Toward Caring Language and Literacy Classrooms for Black Immigrant Youth: Combating Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Moral Licensing

Abstract

Background

In recent years, there has been a shift in migration pattern to the U.S. such that most immigrants are now coming from regions outside of Europe. These new groups (particularly Black immigrant populations) face acts of discrimination and injustices when they display, for example, linguistic and cultural divergence.

Purpose

This article explored the effects of raciolinguistic ideologies and moral licensing on the linguistic, literate, and broader cultural identities of Black immigrant youth and the subsequent impact on their academic achievement.

Method

I proposed a theory that links raciolinguistic ideologies with the concept of moral licensing to flesh out how the interconnection between these two concepts may be applied to explain seemingly helpful actions that are in fact harmful.

Findings

This exploration yielded a number of insights, but the standout point is that there seems to be a White Eurocentric way of being (that seems even present in schools) that has adverse effects on Black immigrants.

Conclusions

Under the guidance of caring teachers, Black immigrant students can be encouraged to feel valued and respected, and this should help to foster and increase their participation in classroom activities.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alidou

(2000). Preparing teachers for the education of new immigrant students from Africa. Action in Teacher Education, 22(S2), 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2000.10463044

Alperin

, & Batalova

(2018, August 1). European immigrants in the United States. Migration Information Source. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/european-immigrants-united-states

Bankston

C. L.

, & Zhou

(1995). Effects of minority-language literacy on the academic achievement of Vietnamese youth in New Orleans. Sociology of Education, 68(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/2112760

Bialik

(2018, February 22). 5 facts about Blacks in the U.S. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/22/5-facts-about-blacks-in-the-u-s/

Calderon

(2014). Uncovering settler grammars in curriculum. Educational Studies, 50(4), 313–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2014.926904

Cummins

(2009). Transformative multiliteracies pedagogy: School-based strategies for closing the achievement gap. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 11(2), 38–56. https://doi.org/10.5555/muvo.11.2.2420352213232u47

Davies

, & Harré

(1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00174.x

Drayton

(1990). The most important agent of civilization: Teaching English in the West Indies, 1838–1986. In Britton

, Shafer

R.E.

, & Watson

(Eds.), Teaching and learning English worldwide (pp. 200–225). Multilingual Matters.

Effron

D. A.

, Cameron

J. S.

, & Monin

(2009). Endorsing Obama licenses favoring Whites. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(3), 590–593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.02.001

10.

Flores

, & Rosa

(2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149

11.

Giroux

(2001, July/August). Schooling fear: Bush's education reform (part 2). Against the Current, 93. https://solidarity-us.org/atc/93/p1446/

12.

Gladwell

(2017, September 20). Revisionist history–Ep. #1: The lady vanishes. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_uUDrCc-t8

13.

Haralambos

, & Holborn

(2008). Sociology: Themes and perspectives (7th ed.). HarperCollins.

14.

Harré

, & Van Langenhove

(Ed.). (1999). Positioning theory: Moral contexts of intentional action. Blackwell.

15.

Imai

, Kanero

, & Masuda

(2016). The relation between language, culture and thought. Current Opinion in Psychology, 8, 70–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.10.011

16.

Khan

, & Dhar

(2006). Licensing effect in consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.43.2.259

17.

Kotin

(2010, August). The changing demographics of America. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-changing-demographics-of-america-538284/

18.

Ladson-Billings

(1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312032003465

19.

Martens

, & Adamson

(2001). Inventing literate identities: The influence of texts and contexts. Literacy Teaching and Learning, 5(2), 27–51.

20.

McCabe

(2011, July 21). African immigrants in the United States. Migration Information Source. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/african-immigrants-united-states

21.

Merritt

A. C.

, Effron

D. A.

, & Monin

(2010). Moral self-licensing: When being good frees us to be bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(5), 344–357. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00263.x

22.

Moje

, & Luke

(2009). Literacy and identity: Examining the metaphors in history and contemporary research. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(4), 415–437. https://doi.org/10.1598/rrq.44.4.7

23.

Nero

(2000). The changing faces of English: A Caribbean perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), 483–510. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587740

24.

Nero

(2006). Language, identity, and education of Caribbean English speakers. World Englishes, 25(3/4), 501–511. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971x.2006.00470.x

25.

Ngo

(2008). Beyond “culture clash” understandings of immigrant experiences. Theory Into Practice, 47(1), 4–11.

26.

Paris

(2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X12441244

27.

Pennycook

(1998). English and the discourses of colonialism. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203006344

28.

Phillipson

(1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press.

29.

Rong

X. L.

, & Brown

(2001). The effects of immigrant generation and ethnicity on educational attainment among young African and Caribbean Blacks in the United States. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 536–566. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.71.3.464r24p1k6v1n43t

30.

Rosa

, & Flores

(2017). Unsettling race and language: Towards a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, 46(5), 621–647. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404517000562

31.

Smith

(2019). (Re)Positioning in the Englishes and (English) literacies of a Black immigrant youth: Towards a transraciolinguistic approach. Theory Into Practice, 58(3), 292–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1599227

32.

Smith

, Cheema

, Kumi-Yeboah

, Warrican

S. J.

, & Alleyne

M. L.

(2018). Language-based differences in the literacy performance of bidialectal youth. Teachers College Record, 120(1), 1–36. https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=21947

33.

Smith

, Warrican

S. J.

, Kumi-Yeboah

, & Richards

(2018). Understanding Afro-Caribbean educators’ experiences with Englishes across Caribbean and U.S. contexts and classrooms: Recursivity, (re)positionality, bidirectionality. Teaching and Teacher Education, 69, 210–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.10.009

34.

Smith

, Warrican

S. J.

, & Williams

(2017). Towards transculturalism in tackling diversity for literacy teacher education. In Zaidi

, & Rowsell

(Eds.), Literacy lives in transcultural times (pp. 191–215). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315400860-16

35.

Stiem

(2018, September 26). Statue wars: What should we do with troublesome monuments? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/26/statue-wars-what-should-we-do-with-troublesome-monuments

36.

Taylor

(2014, April 10). The next America. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/next-america/#

37.

Thompson

B. P.

, Warrican

S. J.

, & Leacock

C. J.

(2011). Education for the future: Shaking off the shackles of colonial times. In Dunkley

(ed.). Readings in Caribbean history and culture: Breaking ground (pp. 61–86). Lexington Books.

38.

Traoré

R. L.

, & Lukens

(2006). This isn't the America I thought I'd find: African students in the urban U.S. high school. University Press of America.

39.

Tummala-Narra

, & Sathasivam-Rueckert

(2016). The experience of ethnic and racial group membership among immigrant-origin adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 31(3), 299–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558415592178

40.

Ungerleider

(2007). Foreword. In Joshee

, & Johnson

(Eds.), Multicultural education policies in Canada and the United States (pp. ix–xiv). UBC Press.

41.

Warrican

S. J.

(2005). Hard words: The challenge of reading and writing for Caribbean students and their teachers. Ian Randle.

42.

Warrican

S. J.

(2012). The complete Caribbean teacher: Literacy. Pearson International.

43.

Warrican

S. J.

, Alleyne

M. L.

, Smith

, Cheema

, & King

(2019). Peer effects in the individual and group literacy achievement of high-school students in a bi-dialectal context. Reading Psychology, 40(2), 117–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2019.1571545

44.

Warrican

S. J.

, Down

, & Spencer-Ernandez

(2008). Exemplary teaching in the Caribbean: Experiences from early literacy classrooms. Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies, 33(1), 1–30.

45.

Warrican

S. J.

, Kumi-Yeboah

, Smith

, & Alleyne

M. L.

(in press). Fostering Senegalese immigrant students’ language and literacy learning: Experiences and academic achievement. In Cooper

, & Ibrahim

(Eds.), Black voices matter: Black immigrants in the United States and the politics of race, language, and multiculturalism. Peter Lang Publishing.

46.

Yoon

(2012). Junsuk and Junhyuck: Adolescent immigrants’ educational journey to success and identity negotiation. American Educational Research Journal, 49(5), 971–1002. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831212443694