Demystifying Cultural Theories and Practices: Locating Black Immigrant Experiences in Teacher Education Research

The number of immigrants of color residing in the United States reached 13.5 million in March 2005, the highest in U.S. history. By 2010 the number of Black immigrants and their children is estimated to reach five million, and will represent twelve percent of the Black population in the United States. To date, the majority of Black immigrants in the United States are from Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Haiti, and Jamaica, but substantial numbers of immigrants also come from various African countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. As a result of these demographic trends, educational researchers have increased their focus on how Black immigrant youth fare once in the United States. This scholarly attention is varied, emanating from three primary conceptual perspectives: Cultural Ecological Theory, Culture-Centered Theory, and Critical Race Theory. While these theories are promising in providing insight into the experiences of Black immigrant youth, none of them comprehensively capture the intra-group differences and identity processes that affect Black immigrant youth in social and educational settings. This article will address this gap in the literature in three ways: (1) it will discuss the extent to which these three theories do contribute understanding of the sociocultural experiences of Black immigrant youth in U. S. schools; (2) it will identify and problematize the shortcomings in these three theories vis-a-vis Black immigrant students; and (3) it will suggest possibilities for the advancement of a more detailed and otherwise robust theory that more adequately describes the sociocultural experiences of Black immigrant youth and supports their educational development. (Contains 9 notes.)