It is truly a privilege to serve as a panelist among this distinguished
group of colleagues. I am humbled by this honor and exhilarated by the
opportunity to share ideas among people committed to issues that are
important to me.
It's been over eleven years since I arrived in the USA from Sri Lanka. Our
trip to the airport was prolonged by thirteen armored checkpoints because
the city was under a curfew that night. At each checkpoint, my husband,
raising his hands to the air, had to carry our airline tickets which served
as "curfew passes" to an inspector who was surrounded by officers (many
whose breath reeked of alcohol) with trained guns in case my husband made
the 'wrong move'. Our transit in Zurich involved a body search, complete
baggage search, and unexplained isolation in a locked room for two hours
while we watched what we presumed was our flight take off. Apparently, we
had been subjects of a "random" drug check. In New York I held my breath
as
customs officials scanned our passports, wondering if I would be deported
if
they discovered that I was five months pregnant. Such were my first
experiences as a female immigrant; experiences characterized by the
mixed emotions of relief over safe passage, anxiety about an uncertain
future, and the determination to 'make it work' in a country where my
possessions now fit into two suitcases.
My personal and academic experiences as a graduate student have also played
a significant role in shaping my current interest in immigrant education.
As
an "international student", I went through culture shock, gender role
clarification, academic disjunction and decreased self confidence that
characterize the experiences of many immigrant students. My academic
interest in cross-cultural communication (for my master's degree),
internationalization and multicultural education (for my doctoral degree)
laid the groundwork for scholarly pursuit in the area. My move to South
Florida (after graduating from Purdue University in Indiana) has allowed
me
the practical opportunities for research on immigrant student experiences
and the public schools' responsiveness to increasing student diversity. My
current ongoing research involves two educational communities: one that is
predominantly Guatemalan/ Mexican, and the other predominantly Haitian.
Immigrants are a diverse group culturally and economically. Immigrants are
among the richest as well as the poorest groups in the USA; immigrant
families range from being highly educated professionals to being
illiterate.
In a recent review of literature on immigrant experiences I identified
several factors that impact the adaptation of immigrant students in the USA
(Schoorman, 2001). These include:
a) individual factors (e.g. time spent in the USA, age at arrival),
b) family/cultural factors (e.g. socio-economic status, educational
aspirations of the family, language proficiency, cultural identity,
conditions of immigration)
c) community factors (e.g. the presence support networks like culture-based
resources centers and health clinics, openness of the community to
diversity) and
d) educational factors (e.g. quality of teachers, school climate,
instructional support systems).
The interaction of many of these factors and the fact that they do not
impact all students in the same way underscore the complexity of immigrant
experiences. For instance, in poor families, it is often the girls who drop
out of school to take over domestic duties enabling both parents to work.
In
adapting to US culture, girls experience more resistance from their
families
and significant male friends, as they aspire to the more liberal gender
role
identities of females in the USA. Many experience difficulty "fitting in"
socially with their peers because their movements are restricted, dating
and
mixed-gender social interactions are forbidden, and extra-curricular
activities are viewed by families as unnecessary or inappropriate for
females. However, girls are not always worse off on every dimension. In a
survey of students in San Diego, Rumbaut (1995) found that immigrant girls
outperformed boys on academic GPA and had higher educational aspirations.
Immigrant girls tend to be suspended or expelled less often than their male
counterparts.
Another interesting point to note is that, contrary to the popular
assimilationist notion, adherence to native cultural identity is not
necessarily a drawback. Increased "Americanization" has been known to
adversely affect academic achievement, while a family's maintenance of
their
native cultural identity has been found to correlate positively with
academic achievement. However, this could also yield a "two-edged sword"
for
many immigrant girls. For instance, a family's culture-based values, which
require high educational aspirations, might help a girl to take her
education seriously and to maintain a high GPA. Yet, this same family might
require that a girl abandon her educational aspirations in order to fulfill
culture-based roles as wives and mothers. Olsen's (1997) ethnography "Made
in America: Immigrant students in our public schools" describes many
poignant cases of girls torn between pleasing their parents by agreeing to
be married, and fulfilling their personal aspirations of a college
education. Many girls go into marriage with the fervent hope that their
husbands will "allow" them to continue their education. For others, life in
the USA itself is an enigma. Girls see the opportunities available to them
academically and socially, but are not able to attain the empowerment that
they desire because of the cultural pressures against "selling out" or
"acting white". Girls find themselves caught between two cultures: trying
to
escape the oppression of the traditional roles of their mothers but unable
to attain the freedoms of their female US peers.
Teachers of immigrant girls in the USA will most likely continue to find
themselves in a bind between "respecting family culture" and moving girls
towards "self empowerment" as they mentor their newcomer students. Although
these are not necessarily two antithetical visions in all cultural
contexts,
the struggle between the "family values" and the "individual interests",
pressure to assimilate vs. pressure against selling out, old home culture
vs. new home culture emerges, in my opinion, as one of the most salient
issues confronting immigrant girls in the USA.
I have chosen to focus on issues facing female immigrant students, partly
because of my own experiences as well as because of my professional
interest
in multicultural and global education. I also recognize (and sincerely
hope)
that several other social issues could enter our conversations this week.
I look forward to an enriching week of discussion. Thank you once again!
References
Olsen, L. (1997). Made in America: Immigrant students in our public
schools.
New York: The New Press.
Rumbaut, R. (1995). The new Californians: Comparative research findings on
the educational progress of immigrant children. In R. Rumbaut, & W.
Cornelius (Eds.). California's immigrant children: Theory, research and
implications for educational policy. (pp. 18-70). San Diego: Center for
US-Mexican Studies.
Schoorman, D. (2001). Addressing the academic needs of immigrant students:
Issues and trends in immigrant education. In C. Diaz, (Ed.). Multicultural
Education for the 21st century (pp. 85-108). New York: Longman.
________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Dilys Schoorman
Dept. of Teacher Education
College of Education, Room 485 Phone: 561 297 3003
Florida Atlantic University Fax: 561 297 3335
777 Glades Road e-mail:
dschoorm@fau.edu
Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991
________________________________________________________________________________
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