Poster #181 - Racial and Ethnic Identification and Awareness in Dual-Language Settings: The Role of Classroom Context

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Children’s understanding of social groups like race and ethnicity develops rapidly during middle childhood (Ruble et al., 2004), therefore it is important to examine how school contexts influence children’s view of themselves and others. One such context – dual language immersion (DLI) – has shown cognitive and academic benefits (Bialystok & Barac, 2012; Lindholm-Leary & Genessee, 2014), but less is known regarding its influence on children’s understanding of race/ethnicity. Our study takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on Education and Psychology, to examine the influence of participation in a DLI program (vs. English Medium Instruction (EMI)) on children’s understanding of race/ethnicity.
Methods.
Data were collected at a university-affiliated laboratory school in southern California and come from a larger longitudinal evaluation study. Current participants were 3rd graders (N = 64) from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds in either DLI (n= 24) or EMI (n= 40) classrooms. Measures include:
Racial/ethnic identification. Children were shown 28 labeled cards and asked, “Are you [racial/ethnic label]?” (Bernal et al., 1990). Children could provide their own labels and were asked which label was most like them and why (Gillen-O’Neel et al., 2015; Rodriguez et al., 2016).
Intergroup attitudes. Children were read vignettes about and shown pictures of children from different racial/ethnic backgrounds (see Table 2; adapted from Brown, 2011). Children were asked follow-up questions about each child including: how much they want to play with them, how good they are at school, if they want to go to school with them, and if they would have them over for a playdate.
Classroom Composition. Children’s perceptions of ethnic/racial diversity were assessed by asking which of 10 representations look most like their classroom, other classrooms, and their school. The measure was developed for the project based on an adaptation from Cameron et al. (2007) (Mistry & Bailey, 2012).
Results.
DLI students were more likely to identify with a Latinx heritage label (e.g., Mexican) and Spanish compared to EMI students who were more likely to identify as English (Table 1). Justifications for label choice were coded into 7 categories: family heritage, birthplace/residence, cultural practices, categorization, affect/belonging, physical attributions, and social statements. Family heritage was most cited. Analyses of the intergroup attitudes measure revealed an interaction between vignette child’s race and program status in ratings of how much children want to go to school with and have a playdate with the vignette child. Post-hoc analyses indicated significant differences in EMI students’ ratings (Table 2). Specifically, EMI students wanted to go to school with the Chinese American more than the White American and Mexican American children (p < .05) and they wanted to have the Chinese American over for a play date more than the Mexican American child (p < .05). Lastly, DLI and EMI students did not differ in their perceptions of the racial/ethnic composition of the school or EMI classrooms. However, DLI students perceived their classroom as more diverse than EMI students (Table 1). Results suggest DLI programs may impact children’s understanding of race/ethnicity. Implications for research and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Taylor Hazelbaker, UCLA
  Presenting Author

• Katherine M Griffin, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rashmita S. Mistry, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alison Bailey, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author