What is oppositional culture

Proponents of this theory perceive it as an important contribution to understanding one means by which social reproduction occurs i. Proponents also argue that this theory highlights the social psychological implications of social stigma, the negative ramifications of persisting racial and economic segregation, and the important role of peer environments in education.

This article discusses the tenets of the original theory, how researchers subsequently tested the theory, and how the theory has evolved. Oppositional culture theory is attributed to John Ogbu — , an anthropologist who immigrated Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches. Navigating away from this page will delete your results. Mason [ 38 ], in particular, uses the PSID to show that compared to White men, African American men more efficiently translate economic resources into years of education.

Yet, the evidence outlined above overwhelmingly supports that insofar as strategies of action are concerned, Black Americans are motivated to invest in education at least as much as Whites, and probably more. Black or White, the key to implementing a strategy of educational investment is having the economic resources to do so. Net of socioeconomic status, Americans of color are no more opposed than anyone else.

It seems that James S. Coleman [ 52 ] was basically right all those years ago: in the aggregate schools are a dependent variable produced by the demographics of the communities in which they are embedded [ 53 , 54 ].

If we were politically willing to address social and economic issues like jobs, wages, and residential segregation by class and race, then the seemingly systemic failures of the US educational system would be vastly abated. Traditional inputs like per pupil spending, high quality teachers and infrastructure, and the latest pedagogical innovations certainly are necessary and effective for a review see [ 55 ] but they will have their full effect only when the larger socioeconomic environment is addressed.

Because politically we are unwilling to address these larger issues, educational practice is forced to act as if economic inequality and poverty do not matter, but in fact they do.

With no attempt to situate the gap in its economic context, we are left with an incorrect story. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Article of the Year Award: Outstanding research contributions of , as selected by our Chief Editors.

Read the winning articles. Academic Editor: R. Received 04 Feb Accepted 06 Mar Published 12 May References J. View at: Google Scholar J. Ainsworth-Darnell and D. View at: Google Scholar A.

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Black American students in an affluent suburb: A study of academic disengagement. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Skip to main content. Module 4: Student Diversity. Search for:.