From Oppositional Culture to Cultural Integrity: African American Students’ Perceptions of the Activity Structure and Physical Ecology of Classrooms

Abstract

This work extends examination of African American students’ attitudes toward learning and achievement to contrast the oppositional culture (Ogbu and Fordham) and cultural integrity perspectives. We assessed 200 students’ responses to classrooms designed to support competitive, individualistic, communal or high-verve thinking, and behavior. Students preferred activity structures and physical ecologies supporting the expression of communalism and high verve. Relationships with grade point average (GPA) were also examined. Interviews corroborated the questionnaires. Students’ positive attitudes toward academic success are moderated by the value orientation of what must be done to succeed. Implications for reinterpreting students’ resistant/disengaged behavior are discussed.

Keywords

classroom environments culture African American students communalism verve achievement gap oppositional culture acting White student attitudes

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