Educational Resilience and Academic Achievement of Immigrant Students From Ghana in an Urban School Environment

Abstract

Educational resilience is often linked to educational success of various immigrant youth including Black immigrants despite the challenges they face. However, few studies have explored the factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of Black immigrants. To address this gap, the current article focuses on the educational resilience and academic achievement of Ghanaian-born immigrants (N = 60) attending urban high schools in the United States. Results indicate that self-regulation, technology, religious faith, past experiences, parental support, resources, and safety issues played an important role. Implications and recommendations for educators and policymakers are discussed.

Keywords

educational resilience Ghanaian-born immigrant students African immigrant students academic achievement protective and risk factor

Introduction

The past two decades reflect a rapid increase in the immigrant population in the United States and is attributed to progressively increasing numbers of diverse immigrant groups. According to the American Community Survey (ACS; 2014) report, in 2013, the immigrant population in the United States more than doubled to 41.3 million. The African immigrant population has been identified as among the fastest growing immigrant populations in the United States. African immigrant population more than doubled from 364,000 to 881,000 between 1990 and 2010 to 1,606,914 in 2012 (ACS, 2014; McCabe, 2011). The largest African-born populations are from Nigeria and Ghana in Western Africa; Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia in Eastern Africa; Egypt in Northern Africa; and South Africa in Southern Africa (ACS, 2014). The factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of these learners have been previously identified among other immigrant populations, such as Asians, Latino/as, and other immigrant groups (Gonzalez & Padilla, 1997; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008; Tienda & Haskins, 2011; Waters, 2002; Wayman, 2002). If those factors that are unique to immigrant students from Ghana can be identified, the curricula in U.S. urban schools can be enhanced to address the learning needs of these immigrant learners.

Nonetheless, I argue that immigrant students from Ghana share similarities and differences with African immigrant students. First, they share similar past educational experiences, where the curriculum involves little or no student participation in the classroom. This system is known as teacher-centered learning, whereby students depend on teachers for knowledge and respond in rote memorization. Second, teacher perceptions of immigrant students from Africa tend to be based on stereotypical, media-generated images that portray African lifestyles as primitive, impoverished, and underdeveloped (Awokoya, 2012; Okpalaoka, 2011; Ukpokodu, 2013), which tend to enhance further teachers’ perceptions and restrict their opportunities for academic achievement. They are also different from other African-born immigrant students as they speak English as their first language, which gives them an advantage. Although, they come from sub-Saharan Africa, they have different educational, social, ethno-linguistic, and cultural backgrounds from other African-born immigrant students.

The majority of research on African immigrant students tends to focus mainly on the ethnic and racial identity development of second- and 1.5-generation African immigrants (Awokoya, 2012; Roubeni, Haene, Keatley, Shah, & Rasmussen, 2015), language challenges, and acculturation (Shabaya, 2006). However, little research exists on the factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high schools in the United States (Rana, Qin, Bates, Luster, & Saltarelli, 2011). The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high schools in the United States. The article presents findings from qualitative interviews of 60 Ghanaian-born immigrant students that explore factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement in urban high schools, as well as provide recommendations to teachers who teach these immigrant learners. The following research questions guided the study:

Research Question 1: What related factors promote educational resilience of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high school in the United States?

Research Question 2: What factors constrain the educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high schools in the United States?

Research Question 3: How do the factors that promote and/or hinder educational resilience of immigrant students from Ghana influence their academic achievement in urban high schools?

Research Question 4: What past experiences of immigrant students from Ghana have prepared them in promoting educational resilience and academic achievement in urban high schools?

Ghanaian Immigrant Students Education

As indicated earlier, the focus of this study is a subgroup of African immigrant students, immigrant students from Ghana, about whom not much is known. Ghana is a country of about 25 million people located on the West Coast of Africa. The educational system in Ghana is teacher-centered, where the curriculum involves little student participation in the classroom. English is the official language, with several other spoken ethnic languages. In the United States, there are more than 240,000 Ghanaian immigrants (first and second generations), residing mostly in large metropolitan cities, with the largest number (about 40,000) in New York State, followed by Virginia (15,000). New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina are also home to a large number of Ghanaian immigrants (United States Census Bureau, 2014). Ghanaians use English both in Ghana and in the United States to communicate with other Ghanaians outside of their ethnic group (ACS, 2014).

The educational attainment of Ghanaians in the United States is largely similar to the general U.S. population, with more than 12% having a master’s degree or PhD or an advanced professional degree, compared with 11% of the U.S. general population (ACS, 2014). They work in the specialized fields (e.g., engineering, science, law, or education) and administrative jobs (finance or human resources). However, they have a lower median annual household income of US$44,000, which is lower than the overall U.S. population (US$50,000). An estimated 18% of Ghanaian-born immigrant households reported annual incomes above US$90,000, the threshold for the top 25% of U.S. households (ACS, 2014), and 5% of Ghanaian-born immigrants had annual incomes exceeding US$140,000, the threshold for the top 10% of U.S. households (ACS, 2014). The continued rise of Ghanaian-born immigrant students in U.S. K-12 schools demonstrates the need for attention to their educational experiences as they interact with teachers and students in classrooms. Many have argued for a greater emphasis on Ghanaian immigrant students’ previous experiences, challenges faced upon arrival in the United States, as well as accommodating the needs of these immigrant students, so that they can achieve academic success (Asare, 2009). However, few studies have explored the factors that promote educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban schools in the United States.

Educational Achievement and Experiences of African Immigrant Youth

African immigrant students in the United States, on the whole, show high levels of academic achievement relative to other ethnic populations (Awokoya, 2012). According to Rong and Brown (2002),

the lack of research on Black immigrants denies the American public and policymakers opportunities to explore the many urgent and intriguing issues regarding Black immigrants, therefore denying the public insight into the special needs of these immigrants which have been neglected. (p. 249)

Coe and Shani (2015) examined Ghanaian immigrants’ parenting strategies that account for the transnational context and their children operate. Findings indicate that multiplicity and contradictions in cultural capital across different social fields complicate their parenting “projects.” They concluded that social and institutional resources from Ghana and the United States helped Ghanaian immigrant parents to succeed. Another study by Asare (2009) about Ghanaian immigrants living in the United States indicates that they considered corporal punishment as an acceptable means of disciplining children, and socially accept that their children adopt American culture and different acculturation experiences. Traore and Lukens (2006) reported that African immigrant youth faced exclusion and alienation in U.S. urban schools. Study findings revealed that the exclusion of varying cultures in the curriculum, including African history in an African American history class, made it difficult for African-born immigrant youth to transition and see themselves in their schooling experiences, thus contributing to alienation and marginalization of African-born immigrant students in schools and the communities they reside.

John Ogbu’s cultural ecological theory (CET) sought to explain the educational achievement of immigrant students in U.S. schools (Ogbu & Simons, 1998, 2003). The theory purports that two major factors influence minority students’ school adjustment and academic performance: (a) the way society and its institutions treat and have treated minorities (i.e., the system), and (b) how minorities interpret and respond to their treatment, which is highly dependent on their unique history and status in America (community forces). Ogbu states that voluntary minorities are those who came to the United States for a better life and believed that education can help them improve their social and economic conditions. Ogbu’s CET provides a lens through which to view underrepresented minority students as “voluntary” and a framework for understanding the academic challenges and successes these students face in their cognitive, social, and behavioral adaptation to the U.S. educational system. Ogbu’s theory has been criticized (Spencer, Cross, Harpalani, & Goss, 2003) for its lack of empirical evidence because it does not sufficiently explain in detail the success stories of many minority students, including “castlike” minorities, as many minorities succeed in school without losing their cultural identity. This study is an attempt to add to the limited information in this area and addresses gaps of knowledge about the factors that promote educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high schools in the United States.

Relationships: Educational Resilience and Attributes

Educational resilience is defined as “the heightened likelihood of educational success despite personal vulnerabilities and adversities brought about by environmental conditions and experiences” (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1994, p. 46). Masten (2011) defined resilience as the ability to achieve positive outcomes despite challenging or threatening circumstances. According to Fergus and Zimmerman (2005), the most essential element of resilience is the presence of risks and protective factors that help to facilitate positive outcomes. Research studies indicate that resilience is characterized by notable adaptation in the presence of risk or adversity (Garmezy, 1991; Luther, 2003).

Several researchers (Fraser & Galinsky, 2004; Jenson & Howard, 1999) contend that the following factors influenced resilience among youths: (a) environmental factors—which included poverty and economic deprivation, low economic opportunity, neighborhood disorganization, and low neighborhood attachment; (b) interpersonal and social factors that consist of family communication and conflict, poor parent–child bonding, school failure, low commitment to school, rejection by conforming peer groups, and association with antisocial peers; and (c) individual factors—sensation-seeking orientation, poor impulse control, and attention deficit. Research evidence has shown that there is a positive correlation between educational aspirations and educational resilience (e.g., Catterall, 1998).

Relatedly, McMillan and Reed (1994) pointed out that four related factors appear to be related to resiliency: (a) personal attributes such as motivation and goal orientation, (b) positive use of time (e.g., on-task behavior, homework completion, participation in extracurricular experiences), (c) family life (e.g., family support and expectations), and (d) school and classroom learning environment (i.e., facilities, exposure to technology, leadership, and overall climate). Several researchers (e.g., Alvord & Grados, 2005; Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005) concluded that resilience is constrained by risk factors and promoted by protective factors. The protective factors have the ability to modify responses to negative events so that potential negative outcomes can be avoided while risk factors have the tendency to increase the probability of poor outcomes. Protective factors can be bolstered at all interactive levels of the socioecological framework, such as the community, family, school, and the individual (Benzies & Mychasiuk, 2009).

Waxman and Huang (1996) conducted a study that compared motivation and classroom learning environment of 75 resilient versus 75 nonresilient sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students from urban middle school in the South Central part of the United States, educationally resilient students scored in the 90th percentile on standardized achievement mathematics tests over a 2-year period, and nonresilient students scored lower on standardized achievement tests. Findings indicated that resilient students reported significantly higher on social self-concept, achievement motivation, and academic self-concept than nonresilient students.

Miller and MacIntosh’s (1999) study investigated African American youth’s educational involvement, racial socialization, racial identity, discrimination, normative stress, and urban struggles. The participants included 131 African American adolescents. Findings suggest that a positive racial identity protects African American adolescents against discrimination. Resilience among African American youth is influenced by culturally relevant protective factors such as neighborhood, community, and religious influences (e.g., resources supportive, nonviolent), which are important contributors to African American youth’s resilience (Boykin, Jagers, & Ellison, 1997; Kowaleski-James & Dunifon, 2006).

Black immigrants as a whole identified themselves more closely with their country of origin than as Black or African American (Robotham, 2002). They share African cultural heritage and are affected differently by the legacy of colonialism. Ghanaian-born immigrants have a different perspective on and experience with U.S. history of oppression and associated youth outcomes and see their new school environment as an opportunity to achieve success in education (Asare, 2009). Furthermore, past research on resilience has rarely investigated the concept of resilience in ethnic minority populations, and researchers seem reluctant to admit that their findings may have been more relevant to European American youth. However, research has shown that diverse cultural groups have different ways of enhancing positive outcomes for their children (Johnson-Powell & Yamamoto, 1997). This study will fill the gaps of research needed to better understand the connection between educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high school in the United States.

Focus of the Current Study

Upon entry to the United States, immigrant students from Ghana, Sub-Saharan Africa, face many challenges such as changes in the educational curricula, difficulty navigating through the school environment, teaching styles, learning to adapt to new culture, student–teacher relationship, and education policies (Arthur, 2000; Awokoya, 2012; Bryce-Laporte, 1972; Rong & Brown, 2002; Ukpokodu, 2013). However, they are also one of the most successful immigrant student groups in U.S. schools (Awokoya, 2012; Obiakor & Afoláyan, 2007). What becomes confusing, however, is what challenges did they have to overcome to become successful? What factors help immigrant students from Ghana to develop educational resilience to succeed in school? What type of support do they receive in school settings to promote educational resilience and academic achievement? What past experiences prepared them for academic success in U.S. urban schools? In what ways do immigrant students from Ghana develop measures to counter the risk or promote protective factors for their educational resilience? These are the questions I asked as I approached the study focusing on factors that promote educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant youth from Ghana in urban high schools. The current study explores factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high schools in the United States.

Method

Participants

Participants (N = 60) were recruited during the 2013-2015 academic school years attending five urban high schools in Atlanta, Georgia. The urban high schools in the Atlanta metropolis serve primarily African American, Latino/a, and other minority students from working-class urban communities. The average graduation rate for students in Atlanta public schools increased from 59.1% in 2014 to 71.5% in 2015. Urban public schools in Atlanta are characterized by large campuses in a large metropolitan area surrounded by businesses and contain many students of color, who are generally from lower income families (Milner, 2013), namely, African Americans (majority Black), Asians, and Hispanics, and are funded by the city of Atlanta. Students and teachers face structural and cultural challenges such as low expectation of students, classroom discipline, high teacher attrition rate, student absenteeism, lack of cultural responsiveness, and safety issues in both school and home environments, as well as other political and economic factors outside the reach of the school system. The majority of urban public schools have made efforts to address some of the challenges by instituting programs such as the Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID), and mathematics, engineering, science achievement (MESA) mentoring programs. They also have double period classes, extended learning time, after-school sessions, and summer schools to support struggling students to achieve high academic expectations. I had no access to test scores of participants because the State of Georgia no longer requires students to earn a passing score on the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) for high school diploma.

All of the participants were originally born in Ghana and migrated to the United States to live with one or both parents or guardian. All of the participants resided in the Atlanta Metro area, Georgia, and attended urban public high schools. Basic demographic information of participants was collected at the completion of the interview. Participants’ information consisted of 56.7% (n = 34) male and 43.3% (n = 26) female. Participants in the study were 10th grade = 12 students, 11th grade = 23 students, 12th grade = 21 students, recent high school graduate = seven students. Student participants’ age ranged from 16 to 20 years.¹

The purpose of selecting participants from the above state was that it has a large number of Ghanaian immigrant residents with different demographic characteristics that provided selected cohorts. Purposive sampling was used to select participants within the Ghanaian African community in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Participants were contacted and selected with the help of the presidents, pastors, and community leaders from Ghanaian Associations and religious organizations. The researcher chose this route because statistics in the U.S. educational system tend to subsume immigrant students from Ghana under the broader umbrella of Black students, thereby conflating characteristics of immigrant students from Ghana and their country of origin (De Walt, 2011; Okpalaoka, 2011). At the meetings of the various associations, the researcher described the purpose and relevance of the project to potential parents and requested permission to interview their children.

Data Collection and Analysis

The primary goal of the study is to explore factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana attending urban schools in the United States. I paid particular attention to study procedures to protect against biases that could influence data collection (Charmaz, 2006; Corbin & Strauss, 2007) and worked toward representative emic and etic interpretations on how participants’ educational resilience led to their academic achievement (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014). I arranged and scheduled interview dates and times with all participants via phone and email and met participants who agreed to be interviewed twice in their homes within the period of 2 years. Interviews were conducted at the homes of participants and audio-recorded. The first interview lasted for about 60 min, while the subsequent interview lasted for about 60 to 90 min in length. All interviews were conducted in the English language, and participants were given pseudonyms to protect and ensure their identity information and confidentiality (see the appendix for interview questions).²

Besides these questions, I used relevant probes and follow-up questions to guide topics identified as most important to participants. It also helped to gain insight of participants’ interpretations of factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement as reflected by their sociocultural and educational experiences. I took field notes after each home visit and interviews at participants’ residences in a reflection journal and put the emerged thematic into groupings (Boyatzis, 1998). Overall, I conducted two interviews with each participant within a period of 2 years. The purpose of the second interview was to validate first analyses of the interview transcripts. Participants completed a short demographic survey at the end of the interviews.

ATLAS.ti.7.5.2 software (2014 version) was used to analyze data for the interview transcripts. I read thoroughly all interview transcripts for more than 3 times to equate and understand each of the participants’ subjectivity and to construct meanings about factors that contribute to resilience and academic achievement and wrote memos (e.g., Corbin & Strauss, 2007). I coded interview transcripts independently by assigning each new idea that is represented in the raw data. I then transcribed all interview transcripts verbatim and checked for accuracy. Coding of each interview transcript helped to identify themes that emerged from the data and aggregated them into response patterns (Miles et al., 2014). Two peer reviewers read all the data and coded segments into categories and themes. This helped to determine the accuracy of the identified categories and establish credibility for the data (Patton, 2015).

Furthermore, I used research questions in the study as the framework to help to determine the accuracy of the identified categories and themes. I searched for patterns, themes, and commonalities to create major categories for each interview. I then reviewed the entire data set separately to ensure internal validity and met reviewers face to face on two different occasions to compare analysis. I conducted analyses within each interview and looked for themes that emerged across all interviews (see table 1). I also asked participants to thoroughly read through interview transcripts and searched deeper into categories and themes that arose in the first interview as a way to member check the credibility of the data (Lincoln & Guba, 2000). Member-checking was used as a measure to triangulate in the coding and analysis of the data (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011) to corroborate the main findings via reflection journals. After several meetings with participants, I found time after-school and weekends that provided the best chance to ask more questions, considering their school schedule. I also made observations of participants in their home environments. I observed that participants had a profound understanding of the factors that helped promote and/or constrained their educational resilience and school performance. Thus, based on observations, the researcher asked participants to explain what factors promote or constrain educational resilience. Field notes and reflection journals were conducted to establish the believability of the interview data and evaluate the viability of the in-depth interviews. Table 1 provides a summary of the key themes.

Table 1.

Summary of the Key Themes.

Code	Representative quotations	Themes
Internet and social media	I am able to have access to lots of information, research on things for my homework. It has helped me to overcome most of the challenges in school especially completing homework and learning to know school cultures here [U.S.]. I will say social media or the Internet helped me in my social interaction and to be resilient in what I do.	Technology
Ability to manage own learning	With time, I thought of doing things my own way in order for me to survive. I had to develop skills to study on my own for higher grades. You got to be firm, and resilient here [U.S.].	Self-regulation and efficacy
Attends church, reads bible	Attending church gives me the power and confidence to resist and be strong in life to overcome the challenges I face in school. Religion is a factor for my success in school because I get mentoring help from pastors and counselors at church on what to do to be successful.	Religious faith
Life in Africa, difficult situation	I think my past experience was a big plus for me because I have been through lots of changes before moving to the U.S., for example, I have had different teachers, friends, cultures, and challenges that I think it helped me to overcome the problems I faced in school.	Past personal experiences and goals
Support, protection, and guidance	My parents encouraged me to be strong in order to overcome the differences. They are of great help and resource to me to overcome all the challenges I face in school. I believe that I have been successful in school because of the support I get from my parents.	Parental and family support
Access to resources	The opportunities I have here helped me to be strong, confident, and resilient to succeed despite the challenges.	Opportunities and resources
Negative image of Africa	Some students even used to call me “Monkey Boy” and all sorts of names. This motivates me to do better in school. You want to be resilient to prove people wrong about their thoughts and perceptions.	Perception of being an African

Author’s positionality

I was cognizant of my background as an African immigrant, and a former K-12 teacher in the United States. My cultural background and experiences teaching in K-12 schools provided open access to contact, recruit, and select participants for the study. I was also aware of and familiar with many experiences of African immigrant students as they adapted to the U.S. school environment. I was careful to consider how my individual social construction, ethnic identity, and educational experience influenced this study and took special care of analysis of the data to draw on the experiences of researchers whose lenses were different from mine. Milner (2007) suggested that researchers pose a series of reflective questions to clearly identify the various levels of consciousness implicit within a selected research design to reflect and interact with study participants. Researcher bias occurs when the researcher is not able to bracket his or her assumptions a priori (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). I worked to minimize these biases by contextualizing discussion about the interview within the context of the questions asked and took several measures (the use of a peer reviewer, and member-checking) to reduce individual bias and to build on the believability and consistency of the interview data.

Findings

As stated earlier, the purpose of the study is to explore factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and how they influence the academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana. Based on the analysis, the researcher identified these themes through iterative and analytical examination of the data. The themes have been summarized into the following distinct categories and emergent themes, namely, protective and personal factors: (a) self-regulation and efficacy, (b) religious faith, (c) past personal experiences and goals, (d) technology, (e) educational opportunities and resources, and (f) parental and family support. The environmental and risk factors consist of the following: (a) safety issues in school and neighborhood, and (b) perception of being African or from Africa. These themes were reported individually. However, they overlap with one another within the narratives shared by immigrant youth from Ghana (see Table 1).

Figure 1 provides a flowchart of the factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of participants.

Figure 1.

Factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of Ghanaian immigrant youth.

Protective and Personal Factors

Factors that attributes to educational resilience of participants generated the following themes: (a) self-regulation and efficacy, (b) religious faith, (c) past personal experiences and goals, (d) technology, (e) opportunities and resources, (f) parental and family support, and (g) perception of being an African.

Self-regulation and efficacy

Self-regulation is a significant protective factor that facilitates educational resilience among adolescent youth (Alvord & Grados, 2005; Benzies & Mychasiuk, 2009). According to Zimmerman (2008), self-regulation means that the learner has the ability to regulate his or her own thinking, motivation, and behavior during learning. Similarly, participants shared how self-regulation and efficacy helped them to master the skills of managing their own learning to achieve higher academic performance. A typical interpretation of self-regulation and efficacy that led to educational resilience among participants was captured by Ama, a female 10th grader, who shared,

I like the fact I’m able to handle most of my studies after school, plan and organize how to do my schoolwork by myself with little help. Being able to handle my own learning builds my confidence to overcome the challenges I face.

According to Rutter (1987), resilient individuals are confident in their ability to overcome difficult situations. Ama’s ability to manage her own learning pace to overcome her challenges in school represent other participants’ ability to self-regulate their academic progress to succeed in school. Another participant, Francisca, stated,

I think my ability to use the opportunities and time available to me has helped me to overcome learning challenges in school. I believe that I’m successful in school because I have been an efficient person, self-confident, and able to empower myself to overcome problems. I know that you have to be prepared to be able to solve or reduce issues you have in school.

Here, Francisca depicted her ability to self-manage her own learning activities to succeed in her new learning environment. Participants reported that self-regulation, as a force, allowed them to take responsibility for their learning and gather their own thoughts as newly arrived immigrant students. Benzies and Mychasiuk (2009) stated that educational resilience is employed when certain protective factors are strengthened at all levels of the socioecological model to include the individual, family, and community, and children’s intentional self-regulation predicts school success (Zimmerman, 2008). Overall, most participants (49 out of 60) mentioned self-regulation skills as a factor that helped them to gain understanding and manage their own learning with or without assistance on the path to achieving higher academic success in school.

Religious faith

According to Alvord and Grados (2005), religious influence can positively impact the resilience of adolescent youths. Participants mostly attributed their power to overcome the challenges they faced upon arrival to the United States to the spiritual and religious lessons they received in churches and mosques. Participants reiterated that the religious lessons built up their motivation, determination, and ability to prevail over the challenges that enabled them to work hard to achieve academic excellence in school. Participants agreed that religious faith positively influenced their educational resilience and served as a factor that propelled them to build their self-confidence as well as strengthened their ability to succeed in school. Ahmed, a 20-year-old participant, commented,

I believe that I had inspirations from the religious lessons. Being religious helps you to be strong and tough to fight on despite all the challenges. Reading the Holy Book motivates me to overcome challenges I face in life. I firmly believe that my religious faith helped me to succeed in school. It helped me build my confidence, resilience, and self-esteem to strive for higher academic excellence.

Another participant reiterated her experiences, saying,

It was all about the attributes of the religious books I read, mentoring, praying, and support from my pastors. I get inspirations and motivation on how to be tough to withstand and overcome all the challenges from reading the Holy Book daily. Religion and faith allowed me to be strong, resilient to deal and overcome challenges.

Comments like Ahmed’s were common across my interviews. It could be inferred from participants’ statements that religious faith and spirituality allowed them to develop skills to master ways of achieving higher academic performance. Self-esteem is highly related to having a sense of self and a sense of significant attachment figures—a feeling of confidence in the lives of the adolescents’ faith (Werner, 1984).

Past personal experiences and goals

Participants discussed that past histories and experiences have made them tougher and stronger to meet the challenges. Zeibeth, a participant, put it this way: “the reason for having good grades in school is that I feel it’s time for me to fulfill my personal goal to be a lawyer in the U.S.” Similarly, Steve noted, “my past histories and experiences has been a source of motivation and determination to do more in school, I really don’t care about the problems I face in school.” Participants discussed that reflecting back to their personal histories motivates them to take advantage of the opportunities they have in the United States and hardly concentrate much on the problems in school and their community. Likewise, Anneba described the reason for her excellent academic performance as

I think my past experiences have prepared me well to overcome some of the challenges I face in school. My past experience motivates me to work hard and care less about other issues. I want to be a better person in the U.S., so I have to get better grades in school. I face many challenges in my school but it’s better than the school I attended in Ghana. My previous experiences prepared me well to overcome the challenges I encountered in school.

Lorren, another participant, described what made her resilient in school as “I am always mindful of my background and personal goals. I have to achieve better grades in school to be somebody in the States.” She explained that her personal goals helped push her to achieve higher academic performance in school. When asked what drives her to do well in school, Lorren explained,

. . . You know looking at where I came from in Africa, where many people are poor with no chance to do better in life, I always have this in mind. You know, life at home is hard for some people so I don’t want to be in that situation again, want to succeed in life with my education. I want to strive and be better person, get a good job and have a great life.

Overall, most participants (54 out of 60) indicated that their parents moved them to the United States to achieve higher education so that they can attain economic prosperity and function as responsible citizens.

Technology

Participants reported that the use of technology at school offered them access to resources that enabled them to develop educational resilience to overcome the challenges they encountered in school. Participants indicated that technology provided them the chance to watch videos about people who share their stories through social media. Interview data revealed that the Internet and social media played a significant role as they had the chance to watch inspirational videos about people who have made it in the United States through education. Xana is a classic example, as she described how technology helped her to develop the confidence to overcome several challenges she faced in school. She lamented,

I think my ability to master computer skills and knowledge was a huge factor in my academic success in school. With technology I get access to lots of resources. I also watch inspirational speeches on YouTube and Facebook on how to succeed here [U.S.] as immigrant student. It helped me on ways to be resilient and motivated to be able to overcome challenges I face in school.

Likewise, Gifty disclosed that she learned from stories other immigrant students shared on social media sites on how to develop resilience to overcome the challenges in the United States. When asked how technology helped them to be resilient and influenced their academic achievement, Gifty commented,

I learned how to be tough and determined to overcome problems I face in school and home by watching TV, videos on the Internet, and chatting with friends online. Watching TV and listening to radio helped me a lot to know more about this place. Getting to know and navigate through the system here [U.S.]. I have made friends online who helped me to understand and be resilient in everything I do and succeed in spite of the problems.

Xana’s and Gifty’s statements mirror those of several participants in the larger sample who reported that they learned so much from varying forms of technology about how to be resilient and succeed academically. Participants reported technology as a pushing factor that facilitated their drive to attain academic success in school. It can be deduced from participants’ statements that information gathered watching videos on the Internet and other technology formats helped them to gain knowledge to overcome the challenges in school (see Table 1).

Educational opportunities and resources

Overall, participants reported that having access to educational resources such as the library, the Internet, books, teachers, counselors, and other educational resources was a positive factor that helped them to succeed in school. Sellana, a senior, described how resources in her school—although an inner-city school—helped her to overcome the challenges and achieve higher grades. She elaborated,

There are many more opportunities to help you in the U.S. schools than back home [Ghana]. I have access to technology tools such as Internet, computers, and all the books I need for school. Access to educational resources helped me to reduce or counter the challenges I faced.

Participants disclosed that they had access to more opportunities in school than in their country of origin, thus serving as a reason that helps them to succeed in school.

Parental and family support

Several participants declared that their parents provided them support such as helping them with their homework, mentoring, providing financial and moral support, advising, and guidance to achieve better grades in school. For example, Jocelyn, a senior, noted, “My parents always encouraged me to remember where I came from and to take chances I have here [U.S.] and work harder for academic success, despite the problems I face in school.” Another participant, Bernard, who is currently taking advance placement (AP) classes in one of the poorest inner-city schools in Atlanta, shared,

Education is the one main reason my parents brought me to the states [U.S.], my parents always make sure we do our homework before we go to sleep, beginning of every year, they meet my teachers to know them, share our background with them. My parents expect me to get better grades and no excuses. The advice I got from my parents helped me a lot to overcome challenges and succeed in school.

Likewise, Anthony, an 18-year-old newly arrived immigrant, credited his high academic success in school to the resilience and ability to recover from the many problems he experienced in school. He reported that his parents taught him the skills of motivation and determination to study for success despite the challenges. He commented,

I think it’s all about my parents, they give me all the support and guidance for me to know that as a minority I will have problems in school, they encouraged me to be strong, tough and determined to overcome the challenges I face. They have high expectations for me to succeed in school. They motivated and inspired me to take my education seriously and prepare for the future. In my school, you have to learn how to overcome challenges to survive. The support I get from my parents helped me a lot to be strong in life. In this country you got to be tough to succeed.

Anthony’s statement deeply reflects the support and guidance participants’ receive from their parents. Participants’ stories show that African immigrant parents have high expectations for their children in school. In general, participants noted that it was part of their family responsibility to help them achieve better academic success in school.

According to participants, education is one of the main reasons their parents moved to the United States. Responsible parents are supportive, warm, and provide cognitive and conducive support for their children to develop resilience and achieve better academic excellence (Benzies & Mychasiuk, 2009). Participant’s poignant remarks suggested they believed that their parents supported them to achieve higher academic excellence through the provision of resources at their means (see Table 1).

Environmental and Risk Factors

Immigrant youth from Ghana voiced their experiences of going through challenges that limit their academic performance in school. However, they reported that the risk factors pushed them to work hard to overcome the challenges and succeed in school. The following two themes, (a) safety issues in school and neighborhood, and (b) perception of being African, emerged as environmental and risk factors.

Safety issues in school and neighborhood

Interview data suggest that participants were determined to succeed in school despite facing safety challenges in both schools and the community they reside. The majority of the participants (47 out of 60) discussed that safety concerns affected their academic progress of the violence in their school and the community. For example, Monique, a female 12th grader, shared, “when you live in fear, it tends to affect your school performance. But I think in my case, it has pushed me to work hard on my education. To get out of the neighborhood I live.” When asked about safety in their neighborhood, another participant described it in this way:

You fear to go out at night because I don’t live in a good area. People get robbed all the time. Kids here sell drugs at night and don’t like school. They want me to do the same stuff. I get harassed all the time and they threaten to beat me on my way to school, I guess for doing the right thing I don’t know. I’m determined to work hard to succeed in school, despite these challenges. I want to use my education to move out of this area.

In addition, Patrick, another participant, shared,

I have been assaulted many times in school. The reasons for the attack was that I’m from Africa and trying to act or be “White” or something like that, this was a big issue, I nearly stopped school but I had to be strong. It’s like you have to join the gang or so to fit in, I’m not doing any of that but will survive this challenge and succeed in school. That’s why I came to U.S.

Participants described that some of their “American” peers see them as targets for bullying because of their cultural and personality backgrounds, although safety concerns impeded participants’ academic progress. At the same time, it became a pushing factor that drives them to work hard to overcome the challenges they face in school and succeed in their new society.

Perception of being an African

Interview data found that consistent stereotypes by teachers and students negatively influenced the academic performance of participants. However, participants indicated that derogatory comments from teachers and students served as a motivating factor to study hard for better academic performance. When asked to describe how overcoming stereotypes of being African helped them in educational resilience and excellence, a participant elaborated,

I think the issue is not about color but culture here [U.S.]. Because almost all students make fun of me—as African and this is the first time in my life that culture and ethnicity is making me who I am, not used to that in Ghana. I remember, a teacher once asked me in class if I tested for Tuberculosis and other diseases before coming to this school, it was so embarrassing for me. You know all these comments kind of motivated me to do more to proof them wrong. Always wanted to tell them that, hey, you see I can do better and I’m from Ghana, Africa.

When asked how the issues of being immigrant from Ghana facilitated their educational resilience and academic performance in school, another participant stated,

I think students will always make fun of your culture because you looked different especially from Africa. Some teachers ask me weird questions about Africa in class, sometimes you feel emotionally hurt. I think all that negative questions about being a Ghanaian and African initially affected my ability to make friends and socialize but at the same it helped me to rebound to get better grades in school. Let’s say these experiences motivated me to do better in school.

Participants discussed that the derogatory remarks from teachers and students made them feel uncomfortable, humiliated, and unwelcome. Another surprising evidence was that female participants indicated that the experience of stereotype is not race but culture while male participants reported otherwise, stating that it is both race and culture. Rong and Brown (2002) observed that schools serve as sociocultural entry points for many Black immigrant youth in which they learn to construct, adjust, and reinvent their identities within the social interactions. It can be inferred from participants’ voices that teachers and students lack the requisite knowledge about the continent of Africa. Similarly, Lamonshe noted: “My desire to go to Ivy College started when teachers and students made uncomplimentary statements about [me] in class.” Participants’ statements revealed that their experiences in school with regard to stereotypes from teachers and their peers became a pushing factor that provided them the flexibility and efficacy to prepare, plan, and study hard for academic achievement (see Table 1).

Discussions and Implications

Immigrant students from Ghana faced many challenges, such as changes in the educational curricula, difficulty navigating through the school environment, teaching styles, learning to adapt to new culture, unwelcoming reception, experiences of racism and discrimination, frustrations of social stigma, and school and community violence (Arthur, 2000). Overall, participants agreed that personal, positive, environmental, and risk factors contributed to their educational resilience and academic achievement (e.g., Benzies & Mychasiuk, 2009; Bernard, 2004; Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005; Werner, 1984).

Data analysis identified that participants developed inner attributes and attitudes that helped them to buffer the adverse effects of the many challenges they faced. Participants also developed resilient attributes of social competence, problem-solving skills, self-determination, and critical consciousness to overcome the challenges and achieve academic success in school. According to Wang, Haertel, and Walberg (1997), resilient youth have the willingness and capacity to work hard, educational aspirations, and motivation to strive for academic excellence in school in spite of the challenges they face in school and home situations.

Across the findings, participants understand the benefits and significant role technology, self-regulation skills, religious faith, parental support, and access to resources played in facilitating educational resilience and academic achievement in school. It offered them the opportunity to be efficient, reliable, and develop understanding of how to manage or self-regulate their own learning to overcome challenges faced in school. According to Sameroff, Gutman, and Peck (2003), educational resilience for youth may differ depending on where they live (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural), the socioeconomic status, gender, immigration status, early or late adolescence, and parental control. Participants developed the ability to act independently and had a sense of purpose with regard to their educational aspirations, individual goals, and beliefs for a better future in education (Bernard, 2004). As illustrated in the literature, school and classroom learning environments such as facilities, exposure to technology, and school climate appeared to be related to educational resilience (McMillan & Reed, 1994). Another unexpected outcome of the findings was the influence of religion. Most participants declared that having faith in God strengthened them to overcome the challenges they experienced in urban school. Perhaps participants’ religious backgrounds or the church environment provided them support and guidance they needed as newly arrived immigrants to adjust and adapt to a new society.

Furthermore, participants explained that past personal experiences and goals became a motivating force for them to withstand the challenges to succeed in school. It appeared that access to opportunities and past experiences of participants helped them build inner resilience to survive and overcome challenges faced in school. According to Ogbu (2003), when voluntary minority students compare their current situation in the United States with what they would have been in their country, which to them is not better, it allows them to take advantage of the opportunity to strive and do better in school. For example, findings show that most participants acknowledged education as the best means to assimilate and achieve the “American Dream.” Therefore, their entry into U.S. schools functioned as a gateway, and not an obstacle, one that they used to move upward and achieve academic success in their new school (Kent, 2007; Ogbu, 2003; Rong & Brown, 2002). Study findings indicated that parental support and access to resources were important. For example, the support and guidance participants’ received from their parents and family helped them to better understand the bicultural identities, which enabled them to navigate through the multiple cultural worlds and the new school environment effectively with less difficulties (e.g., Benzies & Mychasiuk, 2009; Fraser & Galinsky, 2004; Luther, 2003).

Moreover, participants expressed surprise about the experiences of being stereotyped in school by teachers and students because of their African cultural background. They declared that consistent stereotyping in school reminded them to work harder to prove to teachers and students that being from Africa does not make them inferior or less intelligent. This might have contributed to participants’ inner resilience to work hard and succeed in school. As indicated in the literature, rejection by conforming peer groups and association with antisocial peers could attribute to resilience among adolescent youth (Fraser & Galinsky, 2004; Jenson & Howard, 1999). Participants indicated that safety issues also affected their academic progress initially; however, these issues reminded them to be resilient, efficient, and to strive to do better in school. Findings agreed with Traore and Lukens’s (2006) assertion that the immigrant youth from Africa often faced exclusion and alienation in U.S. urban schools based on the differences in the curriculum and instruction. For example, findings support that teachers in U.S. schools lack the requisite knowledge of global studies, Africa as a continent, and the social, economic, educational, and political dynamics of its people (Dei, 1994; Nieto, 2004).

Although the environmental and risk factors mentioned above initially impeded students’ academic progress in school, they also served as a pushing force that helped participants to reflect back to past personal experiences, and compare current new life in school and society with that of their country of origin (Frasier & Galinsky, 2004; Qin, Li, Rana, & Han, 2011).

The study finding fills gaps in the current literature about factors that promote educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students with regard to immigrant students from Ghana. The study is one of the few studies that explore factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement using a large qualitative sample of the voices of African immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high school in the United States and that demonstrates that protective, personal, environmental, and risk factors act as primary buffers to participants, counteracting and pushing them to work harder to achieve higher academic success in school. It also extends beyond simple descriptive analysis by providing an in-depth study of the complexity in the relationship between the factors that promote educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana. A practical significance of this study is that it provides teachers what school-instructional activities and community-related factors they will need to design and develop to help African immigrant students to overcome the challenges they face in school.

Recommendations and Future Research

The study points to the need for multicultural education as a driving force to disrupt prevailing negative stereotypes toward Ghanaian-born students. According to Hochschild and Scovronick (2003), multicultural education is “a central way of teaching respect for difference and part of the continuing process for redefining the common American culture” (p. 56). First, the incorporation of multicultural concepts into the curriculum can bring about student willingness to learn and to be engaged (Banks, 2008; Delpit, 2006; Nieto, 2004). Second, additional efforts must be made to incorporate cultural resources into the curriculum content in subjects such as social studies, English, and science in urban high schools on African content knowledge, to help teachers to acknowledge, respond to, and celebrate knowledge, information, and processes that offer fuller and more equitable access to education, particularly to immigrant students from Ghana attending inner-city schools (Goodwin, 2002; Nieto, 2004). This will help restore the value of social and cultural capital as the main pillars of instruction and curriculum development (Hochschild & Scovronick, 2003; Scott, Allen, & Lewis, 2014; Yonezawa, Jones, & Singer, 2011). Third, urban schools must institute programs to help and improve race relations and reduce stereotypes and stereotypical threats based on immigration status, ethnicity, and race in school. This will improve Ghanaian immigrant students’ relations with their U.S.-born peers. Fourth, urban school districts with a large percentage of immigrant students from Africa could create a technology-infused curriculum for newly arrived Ghanaian-born immigrant youth in urban schools to foster their knowledge and development of computer skills. Last, given the increasingly diverse student population in urban schools, teachers must receive professional development training on teaching students from different cultures, particularly those from Ghana, as they bring rich, diverse cultural backgrounds to the classroom and expose their peers and teachers to different ways of understanding the world (Delpit, 2006; Gay, 2010). Teachers in urban schools need to develop strategies that will adopt multiple forms of communication, and recognize that cultural backgrounds of students are central to learning and pivotal not only in communicating and receiving information but also thinking process of groups and individuals to promote effective transformative pedagogy for immigrant students from Ghana (Ladson-Billings, 2007).

The limitations of the study are that a small sample size of 60 immigrant students from Ghana cannot be used to generalize the educational resilience and academic achievement of African-born immigrant students attending urban high schools in the United States. Moreover, the study was conducted via qualitative semistructured interviews, possibly leading to a bias in the coding and interpretation of interview data. This study was limited to immigrant students from Ghana attending urban high schools in one state. The researcher could not make any generalizations from the results in relation to African immigrant students attending urban schools in other states. However, the challenges are similar and need to be addressed. Furthermore, additional research is needed using the empirical method to explore evidence of factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of African immigrant students in urban and suburban schools across states in the United States. A major quantitative study could be conducted about parental resilience and educational achievement of immigrant students from Africa attending urban schools with a large sample size.

In conclusion, the study revealed that there was a relationship between factors that promote and/or constrain educational resilience and academic achievement of immigrant students from Ghana. Overall, the findings demonstrate that school and community-related factors played a significant role in the educational resilience and academic advancement of immigrant students from Ghana (Fraser & Galinsky, 2004). Most participants appeared to have an inner resilience that contributed to their adjustment and adaptation to the curriculum, changes in teaching and learning styles, discrimination, unwelcoming attitudes from teachers, and certain stereotypical behaviors conducive to upward mobility, leading them to achieve excellent academic performance in their new settings. The study captured how immigrant students from Ghana developed educational resilience to process change and overcome the challenges in the schools and communities they reside.

Footnotes

Appendix

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author Biography

Alex Kumi-Yeboah is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University at Albany – State University of New York. His research interests include examining how mediating cross-cultural factors (educational, social, psychological, socio-linguistic) impact educational advancement of Black immigrant students in U.S. schools. He also studies cross-cultural collaboration and multicultural contexts in online education. Current research projects include exploring African immigrant students’ multiple worlds, academic and social experiences in both online and traditional school environments.

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