How does Ogbu explain that some minorities succeed in school
while others don’t?
What are some of the arguments other authors have made about the failure of some minority students?
What are the basic variables the author suggests to examine to find answers to the question of minority school failures:
Conventional explanations of minority school performance
What explanation does the author suggest instead?
What are “cultural models”?
What does Ogbu mean when he argues that the major differences between different minority groups is not their group’s
“experiences of economic, political, or other discriminatory treatment at the hands of the members of the dominant group, nor the cultural and language barriers they encounter in school …..Rather, the more academically successful minorities differ from the less academically successful minorities in the type of cultural model that guides them, that is in the type of understanding they have of the workings of the larger society and of their place as minorities in that working order.” (p.8)
After reading his entire article, do you find his argument convincing? To what extent is it problematic?
Explain the difference between “voluntary” and “involuntary” minorities, provide examples for each type
What are the two types of “initial Terms of Incorporation” for voluntary versus involuntary minorities?
Do involuntary minorities experience discrimination comparable to voluntary minorities?
How do voluntary and
involuntary minorities differ in their response to discrimination?
Use examples for the following key differences:
a) frame of reference for comparing present status and future possibilities
b) folk theory of getting ahead
c) sense of collective identity
d) cultural frame of reference to judge appropriate behavior and affirm group membership and solidarity
e) assessment of extent to which dominant institutions (schools) can be trusted
What is the connection between this reading and Ogbu’s?
How do the Koreans fit two different categories of minorities in the US versus in Japan?
Describe the patterns of discrimination for Koreans in Japan. What were their “terms of incorporation”?
How does it differ from Korean immigrants in the US?
What is the academic record of both Koreans in Japan versus in the US?
Which group do Koreans in Japan resemble most closely in the US?