This study focuses on understanding the impact of the Cultural Identity Group (CIG) program on the racial/ethnic identity development of students who were involved in a sixteen-week program in an ethnically diverse middle school in New England. The program began in October 1996 and ended in May 1997. The cultural identity groups met once a week except during school holidays and vacation. This study was part of a larger project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Cultural Identity Group model on which this study is based was jointly developed and piloted in a Western Massachusetts Elementary School by Phyllis C. Brown, MMHS, Ernest Washington, Ed.D., Allen Ivey, Ed. D. and Mary Bradford-Ivey, Ed.D. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used to gather information about the impact of the Cultural Identity Group on the racial/ethnic identity development of the students as well as on their attitudes toward people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure developed by Jean Phinney (1989) was used to assess students' ethnic awareness. Interviews conducted with a racially/ethnically diverse sample from the Cultural Identity Group provided evidence of the impact of CIG on the racial/ethnic identity of participants. The findings in this study demonstrated that students who participated in CIG gained a heightened sense of their racial/ethnic self as well as an increase in interethnic awareness. There was an emerging awareness of the pervasiveness of racism among participants in this study. Participants also gained skills to help them deal with and interrupt injustice. These skills included recognizing ethnic jokes and developing constructive, practical solutions for confronting racist behavior directed toward adolescents. The implications of this study concern students, and educators, as well as theories of adolescent development and racial identity development. Providing students structured environments in which to talk and learn about their own ethnic background, race and racism may have a positive impact on their racial/ethnic development which may promote better interethnic relationships in school. Any study of adolescent development must consider differences as well as similarities in adolescent development based on racial/ethnic factors. Future and current educators need to learn about theories of racial/ethnic identity and understand how it plays out in adolescents' lives and in school, in order to create school culture that affirms all students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-1745 |
| Date | 01 January 1999 |
| Creators | Brown, Phyllis Charlotte |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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