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3 IDENTITY MATTERS: ETHNICITY, RACE,AND THE AMERICAN DREAM Hazel Rose Markus A recent poll of Latinos, Asians, and African Americans in California finds that more than 80 percent of the parents of each ethnic group have the very highest educational aspirations for their children (New American Media 2006). These parents expect their children to complete college , and many expect them to complete both college and graduate school. In New York, nearly every student surveyed in an in-depth ethnographic study of African American and Latino students from low-income families agreed that “getting a good education is a practical road to success for a young (Black/Hispanic) person like me” (Carter 2005). Despite a widely shared belief in the transforming effects of education and clear expectations of success, Latino American, African American, and American Indian students are dropping out of high school in crisis proportions. Nationwide , only half of minority students graduate from high school, let alone begin college (Orfield 2004). The hope of enabling all students to aspire to a college education and of providing them with an equal opportunity to fulfill their aspirations is colliding with the reality of schools in which race and ethnicity have become barriers to success. Many students experience their schools as unwelcoming and alienating spaces (Landsman and Lewis 2006; Olsen 1997). As expressed by one Filipina student, “So for us, school is just, you come to classes and you just sit there.And if you sit there long enough they give you a diploma. After a while you figure it out—you don’t get anything and you don’t give anything. The only ones who don’t get it are the ESL kids. People tell us, we should be more like them, we should try hard, and we should study as hard as they do. I get so mad! They are so blind! They still believe. But sooner or later, they’ll get it, too. We just don’t matter” (Olsen 1997, 60). That so many students are turned off and turning away from school is deeply troubling. The promise of equal opportunity at the heart of theAmerican Dream now requires at least a high school diploma (Edley 2002; Guinier 2000). Why so many students do not complete high school or meet only minimal standards is 63 the center of persistent, heated debate: some observers fault teacher preparation (Darling-Hammond 2004) and the level of school funding (Oakes et al. 2000); others emphasize families, social class, insufficient cultural capital, or the students themselves (Lareau 2003; Thernstrom and Thernstrom 2003). The Significance of Identity One factor consistently linked to educational success across several decades of research in education and the social sciences is identity. The aspiration to stay in school and succeed in school requires developing a specific identity— in particular, an understanding of oneself as a student, learner, or achiever (Downey, Eccles, and Chatman 2005; Guay, Marsh, and Boivin 2003; Marsh 1990; Marsh et al. 2005; Steele 1997; Steele, Spencer, and Aronson 2002; Wenger 1998; Wortham 2004; Zirkel 2007). An identity as a student is critical to learning and achievement because it functions as an organizing and interpretive framework with a wide-ranging set of influences on a student’s behavior at school. A student identity gives selfrelevant meaning and value to one’s actions in school, fosters motivation and persistence toward achievement goals, protects against the distractions posed by nonacademic activities, and buffers threats to one’s view of the self as a capable , effective learner or achiever (Bandura 1997; Deci and Ryan 1985; Markus and Nurius 1986; Steele, Spencer, and Aronson 2002; Valentine, DuBois, and Cooper 2004; Eccles and Wigfield 2002). Identity as a student is not a sufficient condition for achievement; it does not take the place of skill development , but it is a necessary condition for learning and skill development. An identity as a student is not an inevitable or a natural consequence of going to school. This identity is more likely to develop, however, when students feel that they are welcomed, included, and belong (Foley and Moss 2000; Steele 1999; Walton and Cohen 2007). Despite the strong empirical foundation for the importance of identity in understanding behavior, identity is often a ready whipping boy in popular discourse. It is diminished as a middle class luxury or disdained as fostering divisive “identity politics” (Michaels 2007). In contrast, this chapter suggests that as communities learn to create public schools where more students feel they belong and can identify...

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