive and behavioral cultural fit. We also take advantage of a reorganization that produced quasi-exogenous shifts in employees' interlocutors to identify the effects of peer influence on behavioral cultural fit. We discuss implications of these findings for research on cultural assimilation, the interplay of structure and culture, and the pairing of surveys with digital trace data. 1 Authors' names blinded for peer review 2 Article submitted to Organization Science; Introduction Whether assimilating to a country or adapting to a new school, people typically seek to fit in cul- turally with their social groups.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Ethnic
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Ethnic Visibility, Context, and Xenophobia: A European Perspective A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Shabnam Shenasi Azari 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Ethnic Visibility, Context, and Xenophobia: A European Perspective by Shabnam Shenasi Azari Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Min Zhou, Co-chair Professor Jennie Brand, Co-chair The purpose of this study is to answer the following overarching question: how does ethnic diversity among immigrant and native populations impact xenophobia? Many studies answer this question by examining the effects of relative immigrant group size. Instead, I argue that group size increases xenophobia when immigrants are ethnically visible, crossing salient linguistic, religious, or racial boundaries. In three investigations I look at the effects of the following factors on xenophobia: ethnic diversity in the immigrant population, ethnic diversity in the broader society, and being cultural marginal. Analyzing multilevel models using cross- national data from the European Social Survey (ESS), I examine the effects of regional and national contexts of immigrant visibility on xenophobia. I define xenophobia as the perception of immigrant threat. I also test the hypothesis that average xenophobia is higher among individuals living in more ethnically diverse countries. In the second investigation, I reexamine ii immigrant visibility, this time using Swiss ESS data to compare across municipalities. I also consider the effects of living adjacent to rather than in an immigrant-rich community. In a final investigation, I again analyze cross-national ESS data to determine the effects of being different from the cultural majority on xenophobia.
    [Show full text]