Cultural models of education in American Indian, Asian American and European American contexts

Stephanie A. Fryberg*, Hazel Rose Markus

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

102 Scopus citations

Abstract

Three studies examined models of education among American Indian (AI), Asian American (AA), and European American (EA) students. Cultural models of education are patterns of ideas and practices relevant to schools, teachers, and self that mediate and regulate behavior in the academic domain. In study 1, mainstream university students (N = 148) and AI University students (N = 187) viewed education as a tool for success. AI, however, generated more mentions of education as a tool for community success and more negative associations to education. Study 2 (N = 166) showed that AI, in contrast to EA and AA, placed family and community concerns ahead of academic concerns. In Study 3 (N = 118), AI and AA endorsed independent and interdependent representations of self, while EA endorsed only independent representations. For AI and AA, but not for EA, interdependent representations were positively related to trust for teacher.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)213-246
Number of pages34
JournalSocial Psychology of Education
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2007

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Social Science Research Council Working Group on Ethnic Customs, Assimilation, and American Law. We would also like to thank the Tulalip Tribes for their support of this research. A special thanks to Cookie Robbinson, Verna James, Alan Ledford, and Greg Farris for their help with data collection, to Anthea Kelsick, Sarah Townsend, Krysia Zajonc, Kelsi Okuda, and Becky Wenzlau for help with coding data, to Ewart Thomas for helping with data analyses, and to Bob Zajonc, Daphna Oyserman, Vicky Plaut, Alana Snibbe, Jeanne Tsai, Irene Yeh, Lisa Hod-ges, and members of the Stanford University Culture Collaboratory for reading earlier drafts of the paper.

Keywords

  • Achievement
  • Cognition
  • Cultural models
  • Cultural psychology
  • Self

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Sociology and Political Science

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