Julie Garza

6-16-10

Literacy in Progress: Education and Literacy Rates among

Minority and Immigrant Cultures

     After reading Olaudah Equiano's and Frederick Douglass’s narratives, I asked myself, "How does literacy in progress apply to them?" Both narratives describe the industrious voyage to freedom, which was obtained partially through literacy (Objective 1). Through researching education and literacy rates among ethnic/minority cultures, improving literacy appeared to be the key to success among these groups. I came to believe that the same principle could also apply to immigrants. At this point, I changed the direction of my research from literacy rates in minority narratives to literacy rates among immigrants and decided to reframe my question to, "How does literacy in progress apply to immigrants and minorities? How does literacy impact each group differently?" I soon realized that the differences between immigrant and minority histories (Objective 3) lead to different “social contracts.”  Assimilation or resistance between the two groups varies, because immigrants assimilate, while minorities stand in difference or in opposition to the majority culture. Minorities maintain distinct communities, but immigrants usually distance themselves from minorities in order to assimilate to the dominant culture. Immigrants normally assimilate well, but often lose their ethnic identity by the third generation. Despite these differences, literacy is crucial to success for both groups.

      The key to success, literacy, applies to immigrants too. Deborah Brandt’s article, “Accumulating Literacy: Writing and Learning to Write in the Twentieth Century,” deals with Norwegian immigrants and literacy. Her main subject, Genna May, tells a story about her Norwegian immigrant life. She, along with her eight siblings, did not speak English in the home. At the age of seven, she enrolled in a school, paid for by her parents, and went on to finish high school in 1917. After graduation, she took college courses in typing and shorthand, and then found work at a local business. May believes that immigrants can obtain literacy more freely today, because it is required in schools, as opposed to her childhood, when reading and writing were typically practiced only by the elite. Brandt devised a study that identifies the key “effects of ‘accumulating literacy’” (Brandt 651). Brandt argues that the hardships immigrants encounter are in part due to the lack of public resources exercised. “The capacity of citizens to protect and exercise their civil rights and to claim their fair share of public resources depends critically on the skills of reading and writing” (Brandt 652). Brandt introduces Janet Cornelius’ study on African-American literacy prior to the Civil War, in which she discusses the laws governed by different states that forbade educating slaves. Cornelius suggests that “there will be resistant strains of literate practice in any particular period” (Brandt 655). This implies that literacy can be obtained, although initial barriers will hinder different groups from learning. Brandt concludes her article with the immigrant story of Sam May, Genna May’s son. Mr. May stresses how manners have much more to do with assimilation than individuals believe. Demonstrating the use of manners implies that one has adapted or assimilated to the dominant culture. Therefore it should be kept in mind that literacy is not the only factor affecting assimilation.

[topic sentence, transition from immigrant literacy to minority issues with literacy] John Ogbu's and Herbert Simons’s article, “Voluntary and Involuntary Minorities: A Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance with Some Implications for Education,” discusses the typology of minorities and the differences in school experience among minority groups. The article divides minorities into different classifications: voluntary or immigrant, autonomous, and involuntary or nonimmigrant minorities. After the classification process, a study is performed on the “cultural-ecological theory of minority school performance,” then the article finishes with the theory of pedagogy. “He concluded that the differences were caused by the treatment of minority groups in society at large and in school as well as by the perceptions of the minorities and their responses to school due to such treatment” (Ogbu 155). Ogbu uses a diagram to show how minorities are forced by the community to adapt to the dominant culture, and how “The System” forces the minority groups to adapt. The study noted that the school performance among immigrant minorities is high, while the school performance among nonimmigrants is low. Ogbu argues that the minority school performance cannot depend on “cultural, linguistic, or genetic differences” (Ogbu 157), a position known as cultural-ecological theory. According to this theory, literacy and school performance for minorities depend on two factors. First, the minorities’ treatment or mistreatment by the dominant culture and “their history of incorporation into U.S. society” (Ogbu, 158). Second, the way they respond to the treatment or mistreatment imposed by the dominant culture, and how it affects their interpretation of literacy and schooling. From Ogbu’s research I gathered that structural barriers, along with school dynamics, affect the cultural-ecological theory. Minorities “are not helpless victims,” and they are able to progress in literacy, if they so desire (158).

     After reframing my question from “How does literacy in progress apply to Douglass’ and Equiano’s slave narratives?” to “How does literacy in progress apply to immigrants and minorities?” I found that I still needed to narrow my research down to a particular immigrant group. The better question to have started with would have been: “How does literacy in progress apply to Norwegian immigrants?” Although I considered other immigrant groups to research, the Norwegian immigrant group stood out among the others. Instead of researching both minority and immigrant groups, I would like to continue my research with literacy in progress among Norwegian immigrants. My second research posting would reflect a new question: How do “social contracts” affect Norwegian immigrants’ literacy in progress? 

Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Accumulating Literacy: Writing and Learning to Write in the Twentieth Century” College English, Vol. 57, No. 6 (Oct., 1995), pp. 649-668 <Accessed 2010 June 16 JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/378570>

Brown, Wesley, and Amy Ling. Imagining America: Stories From the Promised Land. New York: Persea, 2002.

Cook-Gumperz, Jenny. "Literacy and Schooling: An Unchanging Equation?" The Social Construction of Literacy. Ed. Jenny Cook-Gumperz. New York: Cambridge UP, 1986.

Cornelius, Janet D. "When I Can Read My Title Clear": Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1991.

Lockridge, Kenneth A. Literacy in Colonial New England. New York: Norton, 1974.

Ogbu, John U. and Simons, Herbert D.  “Voluntary and Involuntary Minorities: A Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance with Some Implications for Education” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (June, 1998), pp.155-188 <Accessed 2010 June 16 JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3196181>

Soltow, Lee, and Edward Stevens. The Rise of Literacy and the Common School in the U.S.A.: Socioeconomic Analysis to 1870. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981.