Teacher Education with an Attitude: Preparing Teachers to Educate Working-Class Students in Their Collective Self-Interest

10. Russian Children in American Schools:Towards Intercultural Dialogue in Diverse Classrooms and Teacher Preparation Programs

10 Russian Children in American Schools: Towards Intercultural Dialogue in Diverse Classrooms and Teacher Preparation Programs Vladimir Ageyev VLADIMIR AGEYEV, CLINICAL PROFESSOR of Educational Studies, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, addresses the problem of communication across cultures between teachers and students using a cross-cultural and sociocultural theoretical framework to describe the situation of American teachers and Russian-speaking immigrant students. He argues that intercultural education should be an important part of all teacher preparation programs. ❖ This chapter, based on ethnographical research, provides some theoretical insights and practical advice on ways to help Russian-speaking immigrant students adjust to American schools. I first address teachers, such as those who work with students who recently emigrated from the former Soviet Union, who may be totally unfamiliar with their students’ home culture. Such teachers need intercultural education skills to bridge important cultural differences and insure the academic success of immigrant children, as well as those children whose homegrown cultures clash with the dominant culture of U.S. schools. In addition, I argue that intercultural dialogue is an important and too often neglected component of multicultural education, so I am also addressing all who seek to improve teacher education programs by improving teachers’ ability to educate all culturally diverse students, including both recent immigrants and native born students from diverse racial, ethnic, and social class backgrounds. NEW DEMOGRAPHICS, NEW EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES The number of families with school-aged children emigrating to the United States from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries does not show any sign of decline; instead, it is steadily growing due to political instability , religious controversies, economic turmoil, civil unrest, war, and terrorism . These changing demographics go along with changing educational 157 158 TEACHER EDUCATION WITH AN ATTITUDE challenges.The previous wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union, from roughly the late sixties to the early nineties, was a rather homogeneous one that consisted mostly of Jewish middle- and upper middle-class professionals . The current wave of immigration, which started in the early nineties, is more diverse and includes a variety of ethnic and racial groups, as well as fundamentalist religious groups such as Baptists and Pentecostals. Among the new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are many low socioeconomic status (SES) families who come from working-class and rural communities. The previous wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union was without doubt an educational success; Russian students from this earlier period are sometimes called a “second model minority” (the first “model minority” being Asian Americans), however flawed the concept of model minority itself may be (Li, 2002). The situation is quite different with the current wave of immigration.While some Russian-speaking students are still quite successful in U.S. schools, a significant number of them are having serious difficulties. In many cases, these children demonstrate low test scores and low motivation to learn; they remain isolated and find it difficult to establish normal relationships with their U.S. peers. The high school dropout rates of these students, especially among males, is higher than average.This is especially prevalent for students coming from families of working-class backgrounds with strong religious associations. The general attitude of these students toward school and learning is, in many ways, similar to American students coming from low SES and workingclass backgrounds. It is common for those students not to have any plans for continuing education on the college level after graduating from the high school; typically, boys look for accessible manual labor, and girls look for swift marriage and raising children. The whole situation, however, is aggravated by cultural differences and language barriers. Unlike their American peers, even those who come from the similar working-class backgrounds, Russian-speaking immigrant children have additional difficulties associated with the needs of a broad cultural and linguistic adaptation, as well as adaptation specifically to U.S. school culture. While some research exists concerning Soviet-era immigrant students (Harrington-Lueker, 1991; Hoot & Bonkareva, 1992), research addressing more than a decade of post-Soviet immigrant students is all but lacking. Especially lacking is research that thoroughly examines Russian-American cultural differences and the implications for students’ academic and social success. This is explained in part by the fact that the sheer number of students from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe remains relatively small when compared with the major U.S. minorities, such as African Americans,Asian Americans , Latino-Americans and Native...