Communalism as Group Orientation in Latin America

• In Event: Promoting Gap-Closing Outcomes for Diverse Learners Through Asset-Based Teaching

Abstract

Measures of cultural group orientation have served to inform explanations of cultural differences across groups (Triandis et. al., 1983; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). For example, Communalism, a measure of group-orientation emic to African Americans is defined as an emphasis on family broadly defined as social group members (Boykin et. al., 1997). Communalism is unique in that it has been found to be predictive of both behavioral preferences in addition to as performance in educational settings (Hurley et. al., 2005; Hurley et. al., 2009). The current study aimed to determine whether the construct of Communalism could be used to predict learning behaviors in people from Latin America, namely Costa Ricans and Ecuadorians. Currently Ecuador is excluded from the group orientation literature (Oyserman, 2002), and Costa Rica is listed as one of only two Latin American nations considered low in group orientation when assessed with constructs such as self construal and collectivism, although given their regional and ethno-cultural influences there is some reason to expect both cultures to be highly group oriented. We predicted Costa Ricans (study 1) and Ecuadorians (study 2) would score high on measures of group orientation overall, specifically Communalism. We also predict like in previous studies that communalism score would be predictive of group learning performance among Ecuadorians (study 2) as is has been found to be with African Americans (Hurley et. al., 2009). We found an interaction between group learning condition and communalism group (high versus low). Those who scored high on communalism performed significantly better on a math fractions task when they studied in group versus individual settings. Those who scored low on communalism showed the opposite effect. Implications are discussed both for the utilization of cultural context in analyzing children’s performance in school (Boykin, 1994) as well as a broader use of the construct of communalism in the study of culture.

Authors

• Eric Hurley, Pomona College

• Cristina Salvador, Pomona College