Acculturation

In the fields of anthropology and education, the term acculturation, or the capacity to negotiate effectively both within and outside the primary culture and language, and the related term assimilation have been used extensively to describe specific types of contact between cultures. Anthropologists define culture as a deep, multilayered set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that pervades every aspect of every person's life on every level. In this view, culture is not an isolated portion of reality that can be learned as a set of facts or that can be used mechanistically to refer to phenomena in a given human context, including classrooms. Rather, it is learned, shared, and constantly changing as a result of evolving circumstances and events in our lives.

As a vehicle for cultural change and adaptation, acculturation is viewed as a process, voluntary or involuntary, by which an individual or group adopts one or more of another group's cultural or linguistic traits, resulting in new or blended cultural or linguistic patterns. Thus, for example, rural Mexican immigrant youth who begin wearing baseball caps and listening to heavy metal or rap music are considered to be acculturating or adjusting to contemporary U.S. culture. However, while they may quickly embrace their new nation's clothing styles and musical tastes, it will take a much longer time for their primary language patterns, gestures, facial expressions, value systems, and styles of social interaction to change. According to Sorda Nieto, an expert on bilingual/ multicultural education, immigrant students often maintain a “deep culture” associated with their prior lives while they adapt to their new cultural environments in more superficial ways.

Unlike assimilation, which results in the loss of a person's original cultural or linguistic identity, acculturation involves adaptation and change. A Koyukon [Page 9]Athapaskan who uses a snowmobile instead of sled dogs is still an Athapaskan Indian. It is not a set of particular traits that constitutes ethnic identity as much as whether a person considers himself or herself to be a member of a distinct group.

Acculturation is frequently an additive process, which can result in two or more identities that coexist harmoniously. The ability to function in a bicultural or even multicultural context is known as situational ethnicity. In today's global village, most people actually are multicultural and multilingual to some extent, especially those who live in large, complex societies.

Bilingual and multicultural educators see their goal as helping students to acculturate, rather than assimilate, for they believe that languages and cultures intersect in ways that enrich and energize society. There is persuasive evidence that bilingual schooling practices that affirm students' primary home languages and cultures tend to produce not only improved academic achievement but also happier learners who can effectively communicate with their relatives and eth-nolinguistic communities, as well as with their adopted cultures.

The subtle processes involved in acculturation are often challenging and complex, but it is important for bilingual educators to understand them. Harbans Bhola, a noted international comparative educator who has written extensively on planned processes of societal change, suggests that any type of change can be set in motion by a group, an individual, an institution, or even an entire culture. It may be initiated intentionally or by chance, and the individual, group, institution, or culture may be either the initiator or the recipient of the contact that leads to the change. Power relationships and environmental dynamics can play an important role in acculturation. For example, the individual, group, institution, or culture may be receptive, neutral, or hostile to the contact, depending on factors such as the status of those who are promoting the change; the material resources and time required for the contact to occur; and the ideas, influences, and conceptual basis that are driving the process. In most cases, the direction of change is toward the more powerful entity. Individuals and groups from ostracized or marginalized cultures and languages tend to gravitate or be pulled toward allegedly more “prestigious” languages and cultures. When that happens, those individuals and groups may resist adaptation to the new culture or language and may feel alienated and out of place. When there is mutual acceptance and appreciation of each other's languages and cultures, however, individuals undergoing acculturation tend to enjoy living in a bicultural and bilingual context.

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