Belonging to two cultures: Puerto Rican children's developing conceptualization of their own cultural group in the Bronx, New York.
Item
-
Title
-
Belonging to two cultures: Puerto Rican children's developing conceptualization of their own cultural group in the Bronx, New York.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3037422
-
identifier
-
3037422
-
Creator
-
McNamee, Abigail Stahl.
-
Contributor
-
Chair: Roger Hart
-
Date
-
2002
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Developmental | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
-
Abstract
-
The focus of this study is on those domains and their content which emerge as relevant organizers of children's thinking about their cultural group. Domains isolated for the purpose of the study are divided among Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rico the country, and on the dual life of Puerto Ricans as they leave and return to Puerto Rico.;The general question was, How do young New York Puerto Rican children conceptualize their own cultural group? More specifically, it was asked: (a) Around which domains of thinking is the conceptualization of Puerto Ricanness organized? (b) How is a developing conceptualization of Puerto Ricanness evidenced both within these organizing domains and across them?;Twenty-four children at these grade/age levels (eight from first grade, eight from third grade, and eight from fifth grade) participated in individual, face-to-face, open-ended interviews and semi-structured tasks. The children were from one cultural group, Puerto Rican, a dominate group in the site schools and their neighborhood. They were English fluent, bore in New York of Puerto Rican parents and varied, as the Puerto Rican population is varied, in terms of when and how often they visited Puerto Rico. All of these children were students in one of two public elementary schools located across the street from each other in The Bronx, New York.;As an exploratory study, the intention was to describe patterns in responses. No attempt was made to investigate the daily lives of the children thus the explanations of these patterns was limited and must await future research. Children's responses were coded, described, and analyzed for frequency of reference (FRI) to each of nineteen cultural group domains and for conceptual level (CL). Children's thinking was categorized as: Global Conceptualization, Differentiated Conceptualization, Integrated Conceptualization, or Hierarchically Integrated Conceptualization.;The most salient of the cultural group domains (based on frequency of referencing incidents and conceptualization at the higher levels) were Physical Body, Cultural Practices, Dual Life, Language, Personality Traits , and Origin of Puerto Ricanness; the least salient were Nation Status and History. Grade level patterns in frequency of referencing the different cultural group domains and level of conceptualization are described. Homeland visits and family ties were particularly important factors influencing the level of children's conceptualization of Puerto Ricanness.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
