Negotiating a Sense of Identity in a Foreign Land: Navigating Public School Structures and Practices that Often Conflict with Haitian Culture and Values (2013)

Negotiating a Sense of Identity 1

A version of this paper was published as:

Cone, N., Buxton, C., Mahotiere, M. & Lee, O. (2013). Negotiating a Sense of Identity in a Foreign

Land: Navigating Public School Structures and Practices that Often Conflict with Haitian Culture and

Values. Urban Education, 49.

Running Head: NAVIGATING PUBLIC SCHOOL STRUCTURES AND PRACTICES

Negotiating a Sense of Identity in a Foreign Land: Navigating Public School Structures and

Practices that Often Conflict with Haitian Culture and Values


Abstract

As part of a larger investigation into the educational experiences of Haitians in South Florida,

this study explores factors that influence the identity development and academic success of

Haitian students. Individual and focus group interviews with Haitian students, parents, and

teachers provide the context for studying how pressures from both home and school shape the

identity development of Haitian youth. Using a conceptual framework grounded in both

structural and cultural analysis of identity formation, we describe three themes that emerged

from our analysis: (1) learning as recitation or inquiry, (2) teacher as strict parent or lenient

spectator, and (3) peers like me or Americanization.


Negotiating a Sense of Identity in a Foreign Land: Navigating Public School Structures and

Practices that Often Conflict with Haitian Culture and Values

As the school-aged population of the United States continues to grow more racially, ethnically,

and linguistically diverse, English language learning (ELL) students can now be found in

virtually every school in the nation. The number of school-age children (children ages 5-17) who

spoke a language other than English at home rose from 4.7 million to 11.2 million between 1980

and 2009, or from 10% to 21% of the population in this age range (National Center for Education

Statistics, 2011). Currently, over 1 in 5 students (21%) speak a language other than English at

home, and limited English Proficient (LEP) students (the federal term) have more than doubled

from 5% in 1993 to 11% in 2007. These statistics do not count students who were classified as

English language learners (ELLs) when younger but who are now considered fluent English

speakers.

Given that the vast majority of these ELL students — approximately 4.4 million or 80%

— are Spanish-speaking students of Hispanic origin (U.S. Department of Education, 2004), it is

understandable that the research about the needs of ELL students has focused on Spanish

language and Hispanic culture. Research on the educational needs and resources of other cultural

and linguistic groups is generally much less well articulated than is the case for Hispanic culture

and Spanish-speaking ELL students. One such group is Haitian Creole speakers who have come

to the U.S. in increasing numbers over the past few decades.

Haitians have been leaving their native country in significant numbers since the 1960’s,

fleeing economic hardship, natural disasters, and political instability, with South Florida serving

as the primary U.S. point of entry and, in many cases, the final destination for this community

(Stepick, 1998). While Haitian Creole speaking ELL students do not make up a large percentage


of the overall ELL student population nationally, in several large urban areas, including Boston,

New York, and especially South Florida, the Haitian population is quite sizable. The current

estimate is that there are over 500,000 Haitians living in South Florida (Marcelin, Vivian,

DiClemente, Shultz, & Page, 2005), a high percentage of whom are school-aged children. This

number has increased substantially in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, but has

not been accurately counted. Thus, fostering a successful educational experience for Haitian

children is both an ongoing and a particularly timely issue of concern in South Florida schools.

We note that we conducted this study on the schooling of Haitian students in South

Florida before the 2010 earthquake, but in the aftermath of this disaster the need to better

understand how to provide a more comforting and meaningful educational environment for

immigrant Haitian youth and their families in South Florida schools has taken on a new urgency.

We explored the educational experiences of Haitian students as well as Haitian parents and

teachers in hopes of identifying patterns and proposing strategies to improve the educational

experiences and outcomes for Haitian students in U.S. schools. As part of the larger investigation

into the educational experiences of Haitians in South Florida, this study specifically examines

how pressures from both home and school have the potential to shape the identities of Haitian

youth. Using a conceptual framework grounded in both structural and cultural analysis of

identity formation, we describe three themes that emerged from our analysis: (1) learning as

recitation or inquiry, (2) teacher as strict parent or lenient spectator, and (3) peers like me or

Americanization. We begin with a discussion of the educational experiences of Haitian students

in Haiti.

Inequitable Access to Education in Haiti


Haiti’s public education system has been plagued with numerous systemic problems,

even before the 2010 earthquake. These problems, which include limited financial support,

inadequate resources, and antiquated curricula, have contributed to inadequate schooling

experiences. In addition, high dropout rates and low enrollment rates have been documented in

Haitian public schools (deficiencies exacerbated by the earthquake) (Luzincourt & Gulbrandson,

2010). It should be noted, however, that these deficits do not reflect a devaluing of education.

Instead, they are largely a consequence of limited family income and limited systemic supports

for education.

According to the 2002-2003 education census cited by the World Bank (2007), the

majority of Haitian schools (92%) are privatized, meaning that tuition payments are required in

many cases. Because of Haiti’s extreme poverty levels, schools are thus unaffordable to many

students. For example, Luzincourt & Gulbrandson (2010) found that 32% of six-year-olds had

never been to school, and only 55% of children between ages six and twelve were currently

enrolled in school. Similarly, according to Haiti’s 2007 Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy

Paper, “Making a Qualitative Leap Forward,” only 67% of the 123,000 students admitted to

Haitian secondary schools in 2004 actually completed their secondary schooling and the majority

of those students did not go on to any post-secondary education (IMF, 2008).

In addition to the inability of many Haitian families to fund the education of their

children, language also serves as a barrier to educational opportunities. Although French and

Creole are both official languages in Haiti, and all Haitians speak Haitian Creole, French

demarcates educational status among Haitians (Zephir, 2004). Thus the current practice of using

French rather than Creole in Haitian classrooms is discriminatory against youth from low-income

backgrounds. Furthermore, the inequities experienced by these youth are augmented by the lack


of qualified teachers. Only 60% of teachers in Haiti are recognized as being suitably trained

(World Bank, 2006). This is due to a combination of political instability, violent conflicts, low

salaries, and emigration of the better-trained teachers.

As a result of the inequities inherent in Haiti’s education system, many Haitian families

are left extremely frustrated by a system that tends to perpetuate class divisions and contributes

to the cycle of poverty experienced by generations of Haitians. Since education is the strongest

factor associated with decreasing poverty, many Haitian immigrants and their families who come

to the United States, especially those from impoverished backgrounds, do so largely in pursuit of

better educational opportunities for their children.

After enrolling in U.S. schools, many Haitian immigrant youth encounter vastly different

education policies, school cultures, teaching practices, curriculum materials, and accepted ways

of knowing and learning. For example, in Haiti, students are given a choice of pursuing a

“professional,” “classical,” or “technical” educational track (Nicolas, DeSilva, & Rabenstein,

2009). Haitian immigrant youth in the U.S. must also contend with shifts in cultural practices,

which may lead to cultural misunderstandings and isolation (Nicolas et al., 2009; Schnepf,

2007). With the numerous challenges faced by Haitian youth, it is important to gain a better

understanding of how home and school experiences might impact their identity formation, as

they struggle both to fit in and to “get ahead” as immigrants in South Florida.

Conceptual Framework

Our understanding of the ways that the Haitian students, parents, and teachers in our

study negotiated and made sense of their experiences at home and in school, in Haiti and in

South Florida, was informed by two main theoretical perspectives on identity formation:

structural and cultural perspectives. We note that after an extensive review of the literature, no


systematic body of work exists that has documented the impact of home and schooling

experiences on Haitian students’ identity formation. Thus, the present study contributes to this

limited literature.

Identity Formation

Anthropologists and sociologists of education have long considered culture and identity

to be fundamental components of any analysis of the practices of schooling. While culture can be

thought of as collective sense-making about what is important within a given community,

identity is generally viewed as an individual process of assimilating cultural ideas and then

presenting and representing those ideas as part of oneself in a given context. Both culture and

identity are fluid and evolving, as individuals and communities continually respond to the

changing world around them. The greater the changes, the greater the need for both individuals

and communities to constantly rethink what is important for their survival and well being.

The Haitian students, parents, and teachers in our study confronted many changes in both

experiences and expectations as they moved from homes, neighborhoods, and schools in Haiti to

homes, neighborhoods, and schools in South Florida. An analysis of identity formation serves as

a way to interpret the individual and communal reactions and responses to these changes. Our

study is grounded in both structural and cultural analysis of identity formation, two perspectives

that are complimentary in the sense that while structural analysis explains how identity is

reproduced, cultural analysis explains how identity evolves. Or to put it another way, structural

analysis explores how larger structures constrain an individual’s identity choices, while cultural

analysis explores how individuals exert agency to make identity choices that may push back

against as well as conform to the larger social structures.


Structural analysis of identity. In sociology and anthropology, structural features are

taken to be those that relate to broad aspects of social organization that proscribe and delimit

possible courses of action. Social class is often highlighted as the most pivotal structural feature,

but other features such as race, ethnicity, gender, and religious affiliation can also be viewed as

structural features of social organization. Initially derived from Marxist critiques of capitalism, a

structural analysis perspective on identity formation may largely be understood through theories

of social reproduction. These theories are responsive to questions about identity, as it relates to

persistent structural inequalities, such as why children from working class families are likely to

end up in working class jobs(Willis, 1977). Schools serve as one of the primary sites in which

social reproduction occurs. While in theory, democratic societies have created public schools as

vehicles for equalizing class differences, in practice, schools often reinforce social inequalities.

The role of schools in social reproduction can be considered along a continuum from more

deterministic to less structurally determined models.

The deterministic perspective, most clearly articulated by Bowles and Gintis (1976) and

Bourdieu (1977), argues that capitalist economic systems require the ongoing production of a

small managerial class and a large working class. Schools serve as a primary setting for this

reproduction by providing differentiated educational experiences and structures for those who

will be the leaders and those who will be the followers in the workplace. Additionally, Bourdieu

argued that children acquire cultural capital in the home, and that the cultural capital learned in

middle and upper class families is typically rewarded in schools, whereas the cultural capital

learned in working class families is devalued in school. In other words, schools allow students to

trade more valued cultural capital for successful academic performance that can later be traded

again for better jobs and more economic capital. These effects can be compounded when


individuals must cross linguistic and ethnic borders as well as class borders (such is the case with

Haitians moving to South Florida).

Less structurally determined models of identity formation give more weight to the role

that individuals play in response to structural forces by beginning with individual experiences

and then connecting these experiences to larger social structures. For example, Heath (1983)

explored the mechanisms behind how linguistic and cultural capital, which could be leveraged

into school success, was created differentially between lower class and middle class families.

Heath found that although children from lower class families might, through observation,

eventually learn the linguistic patterns that would allow them to succeed in the school culture,

they were much less likely than their middle class peers to enter school knowing these patterns.

Similarly, Willis (1977) explored how working class high school boys not only came to devalue

school success out of a belief that it would not provide them with substantively different job

opportunities, but also came to glorify the “masculinity” of the low wage factory jobs that their

fathers and older male relatives held. Thus, even when highlighting the role of the individual,

social reproduction theorists focus on the structural features that serve to reproduce the economic

(as well as the racial and gender-based) status quo.

From the structural perspective, whether interpreted more or less deterministically,

identity is largely formed due to the effects of external forces at work upon the individual. While

still widely acknowledged for providing necessary insights into the role of schools as sites of

social reproduction, a structural analysis of identity has been viewed for some time as an

incomplete picture of the forces that shape identity formation (Foley & Moss, 2001; Levinson &

Holland, 1996). More current analyses highlight the need to attend to increasingly fluid and less


structurally determined features of culture, context, and agency; features that highlight the roles

and choices of individuals acting both within and against the larger social structures.

Cultural analysis of identity. A cultural perspective on identity formation foregrounds

the ways in which evolving social and cultural contexts can change the meanings of social (and

eventually structural) categories that are used to interpret identity. While structural analysis

focuses on a (largely Marxist) theoretical definition of the situation in which people act, a

cultural analysis focuses on the actor's own definition of the situation in which he or she acts. For

example, in some settings, academic success (the situation) might be interpreted and defined as

“acting White” or “selling out” for students from minority groups (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986),

while in other settings, expressing pride in academic success (the same situation) coupled with

speaking Black English may be socially accepted (Davidson, 1996).

Davidson (1996) defines identity as “the presentation of self in a matrix of social

relationships — a pattern of social assertion that significant others recognize and come to

expect” (p. 2). In other words, identity involves ways of talking, acting, and appearing (dress,

grooming, items one carries, etc.) that send messages to others about who an individual is. Such

identities may both conform to and oppose the proscribed structural norms. Identities are highly

malleable, especially for youths and adolescents, and may change depending on varying social

contexts or over time within a given social context. Additionally, the same presentation of self

may be interpreted and understood differently in different social contexts. Unlike structural

interpretations of identity, which foreground largely immutable features of the individual,

cultural interpretations of identity highlight the role of more fluid features of the individual, such

as dress, language use, tool use, and peer group affiliation (Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Weis &

Fine, 2005).


Summary. Taken together, our conceptual framework of structural and cultural analysis

of identity formation is used to explore how individual identities are formed within and against

larger societal forces and structures. These structures provide the (tacitly understood)

frameworks that govern the functioning of schools, homes and communities in our study.

Individuals also have agency to counter these determining structures, acting in ways that

challenge the status quo (though they must do so while functioning within those structures). In

other words, a structural analysis explains how identity is reproduced, whereas a cultural analysis

explains how identity evolves. For example, the norms for what it means to project a “good

Haitian student” identity or a “good Haitian parent” identity are constrained and restricted by

structural features of class, race and gender, which place pressures upon individuals to conform

to traditional identity roles and norms. Yet, for those who are willing to pay the social costs for

resisting those norms, traditional identities can be gradually reshaped as cultural pressures are

applied at the level of the individual or small group.

Haitian Identity

This framework seems well suited for our exploration of identity formation within the

Haitian community in South Florida. As immigrants coming from a largely class stratified and

racially homogenous context in Haiti to a somewhat less class stratified but racially

heterogeneous context in South Florida, the struggle of identity formation among Haitian school

children is intricate and multi-faceted. The identities these students create for themselves during

their elementary and middle school years are likely to have life-long social and economic

consequences. We draw upon the limited but growing literature on the experiences of Haitian

students in U.S. schools to consider how Haitian identity formation might be framed in terms of

structural and cultural interpretations. We note that identity formation in the U.S. Haitian


community is not a static construct, but has evolved as the Haitian community in South Florida

has grown in both number and influence over the last several decades.

Structural analysis of Haitian identity. First generation Haitians have generally come

to the U.S. expecting an economic, social and political situation that is significantly better than

what they left behind in Haiti. Haitian immigrants soon realize, however, that the treatment they

expected to receive from their new host country may not be as idealistic as they imagined. Life in

the U.S. for many Haitians begins with a significant diminution in social status, evident in the

kinds of employment typical of new Haitian immigrants. Former teachers, accountants, or

government bureaucrats often find themselves working, at least initially, as taxi drivers, nannies,

or custodians. Even more fundamentally distressing for many Haitian immigrants is the

discovery that, by virtue of their race, they are considered by many to be an inferior group in

U.S. society (Zephir, 1996). It comes as a shock to many Haitians when they are subject to

racially discriminatory practices in the U.S. – practices which ignore their deeply held beliefs in

racial equality, which has been fundamental to Haitian culture since its independence movement.

While Haiti is a country with glaring class inequities, most Haitians claim to be all of one race.

In South Florida, many Haitians confront a racist reality that is entirely foreign to them. As

Zephir put it, “as Black people, their ‘proper’ place has already been reserved for them at the

bottom of the ladder” (p. 107).

Further, the role of schools as venues for the cultural assimilation of newcomers has often

been viewed in the transplanted Haitian community as detrimental to their children’s well being

(Marcelin & Marcelin, 2001). Most Haitians arriving in South Florida find themselves, at least

initially, in neighborhoods where the schools suffer from a range of problems typical of many

poor, inner-city schools today, such as low achievement, high bureaucratic control, undertrained


teachers, lack of resources, high crime rates, and persistent bullying. Haitian newcomers already

find themselves at a disadvantage in U.S. schools since, largely based on their race, they are

perceived to lack the social and cultural capital necessary to enact a good student identity. This

disadvantage is generally compounded by impoverished educational experiences in their new

school and by a limited exposure to academic or economic success within their new community

environment.

Thus, much like Willis’ “lads,” the group of boys who rebel against their school

experiences, many Haitian youth in South Florida end up setting their educational and

professional goals low, often dropping out of school and ending up unemployed, underemployed,

or in low paying service jobs with little room for advancement (Marcelin & Marcelin, 2001).

Invoking a structural analysis, we might say that this social reproduction takes place because

larger social structures are constraining individuals’ identity choices, despite the fact that Haitian

culture places great value on the role of education. These structures insidiously push Haitians as

Blacks, immigrants, and non-English speakers into a low socio-economic class, with little

opportunity for educational or economic advancement.

Cultural analysis of Haitian identity. A cultural analysis of Haitian identity asks us to

consider the actor's definition of the situation in which he or she acts. Arriving in the U.S.,

Haitian youth quickly learn that the identities they had previously formed in Haitian schools,

neighborhoods, and homes seem incompatible with the culture of their new host country. Feeling

out of place, Haitian youth try to redefine themselves. Most look for peer role models, and with

the first obvious marker of similarity being skin color, many Haitians identify with African-

American youth and try to mimic their behavior (Cadet, 1998). Thus, newly arrived Haitian

immigrants may find themselves defining their identity using role models who likewise come


from predominantly economically disadvantaged cultural groups and who have learned to

question the economic value of education in the intellectually impoverished schools that they are

forced to attend. Largely isolated from a fundamentally different U.S. education system —

developed for and provided to students who do not look or sound like them — Haitian students

may come to question the value of education as well. By the time they become aware of these

educational inequities, it may already be too late to escape the press of structural forces moving

them towards social reproduction into working class jobs or no job at all.

A cultural analysis of Haitian identity formation must also take language into account.

When Haitian students enter the classroom, they stand out because they either do not speak

English or speak it with a noticeable accent. Based on linguistic difference, they are often

stigmatized by other children including African-American children, a situation that may be both

unexpected and difficult to comprehend. They may also perceive teachers as unwelcoming,

treating them as foreigners and calling attention to cultural and linguistic differences

intentionally or unintentionally. As they struggle to redefine their identities, Haitian youth in

South Florida have traditionally chosen either to form their own clicks, or to try to assimilate an

African-American identity, which may seem to be better established and with clearer guidelines

(Stepick, 1998).

As a population in economic and political exile in the U.S., it is little wonder that Haitian

youth experience conflicts over the nature of the identity they wish to project. According to

Zephir (1996), Haitians have forged a unique ethnicity through a set of post-independence

traditions not shared by other groups in the Caribbean. Haitians are united through the common

language of Creole, ethnicity, and culture. However, the country is also divided along structural

lines, such as between the educated and the non-educated, the haves and the have not’s, and the


French speakers and the Creole-only speakers. When Haitians arrive in the U.S., they already

bear a particular set of identity conflicts that were formed in their homeland. Their immigrant

status in the U.S. and a misunderstanding by many Americans of who Haitians are and where

they come from further exacerbate these identity conflicts.

Haitians continue to be seen as African-Americans, despite having experienced a cultural

history quite different from African-Americans in the U.S., and often find it difficult to identify

with them, at least initially. As Bryce-Laporte (1972) noted several decades ago, “Haitians are

seen as Blacks by Whites and as foreigners by native-born Blacks” (p. 54). This external

perception of Haitians in South Florida has not changed significantly since that time, however,

the self-perception of Haitian immigrant identity has evolved a great deal in recent years.

Unlike the 1980’s and 90’s when many Haitian youth were resistant to identifying

themselves as Haitian, the 2000’s have been a time of revival of Haitian pride. This pride is often

explicitly linked to Haitian pop culture in the U.S. For example, when Haitian-born Wyclef Jean

walked onto the stage of the 1997 Grammy Awards wrapped in a Haitian flag, there was a sense

of pride experienced by Haitian-Americans (Zephir, 2001). Wyclef Jean’s overt pride in his

heritage served as an atavistic platform for Haitians to express their “Haitianness,” similar to

how African-Americans defined their “blackness” in the sixties. This change may not be

evidenced by statistics but unfolds in South Florida’s streets. It is evidenced in the blasting of

Haitian music in young people’s cars, the making of Haitian movies, and the overcrowding of

parks and clubs by Haitian youth wherever a Haitian musical group is performing. Helped by the

fame of Wyclef Jean and other prominent Haitians, such as NBA stars Olden Polynice and Mario

Elie, the Haitian community in South Florida has grown confident in expressing its own unique

cultural identity.


Another change fueling this renaissance of pride has been the hiring of greater numbers

of Haitian teachers and administrators throughout the school systems in South Florida. Using

events such as Haitian Flag Day, these individuals have been promoting Haitian culture inside

and outside of their classrooms through celebration of Haiti’s past and present. In so doing, they

help provide the support necessary to encourage Haitian students to explore positive ways in

which being a part of the Haitian Diaspora can shape their identities. Thus, from a cultural

analysis perspective, the story of Haitian identity formation is a struggle to define both who one

is and who one is not. While acknowledging the influence of dominant social structures, a

cultural analysis of Haitian identity foregrounds ways in which individuals exert agency to make

identity choices that may push back against oppressive social structures and gradually shift those

structures over time.

Purpose of the Study and Research Question

As we consider the school experiences of individual Haitian students, parents, and

teachers in Haitian and U.S. societies, we are guided by both structural and cultural

interpretations of identity formation within the specific context of the Haitian community in

South Florida. We believe that identity, or the presentation of self in the context of social

relationships, whether taking the form of resistance or assimilation to academic expectations,

cannot be separated from inequitable power dynamics both in schools and in society more

broadly. By applying this framework to the experiences of Haitian students, parents, and teachers

in South Florida, we sought to answer the following research question: How is the identity

development of Haitian students shaped and influenced by U.S. public school structures and

pedagogical practices that often conflict with their Haitian culture and values?

Methods


Research Context

Research setting. The study was conducted in a large urban school district in South

Florida. During the year in which the study was conducted, the ethnic makeup of the student

population of the school district was 59% Hispanic, 29% Black (including 7.4% Haitian, as

extrapolated from the district data on students’ home language), 10% White Non-Hispanic, and

2% Asian/Native American. Within the district, 70% of the elementary students participated in

free or reduced lunch programs, and 24% were designated as limited English proficient (LEP).

Research team. The research was conducted by a six-member team. Two members were

science educators whose research focused primarily on how language and culture influenced the

teaching and learning of science. One member was a cultural and linguistic anthropologist. The

remaining three members, all of whom were born in Haiti and educated in both Haiti and the

U.S., served as interviewers. All three had experience as classroom teachers, possessed graduate

degrees in English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or multicultural education, and were

fluent in both Haitian Creole and English.

Participants

Three groups of participants were selected to represent the primary stakeholders in the

challenge of creating supportive and successful learning environments for Haitian students in

U.S. schools. First, student participants were able to discuss the varying and sometimes

competing cultural expectations they felt as they moved back and forth between school and

community settings. Middle school students were selected to allow for a range of educational

experiences both in Haiti and in the U.S. Second, parent participants were able to speak to the

value they placed upon the education of their children, the role that culture and identity

formation played in their own education, and the confusion they sometimes felt due to the


differences between schooling in Haiti and schooling in the U.S. Finally, Haitian teacher

participants were able to provide both “insider” and “outsider” perspectives on the cultural and

academic norms in the school settings, and the role that teachers play in facilitating both student

and parent understanding of these norms and practices. Together, the three participant groups

provide a holistic picture of the competing and complementary roles that home, community and

school environments play in the identity formation of Haitian youth in South Florida.

Student participants. The student group consisted of 12 Haitian middle school students.

The middle school that these students attended had a student ethnic makeup of 52% Hispanic,

42% Black (predominantly Haitian students), 5% White Non-Hispanic, and 1% Asian/Native

American students. 93% of the students participated in the free or reduced price lunch programs,

and 9% were designated as LEP. ESOL teachers at the school identified a pool of students who

had schooling experiences both in Haiti and in the U.S., and included boys and girls at all three

grade levels (grades 6 through 8).

The students were all fairly new arrivals in the U.S., with residency ranging from one

month to three years. Ten of the 12 were enrolled in ESOL programs and the other two had been

exited after two years. All the students came from Haiti to South Florida directly. Many resided

in the U.S. with legal guardians (usually uncles and/or aunts) while their parents remained in

Haiti. Others joined their parents and younger siblings after having lived with legal guardians in

Haiti. Only two of the 12 students lived with both parents and all their siblings.

Parent participants. The study involved 12 Haitian parents of school age children.

ESOL teachers at three schools with large numbers of Haitian students identified a pool of

parents to represent a cross-section of gender, socioeconomic status, education (ranging from

elementary to postgraduate education), and location of residence in Haiti (capital city, other


cities, or rural areas). The final selection of parent participants was based on education level,

with 6 parents having received at least some post-secondary education and the other 6 parents

not having received any post-secondary education. We also sought to include a broad range of

time of U.S. residency, ranging from about 4 months to about 16 years, with roughly half of the

parents considered to be new arrivals (less than 3 years in the U.S.).

All the parents came from Haiti to South Florida directly. Six of the 12 parents held low

wage labor jobs in restaurants, daycares, and hotels, while the other six (mostly members of the

high education group) were looking for employment at the time of the study. All 12 were

attending or had previously attended school in the U.S. to learn or improve their English and/or

to seek job training for employment.

Teacher participants. The 12 Haitian-American school teachers came from six schools

with high proportions of Haitian students. We refer to the teachers as Haitian-American because

they referred to themselves this way based on their long residency in the U.S. Unlike all the

students and many of the parents who were new arrivals to the U.S., the teachers were all long

time U.S. residents ranging from 9 to 32 years. Through personal contacts and contacts through

Haitian educational organizations in the school district, a pool of Haitian-American teachers was

identified. From this pool, 12 teachers who had attended schools in Haiti and were currently

teaching in the U.S. were selected. Five were male and seven were female. Seven came from

Haiti to South Florida directly, and the others had lived in New York or the Bahamas first. Some

were teachers of ESOL or Curriculum Content in the Home Language (CCHL), and others were

general education teachers. Most of the general education teachers reported having taught ESOL

or CCHL at various points in their teaching careers. Three started their teaching careers in Haiti,

and the other nine started their teaching careers once in the U.S.


Instruments

Two similar sets of interview protocols were developed: one for focus group interviews

and the other for individual interviews. The interview protocols were developed by the research

team based on our previous research on language, culture, and identity and on our reading of the

literature specific to the education of Haitians. All the protocols for students, parents, and

teachers followed a parallel format. Questions were open-ended to encourage participants to

reflect in depth and to leave room for factors that the research team might not have considered to

be relevant. An excerpt from the individual interview protocol with teachers is included in the

Appendix as an example of the nature of the interview questions.

Data Collection

Data collection included focus group interviews as well as individual interviews with

each participant. The three bilingual English/Haitian Creole speaking members of the research

team conducted the interviews, with the first conducting all student interviews, the second all

parent interviews, and the third all teacher interviews. Student interviews were conducted at the

school site. Focus group interviews with parents and teachers were conducted at the

interviewers’ homes and individual interviews were conducted either at the interviewers’ or

participants’ homes.

The language of the interviews was left to the preference of the participants. All of the

student interviews, except one, were conducted in Haitian Creole. All the interviews with parents

were conducted in Haitian Creole. All the interviews with teachers were conducted in English,

except one that was conducted in a combination of English and Haitian Creole. Focus group

interviews were conducted both in English and Haitian Creole. Across all participant groups,

focus group interviews lasted from 1 to 1.5 hours, and individual interviews lasted from 45


minutes to 1.5 hours. For each of the three sets of participants, three focus groups and 12

individual interviews were conducted. Thus, a total of nine focus group interviews and 36

individual interviews were conducted. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed, and the

30 interviews that were conducted in Haitian Creole were translated into English.

Data Analysis

Conceptualizing structural and cultural constructions of identity required us to trace

identity issues upward and outward from the level of the school to include the home and

community, as well as downward and inward to address individual struggles with identity

formation. To this end, it was essential to balance the perspectives of students, parents, and

teachers and to explore connections among and across these groups in trying to understand links

between the local and the translocal. While all of our interviews were conducted in South

Florida, the study participants all had translocal experiences in both Haiti and the U.S. that

influenced their identity formation in the context of schooling. Our analysis needed to capture

and interpret these experiences.

First, a matrix was created whereby the segments of each interview transcript dealing

with issues of schooling and issues of living in the U.S. were pulled out and arranged in a table.

Then, open coding was used to look for patterns of response and to assign codes within each

group for the teachers, students, and parents, respectively. Frequency counts were made of the

response codes. Next, related questions asked of the three groups of participants were clustered

together. Within each group, codes were compared to establish cross-group coding patterns.

Together, these within-group and cross-group codes served as the basis for the assertions made

in the results section. Illustrative quotes were then sought from the original transcripts to

represent major themes.


Results

Three prominent themes emerged from how the three groups of study participants

(students, parents and teachers) interpreted and responded to their experiences of academic and

social transition from Haitian to urban U.S. schools, and how these experiences shaped their

responses to schooling in the U.S. context. These themes can be viewed as a series of interrelated

tensions, which we refer to as (1) learning as recitation or inquiry, (2) teacher as strict parent or

lenient spectator, and (3) peers like me or Americanization. The three themes are discussed, in

turn, with attention given to how each theme serves as a marker of structural and cultural

features that both conflict with and complement the participants’ Haitian identity.

When illustrative quotes are given from parents (P), teachers (T), and students (S), we do

not identify the education level (high or low), location of residence, or the period of residency

(established or newcomer), because we found no clear patterns to responses across these

variables.

Learning as Recitation or Inquiry

A major difference between the Haitian and the U.S. public school system is the

pedagogical approach to teaching and learning. The Haitian system places an emphasis on

learning as the accumulation of a factual knowledge base. As a result, teachers routinely wrote

on the board, dictated notes, and emphasized rote memorization of material. Students were then

expected to recite these lessons on the following day. Students affirmed that memorization and

recitation were the pedagogical norms in Haiti and required considerable effort to meet teachers’

expectations.


S1: In my school, they would give us history, geography, and science to memorize every

day. We had to recite everything the next morning. We had to go one by one. If you

make a little mistake, you’re not good. You will get whipped.

S2: When I was in Haiti, I could not go out because on the weekends they gave a great

deal of homework as well as lessons to memorize. So, I had to study in order to recite

on Monday.

The majority of parents also underscored the emphasis on memorization and recitation in

Haiti. They believed that this pedagogical approach led students to study hard at home in the

evening and on weekends. In contrast, parents noticed little homework in the U.S. and expressed

confusion about the U.S. education system and a desire for teachers to assign more homework to

keep the students focused on learning.

P1: In Haiti, we have a memorization-based system, where the child has to memorize all

his lessons and know them by heart. Many times they are studying until midnight. I

have noticed that in this country children get the maximum at school. I am under the

impression that all the work that has to be done is done at school. I find that when

they come home, they have an awful lot of free time. I am always asking myself what

is going on. Do they do their homework at school? Or is it that they don't have any? I

can only conclude that it is done with them at school. Does that mean that they set

aside a specific time to have them do their homework? Is this how the program is

designed? I don't really know, but I would like for them to be assigned more at home

activities, because they have too much free time.


Parents believed that because their children had little homework, the teachers were

putting the responsibility for supporting and reinforcing their children’s learning back on the

parents.

P4: I’ve noticed that when American students here come from school, they have a very

light homework load. This becomes a major responsibility for the parents, who have

to take them to the library, to push them beyond the school’s curriculum. I am under

the impression that all their assignments or any other work is done at school, because

we can see their progress more or less through the reports that they are given. We

follow them very closely and can see that there is a certain degree of adaptation that’s

taking place.

While some parents discussed the value of the “rigorous” curriculum in Haiti, other

parents highlighted the possible negative consequences of instruction that required students in

Haiti to memorize chapter after chapter, regardless of comprehension. They contrasted this to the

U.S. school system, which emphasized the importance of involving students in hands-on

activities and other strategies to promote comprehension. The same instructional practices were

sometimes interpreted in different ways when comparing the Haitian and U.S. educational

systems.

P7: [In the U.S.] they cover the topic with the child and then assign them to do things on

their own. In Haiti, [the teachers] take their time to go to the blackboard with the kids

and teach them everything using the blackboard.

P5: Well I see here…for me I see that it’s much better here, because in Haiti they just

cram their brains. They have the children memorize a lot of materials that they’ll


forget later. Here it’s mostly…the teacher covers the general…like the main ideas and

the child is to do research on it afterward. I think that helps the child.

Echoing what students and parents said, many of the Haitian teachers also described the

focus on memorization and recitation in Haiti. Some teachers highlighted what they considered

to be positive aspects of this approach. They believed that requiring students to memorize and

recite large chunks of information involved hard work and a commitment to academics on the

part of the students.

T1: They [teachers in Haiti] expect you to learn. There is no failure. You cannot fail.

There is no such word. When I went to school in Haiti, I had to memorize things, but

it had its good side. We were prepared, and we knew exactly why we were doing

things. I still believe that education in Haiti was right.

However, some teachers pointed out the limitations of this approach, especially as it related to

students making the transition to learning in U.S. classrooms.

T3: There is rote learning or memorization [in Haiti] as my colleagues have already said.

I’m looking for critical thinking, and when these students were so used to just

studying what is grammar and they tell you what the grammar rules are and now I’m

telling them why, why have you chosen this answer, they are not able to answer.

Other teachers expressed concern that newly arrived Haitian students were overwhelmed

by the change in requirements and did not know how to adjust to this new pedagogical approach.

As a result, the Haitian students became “lazy” because students in the U.S. had much more

freedom in their learning than students in Haiti.

T5: When they come here, they don’t have to do all that memorization. Everything is

basically laid back. The pressure is not as much on them as it was in Haiti. So, to me


they become lazy. All of the instruction that they had, all of the values that they had

when they were in school, all of that is gone out the window. It’s like, it’s wasted

because they don’t do it here because the pressure is not that much.

Structural analysis of identity formation. We can interpret participants’ discussion of

the theme of learning as recitation or inquiry in terms of structural features (e.g., social

reproduction of identity) that have shifted in the transition from life in Haiti to life in South

Florida. The educational capital possessed by Haitian students, i.e., the ability to memorize large

chunks of information, tends to be devalued in U.S. schools. Conversely, the educational capital

valued in U.S. schools, i.e., the ability to think critically and engage in inquiry-based learning

independent of teacher direction, is poorly understood by Haitian students or parents. These

pedagogical differences, as well as the failure of schools that largely serve the urban poor to

adequately explain the type of learning that is most highly valued, contribute to Haitian students

and parents feeling marginalized and locked out of the opportunity structures correlated with

upward social mobility.

Within both Haitian and U.S. contexts, social class is impacted by an individual’s access

to schooling, which in turn affects economic progression and access to power. Thus, the partial

understanding that the Haitian students and parents expressed about their understanding of U.S.

schooling preserves asymmetrical power relationships, which in turn maintains economic

stratification that is linked to race, ethnicity and social class. As a result, students are forced to

(re)negotiate their Haitian identities, adjusting to what U.S. schools prescribe as a “good student

identity,” which would make social mobility more of a possibility.

Cultural analysis of identity formation. Similarly, we can interpret participants’

discussion of the theme of learning as recitation or inquiry in terms of cultural features that may


gradually shift both Haitian student identity and the structures of schooling. As Haitian students

enter the U.S. public school system, they must reconceptualize their view of themselves as

learners. For example, student and parent participants were puzzled by the myriad of possible

correct answers when responding to open-ended questions. Additionally, students were confused

by the teacher’s shifting roles during activities, such as refusing to answer direct questions about

right and wrong answers and demanding that students take more control of their learning.

Different students adapted to and embraced this transition at different speeds and with varying

degrees of success. Most interesting is the ambivalence that many students as well as teachers

reported about this lessening of authority. Because the interactions between teachers and students

are culturally defined, students and parents can misunderstand this shift as an abrogation of

responsibility on the part of the teacher as authority figure and surrogate parent, a theme taken up

in the next section.

Teacher as Strict Parent or Lenient Spectator

The second consistent difference pointed out between schooling in Haiti and schooling in

the U.S. related to the role of the teacher as either a strict parent or a lenient spectator. In Haiti,

because teachers are perceived as surrogate parents while students are in their care, their role

explicitly extends to that of a disciplinarian. This difference becomes particularly relevant when

coupled with more general differences in disciplinary approaches between Haiti and the U.S.

(e.g., whipping in Haiti vs. time out or loss of privileges in the U.S.).

S2: When you don’t do your homework and you misbehave [in Haiti], the teacher would

send you to the office. There, you get whipped with the igwaz (a type of whip). It’s

the same igwaz they use to whip horses. They also whip you with it when you are

rude or misbehave.


S1: You can see that kids in Haiti and kids here don’t behave the same way. Kids here

think that if they do something wrong, they not get whipped. The child in Haiti, he

knows if he does something wrong, the teacher will either spank him or send him

home. He knows that the lashings will hurt, so he will not misbehave. That’s why

certain kids down here [in the U.S.] behave worse than kids [in Haiti].

While the differences in disciplinary approaches taken by teachers in Haiti and the U.S.

were clear, students’ feelings about the value and consequences of each approach were varied.

Some students highlighted the negative effects of the disciplinary approaches taken by Haitian

teachers:

S4: What do I find about teachers in Haiti? They teach, but there is one problem with

them. If they are teaching you something, they like to whip kids. I don’t like when

they whip kids like that with the big horse whips. Here, if they are teaching you

something and you don’t understand it, the teacher tells you to wait until he’s done

explaining. He’s not into whipping.

S6: In Haiti, they spank kids too much. I hate that. In Haiti they have to stop hitting kids,

or stop yelling at them, because when they do that the kids get used to it too much.

They hit kids too hard.

Other students highlighted what they perceived as the positive effects of corporal

punishment, pointing out that the strict discipline helped them to focus more on academics. For

these students, the consequences of rule infractions in U.S. schools (e.g., not completing

homework resulting in lower grades) appeared to be much less dire than those consequences and

punishments experienced in Haiti, and thus did not prove motivational.


S3: Some people don’t like teachers in Haiti because they whip you and stuff. So here,

when the teachers don’t whip you and in Haiti where they do, there are certain things

you learn more. You learn more in Haiti because here they don’t spank you. You do

something [in the U.S.] only if you want to. I think it’s better in Haiti.

S2: In Haiti, like in school, I preferred it because when I was in Haiti, there were certain

things that I could retain in my head. Here, when I think about it, even if someone

tells me something I’ll forget it. In Haiti, they had you memorize things. You could

not just not memorize it because you would get whipped. That’s why I am not able to

retain most things here.

While the students had mixed feelings, the Haitian parents consistently indicated that

teachers in the U.S. were too lenient, lacked authority, and gave students too much freedom.

Parents believed that this lack of forceful authority was the primary source of Haitian students’

discipline problems in U.S. schools and a major cause for the students not succeeding

academically.

P2: I think that the school in the U.S. is too lenient. There should be a lot more strictness

with the kids within the schools. Due to all this freedom, kids don’t give their all.

They don’t strive as much as they should in school.

P4: The teachers lack authority in dealing with the kids. I am not saying that they should

hit them, but there should be more firmness. That is why you see things like students

carrying guns to school and shooting people.

The Haitian teachers took a balanced position when it came to classroom discipline.

Perhaps because they had more experience with both education systems, the teachers expressed

pros and cons of each approach. In describing differences between teachers in Haiti and the U.S.,


they explained that teachers, and other authority figures, were viewed as parental figures in Haiti.

Parents expected that all adults in positions of authority would take the responsibility for

“parenting” all children under their supervision. As a result, teachers were expected to control

student behavior with corporal punishment, since this was the discipline method that parents

typically used at home.

T1: In Haiti, the teachers really have power to take control of every student in the

classroom, whereas here, it’s the total opposite. The biggest difference is corporal

punishment…whatever you say to the parent [in Haiti], they believe that’s what it is.

There’s no wrong and the teacher is always right. So students should follow what the

teacher says and parents trust the teacher to do the right thing.

T3: In Haiti, the teachers are more privileged to be in control, whereas here the students

most of the time are in control. In Haiti, the teachers are their parent figure in the

class. So that demands for more respect from the children, and they know the

expectations of the teacher, of student regulation. Because they have respect at home

for their parents, automatically they know they have to do likewise for the teacher.

Structural analysis of identity formation. Students draw upon various aspects of their

identity in different contexts and circumstances. School and social structures, which include

disciplinary norms, may serve to support or deter the behaviors, attitudes, and identities that are

necessary for academic engagement and academic success. Academic outcomes are powerful

determinants of how students will function in society. They are also drivers of social mobility.

Thus the roles that teachers adopt and the ways that students respond to those roles will, in many

cases, forecast students’ later social and economic success. Many of the participants, but


especially the parents, felt that teacher leniency was contributing to a lack of student success that

was leading to social reproduction as undereducated members of society.

Cultural analysis of identity formation. An individualistic orientation in the U.S.

schools, as compared to a collectivist orientation found in Haitian culture resulted in the need for

negotiating meaning and intent that was often difficult for students, parents, and teachers. Haitian

students and parents often have difficulty understanding the disciplinary style in the U.S.

schools, and mistook it for a lack of discipline. This in turn led to students suppressing behaviors

(i.e., being quiet and respectful to teachers) that they had adopted in Haitian schools but that now

marked them as different and disengaged. As many Haitian students looked to take their

behavioral cues from the other students around them, they face a third tension related to the peer

group affiliation choices that they made.

Peers like Me or Americanization

A young adolescent’s sense of self can be profoundly shaped by reflections that are

mirrored back by significant others, such as peers. Haitian students in our study were keenly

aware that some of these reflections were negative and took the form of disparagement.

Sometimes these comments came from their non-Haitian classmates, but other times came from

other Haitian students who had been living in the U.S. for a longer time.

S2: I had a Haitian friend here. She would wear short skirts but I never really cared about

that. Then one day she came to school telling me that I didn't know how to dress. She

said, “Why don't you wear tight pants, short skirts? Why do you wear such long

skirts?” I told her that if she could not accept me the way I am, then we can’t be

friends. The following day, she told me that I should follow her advice instead of my

mother's.


As they observed their children acclimating to a new environment, both at school and in

the community, parents expressed concern over the treatment from peers that Haitian youth often

experienced as a result of their cultural values, their style of dress and way of talking.

P5: I had a son who came here from Haiti speaking English. They still beat him up

because he was a quiet child. Because we have him wear a belt and tuck his shirt in

his pants, they call him little pastor. Two students ganged up on him in the bathroom

and beat him up because he was well dressed and well behaved. The fact that he

doesn’t wear a loose t-shirt and his pants under his butt, they beat up on him at

school. If you don’t do the same thing that they are doing, they put pressure on you

and beat you up so that you can behave the same as them.

Other parents expressed concern over their children’s desire to assimilate in order to gain

acceptance by their peers, thus losing the pride and cultural values that the parents felt they had

instilled. These values could be expressed through personal appearance, and through the use of

the Creole language, which is a great source of pride and a unifying bond among Creole-

speaking Haitians.

P3: [My son] he asks me why he has to tuck his shirt in his pants. I tell him that he’s not

like those kids. I say that when you tuck your shirt in, they will see that you are a

well-mannered child and that you are not delinquent. When I tell him, he asks “What

about the other kids that are doing it?” I tell him, “You are not the same as them.

They were not brought up the same way as you.” But sometimes, like on the

weekends, he wants me to dress him the same way as the other kids.

P8: I have problems with my daughter. When you speak to her in Creole, she answers in

English. But when she talks to me, I tell her that I don’t understand. I teach her in


Creole, but she doesn’t want to say things in Creole. She tells me that she doesn’t

understand, which to me is a lie. She just doesn’t want to speak it.

Not only were the Haitian parents concerned about their children starting to conform to a

style of dress they found unacceptable and denying their home language, but they were also

disturbed by the possibility of newly arrived Haitian students modeling the disrespectful

behaviors demonstrated by some peers.

P4: I worry about them making friends with bad kids who are already lost. Haiti is not as

liberal as here. When they just got here from Haiti, parents don’t raise their children

in such a free way. Children are raised with strong principles. But when they come

here, when they get together with friends, sometimes the friends drag them into doing

bad things. These worries are shared by all Haitian parents.

I: You mentioned other kids who are lost. What does that mean?

P10: The child skips school, smokes, goes to the movies, steals, fights, and does other

bad things in the streets… In Haiti, children do not do these things. They spend the

whole day in school. They don’t skip and I don’t worry about those problems.

The Haitian teachers, who had all been teaching in South Florida schools for a number of

years, validated many of the parents’ concerns about the peer influences on newly arrived

Haitian students, while again taking a somewhat more balanced perspective that recognized both

the parents’ concerns and the students’ situation. They pointed out that Haitian students quickly

became “Americanized,”— which they defined as behaving like inner-city kids (the majority of

whom were African-American), not doing their schoolwork or homework, and not respecting

their teachers.


T5: I remember a French teacher said that the kids come from Haiti, once they come here

they were very smart, and after a month or two they started to get dumb because they

see how easy it is here, so they just relax.

T7: I also realize, when they come from Haiti, their behavior is different, but give them a

year later, a few months later, they start acting different. Now they want to be

Americans. They start acting a different way. Their behavior changes tremendously.

And it’s true, the math is very strong when they come here. They know a lot, even if

they don’t speak English. But after a few months they start saying, they don’t really

care. They see that the other kids…they don’t have to really keep up with that so they

start acting up themselves.

Structural analysis of identity formation. Students who are newly arrived from Haiti

are likely to enroll in inner-city schools that serve a large percentage of African-American

students and are located in high-poverty neighborhoods. Due to combined prejudices from the

broader American society and those specifically within the school setting (Stepick, Grenier,

Casto, & Dunn, 2003), Haitian immigrants are frequently subject to negative peer critiques of

their school identities, both by African-American students and by other Haitian students who

have been in the U.S. longer and have become more “Americanized.” These critiques include

traditional Haitian style of dress, speech patterns, and work habits, all of which can have

profound implications for academic success and social mobility or social reproduction. Because

schools represent one site where Haitian immigrants receive implicit and explicit messages about

who they are and who they will become, facing such negativity can undermine those student

identity traits that had previously been both expected and admired in Haiti. Consequently, the

identities of Haitian students are ones of confusion—vacillating between pride and shame.


In order for youth to avoid the stigma and conflict that comes with a Haitian identity,

particularly in South Florida, students may be inclined to succumb to peer pressure and engage in

ethnic suicide to cover up their heritage (Stepick et al., 2003). Because Haitian students are

already seen as Black (based on skin color) by mainstream society, they are more likely to adopt

behaviors of inner-city African-American youth. This is because, at least in an inner-city school

context, African-American youth have the power (although limited) to significantly influence the

styles of youth in America (Stepick et al., 2003). However, for many stakeholders (which include

Haitian parents and teachers), structural factors such as poverty are associated with being

African-American. Since identity is a process of both internalization and externalization, Haitian

youth are asked to reject an affiliation with African-American students, a group perceived as

lacking upward social mobility.

Cultural analysis of identity formation. Haitian parents ultimately want their children

to be successful and valuable to the community and the larger society. For them, such success

and value is closely tied to students maintaining their cultural heritage. Yet, in order to avoid the

negative feelings and teasing that come from looking, sounding, and acting different from their

peers, many Haitian youth make conscious identity choices aimed at assimilating into what they

perceive as the “African-American” culture. However, African-Americans are positioned as a

disenfranchised group within the U.S., having limited access to educational resources (Linstroth,

Hall, Douge-Prosper, & Hiller, 2009). Similarly, because of how Haitian immigrants are

positioned economically in the U.S., a positionality that is often based on their race, ethnicity,

and social class, they often experience only a narrow slice of American culture and a narrow

view of the American education system. Although these identity choices may make Haitian

students more acceptable to their peers, this assimilation often comes at a cost of their parents’


disapproval and decreased academic performance. While Haitian teachers were concerned with

Haitian students taking on negative behaviors that made teaching them more challenging, parents

were concerned that their children would ultimately lose their linguistic and cultural identity and

become “lost.”

Discussion and Implications

Conclusions

We began this study with a broad interest in issues related to the schooling of Haitian

students in South Florida. In examining the intersection of home, school, and cultural influences

on the lives of Haitian immigrant students, we were provided with a glimpse of the challenges

these students encountered as they negotiated a sense of identity in a foreign land. More

specifically, as the expectations of students, parents, and teachers intersected in the school

landscape, the data revealed ways in which Haitian students were simultaneously pulled in

multiple directions. The interviews highlight the potential conflicts that can arise as students

negotiate values shaped by interactions with parents and family members at home, as well as

values shaped by the interactions with peers and teachers in school. While all young adolescents

confront these issues of identity formation, the competing expectations can be especially stark

for Haitian immigrant students. Our conceptual framework of structural and cultural perspectives

on identity formation led us to foreground three themes that highlight the potential conflicts that

might occur as Haitian students negotiate their identities in South Florida schools: (a) learning as

recitation or inquiry, (b) teacher as strict parent or lenient spectator, and (c) peers like me or

Americanization. While these themes are actually false dichotomies, they may feel like stark

choices to Haitian immigrant students.


The Haitian students, parents, and teachers in our study indicated that the pedagogical

practices implemented by teachers in U.S. public schools were often unfamiliar. Participants

consistently described schooling in Haiti in terms of approaches such as memorization and

recitation. This is contrary to the reform-oriented approaches of many U.S. classrooms in which

students are taught to find their own answers through inquiry and independent or group

investigation. Students in U.S. classrooms are also taught to freely question the educational

resources from which they obtain information, whereas in Haiti students are generally not

encouraged to question information provided by their teachers or textbooks.

The pedagogical practices experienced by Haitian students influence their identity

development. As such, teachers must be cognizant of how their classroom practices,, their

interactions with students, and their own ideas about identity might influence the academic

success of Haitian students. When teachers and students bring different cultural frames of

reference and communication styles to classroom interactions, there can be a disconnect between

the teacher’s and student’s ways of constructing and representing knowledge. Because learning

cannot occur in isolation, conflicts between modes of learning often lead to a cultural mismatch,

resulting in frustration and confusion on the part of students, parents, and teachers.

Negotiating meaning and intent in light of these obstacles is a complex process. This is

because educational choices, which include pedagogical practices, are embedded in the

economic, political, and social interests of dominant social structures, which impact students’

educational attainment and access to power (Giroux, 1992). These practices have real-life

consequences for Haitian immigrant students whose cultural capital and identities are devalued

in many U.S. classrooms, leaving these students feeling that they have limited choices in forming

identities within the school context. Teachers who reproduce the dominant discourses of teaching


without leveraging the cultural capital that Haitian students bring to the classroom deny them the

right to be positioned as valuable members of a school community. Contrarily, when teachers

approach learning “not merely as the acquisition of knowledge but as the production of cultural

practices that offer students a sense of identity, place, and hope” (Giroux, 1992, p. 170), they

create and recreate spaces that permit students’ identities to enter, thus challenging the

educational power dynamics and the continued reproduction of structural inequalities (Willis,

1997).

In addition to struggling with the pedagogical expectations of teachers who value inquiry

over memorization and recitation, Haitian students also expressed tensions over parental

expectations and standards for behavior, which were often at odds with the expectations of their

peers. In Haiti there is the common belief that the teacher is pivotal in opening the door of

success, both academically and professionally. The teacher is perceived as the “parent” setting

firm limits and having control over the students. Consequently, participants expressed concern

over the negative behaviors exhibited by American students towards the teacher in U.S. schools

as well as confusion over the perceived failure of U.S. teachers to respond firmly and exert

control over this situation. For Haitian students and parents, this behavior indicated a lack of

clear rules governing teacher-student interactions. Although the disciplinary approaches used in

Haitian classrooms were not supported by all participants, most believed that the negative

behaviors demonstrated by American students were the result of the permissiveness (e.g., student

autonomy, ambiguous rules, and limited corporal punishment) that characterizes the U.S.

educational system (Doucet, 2011; Steipick, 1998; Zephir, 2001).

Individuals’ actions in schools are shaped by their cultural backgrounds and beliefs, as

well as by their prior experiences of schooling and their interactions with peers. Participants in


our study had a strong sense that much of what had been valued in the traditional Haitian culture

was being undermined by more liberal American norms and values. For example, within the

Haitian culture that promotes collectivist orientation, the teacher has primary authority and

manages student behavior directly. In contrast, an individualist orientation generally exists in

U.S. classrooms, as the teacher manages behavior indirectly and emphasizes students’

development of self-control. The norms and values that many of the study participants held in

terms of what it meant to project a “good Haitian student identity” seemed constrained by both

structural and cultural features of U.S. schooling. Parents in our study worried about their

children becoming “Americanized” in ways that devalued the cultural capital acquired in the

home and community. Thus, they attempted to create distance between the worlds of home and

school because of their fears of losing their children to Americanization and the perceived

negative educational outcomes for Haitian youth (Doucet, 2011; Zephir, 2001, 2004)..

The recurring theme of peers like me or Americanization highlights students’ need for

social belonging and the identity conflicts this can create for immigrant students. Haitian

students are confronted with the fact that while their classmates may look the same, they speak,

dress, and behave differently, and ridicule them for their foreignness. Participants in this study

confirmed the verbal and physical abuse that Haitian students received from their peers. These

negative epithets, for example, referenced their style of dress, which suggested that they were not

American. For identity development, individuals are dependent upon the images reflected by

others. These “others” include parents, teachers, and peers (Suarez-Orozco, 2004). When the

image is negative, it is extremely difficult for students to resist the urge to conform, even if the

cost of this conformity is academic success.


For parents, student conformity meant shedding their dream of preserving Haitian

traditions and values (Zephir, 2001, 2004). However, for many Haitian students, to remain

Haitian implied social ostracism (Zephir, 2001, 2004). Some students adopted behaviors,

attitudes, and speech patterns that were “Haitian” at home to meet their parents’ expectations,

and “American or African-American” at school to fit in and be accepted by peers. Others made a

more complete transition that included the expression of an “Americanized” identity in the home.

The stresses of this identity confusion and the resulting strains on familial relationships can result

in increased likelihood of Haitian youth engaging in violent behaviors, substance abuse, and

internalizing and emulating negative stereotypes ascribed to African-Americans and/or Haitians

(Suarez-Orozco, 2004), all behaviors that have become increasingly prevalent in the South

Florida Haitian community (Marcelin & Marcelin, 2001).

Discussion

Haitian youth growing up in South Florida must come to terms with their beliefs about

who they are and who they wish to become within a context of substantial cultural conflict. They

are constantly receiving cultural messages from their parents about the importance of

maintaining their Haitian cultural heritage. Just as often, they receive very different messages

about adopting a set of Americanized cultural norms that are prevalent in schools and among

their peers. Haitian students vacillate between these two cultures that continually clash. They are

pulled by competing cultural norms that demand conformity to largely incompatible sets of

customs. How are young adolescents to construct comfortable identities for themselves within

such an environment? What cultural resources can they most readily bring to bear to support

them in this process? At least part of the answer to these questions involves the development of a

clearer understanding of the norms and expectations of U.S. schools.


Our research indicates that although Haitian parents and students were able to articulate

relative strengths and limitations of each educational system, many Haitian parents and students

had only a limited knowledge of the mainstream U.S. culture and goals of the public school

system. When cultural conflicts occur between students’ home culture and the school culture,

students’ abilities, aptitudes, and intents can easily be misread (Delpit, 1988). For example,

Haitian youth bring many assets into U.S. classrooms, including the experience of being focused

on academic success, doing many hours of homework, and having been trained to memorize and

recite large amounts of academic material. However, these abilities are de-emphasized in U.S.

schools and are not considered to be meaningful learning experiences.

By failing to acknowledge or leverage this cultural capital, U.S. schools undermine

Haitian students’ sense of self and divest them of important social and cultural resources. This

process leaves Haitian youth progressively more vulnerable to academic failure and social

inequalities and increases the likelihood that they will choose to enact identities that conform to

peer pressures over identities that conform to traditional Haitian values. These choices are

important indicators of how Haitian youth are transitioning into U.S. society. For children of

immigrants, particularly those of Haitian descent, schools are the first setting of sustained contact

with a new culture. As a result, educational experiences can shape the identities, academic

outcomes, and economic capital of Haitian youth. This study suggests that not enough is done to

promote student identity development that builds on and complements traditional Haitian norms

and values. In the absence of explicit measures, the context of U.S. schooling will continue to

undermine the strengths of Haitian culture and identity.

Implications


The insights gained from Haitian parents, teachers and students in this study can provide

valuable information about how best to help Haitian students succeed academically. Teachers in

U.S. schools often lack knowledge of the cultural and educational histories of Haitian youth. For

example, Haitian students who have grown up in a teacher-centered school environment, are

likely to be confused by the shift to a student-centered approach to learning. To provide effective

instruction for Haitian students, teachers must be educated about the histories of these youth.

After recognizing the cultural and educational strengths of Haitian youth, teachers can better

provide them with opportunities to explore and construct meaning based on the cultural capital

these students bring to the learning process. This can be accomplished by infusing content

material from the Haitian culture into the school curriculum, thus allowing Haitian students to

understand the complexities of U.S. society (Banks, 2006). By transforming the curriculum and

by transcending holidays, heroes/heroines, and special celebrations, students can learn to view

academic content through multiple lenses. At the same time, Haitian parents and students must

gain a better understanding of the goals, norms and rationale of the U.S. educational system,

including differences in the expected roles of teachers, parents and students. Teachers and other

school personnel can provide this explicit instruction about the U.S. school norms to both

students and parents, rather than expecting them to figure out these norms on their own (Delpit,

1988).

Because students’ identity choices are derivative of their educational and cultural

histories (Zephir, 2001), understanding how Haitian identity formation takes place is essential for

creating learning environments that support both the academic and social development of Haitian

youth in our schools and communities. To enable Haitian students to learn to balance both

Haitian and U.S. cultural identities, teachers and parents must demonstrate a patient and caring


attitude. In addition, Haitian parents and teachers must join together to find ways to empower

these students. If not, much like Willis’ “lads” (Willis, 1977), too many Haitian youth in South

Florida will continue to set their educational and professional goals low, drop out of school, and

reproduce a social reality grounded in racial and ethnic inequities. Our study shows that there are

alternatives, but that they require a concerted effort to better understand how identities both

shape and are shaped by the structural and cultural features of society.


References

Banks, J. A. (2006). Cultural diversity and education (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In J. Karabel & A. H. Halsey

(Eds.). Power and ideology in education (pp.487-511). New York: Oxford University

Press.

Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.

Bryce-Laporte, R.S. (1972). Black immigrants: The experience of invisibility and inequality.

Journal of Black Studies, 3(1), 29-56.

Cadet, J. R. (1998). Restavec: From Haitian slave child to middle-class American. Austin, TX:

University of Texas Press.

Carlone, H., & Johnson, A. (2007). Understanding the science experiences of successful women

of color: Science identity as an analytic lens. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,

44(8), 1187-1218.

Davidson, A. L. (1996). Making and molding identity in schools. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s

children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280-298.

Doucet, F. (2011). (Re)constructing home and school: Immigrant parents, agency, and

(un)desirability of bridging multiple worlds. Teachers College Record, 113(12), 2705-

2738.

Foley, D., & Moss, K. (2001). Studying U.S. cultural diversity: Some non-essentializing

perspectives. In I. Susser & T. Patterson (Eds.), Cultural diversity in the United States

(pp. 343-364). Malden, MA: Blackwell.


Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the burden of

acting white. Urban Review, 18(3), 176-206.

Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

IMF. (2008). Haiti: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. IMF Country Report No. 08/115

Levinson, B. A., & Holland, D. C. (1996). The cultural production of the educated person: An

introduction. In B. A. Levinson, D. E. Foley, & D. C. Holland (Eds.), The cultural

production of the educated person (pp. 1-54). Albany, NY: State University of New York

Press.

Linstroth, J. P., Hall, A., Douge-Prosper, M. A., & Hiller, P. T. (2009). Conflicting ambivalence

of Haitian identity-making in South Florida. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 10(3),

XXX

Luzincourt, K., & Gulbrandson, XX. (2010). Education and conflict in Haiti: Rebuilding the

education sector after the 2010 earthquake. Washington, DC: United States Institute of

Peace.

Marcelin, L., Vivian, J., DiClemente, R., Shultz, J., & Page, B. (2005). Trends in alcohol, drug

and cigarette use among Haitian youth in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Journal of

Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 4(1), 105-131.

Marcelin, L. H., & Marcelin, L. M. (2001). Ethnographic social network tracing among Haitian

immigrants in South Florida. Ethnographic Report for the Census Bureau. U.S. Bureau of

the Census.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). The condition of education 2011 (NCES 2011-

033). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.


National Center for Educational Statistics. (2006). The condition of education, 2006.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Nicolas, G., DeSilva, A., & Rabenstein, K. (2009). Educational attainment of Haitian

immigrants. Urban Education, 44(6), 664-686.

Stepick, A. (1998). Pride against prejudice: Haitians in the United States. Needham Heights,

MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Schnepf, S. (2007). Immigrants' educational disadvantage: An examination across ten

countries and three surveys. Journal of Population Economics, 20(3), 527-545.

Stepick, A., Grenier, G., Castro, M., & Dunn, M. (2003). This land is our land: Immigrants and

power in Miami. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Suárez-Orozco, C. (2004). Formulating identity in a globalized world. In M. M. Suárez-Orozco,

& D. B. Qin-Hilliard (Eds.), Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium

(pp. 173-203). Berkeley: University of California Press.

U.S. Department of Education. (2004). English language learner students in U.S. public schools:

1994 and 2000 (NCES 2004–035). Washington, DC: National Center for Educational

Statistics.

Waters, M. C. (2001). Black identities: West Indian immigrant dreams and American realities.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Weis, L., & Fine, M. (2005). Beyond silenced voices: Class, race and gender in United States

schools. Albany: SUNY Press.

Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labor: How working class kids get working class jobs. Gower:

Aldershot Press.


World Bank (2006). Haiti: Options and opportunities for inclusive growth. Country Economic

Memorandum. Washington, D.C.: World Bank

Zephir, F. (1996). Haitian immigrants in Black America. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.

Zephir, F. (2001). Trends in ethnic identification among second–generation Haitian immigrants

in New York City. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.

Zephir, F. (2004). The Haitian Americans. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.


Appendix

Schooling Portion of Individual Interview Protocol – Parent

How much schooling did you receive in Haiti? Have you had any more education since coming

to Miami? (including English classes)

What is your impression of schooling in the U.S. as compared to schooling in Haiti? How is it

similar or different?

What do you think it is like for Haitian children when they enter school in the U.S.? What

difficulties do you think they might have in adjusting?

Has your child ever commented about things in his/her school here that are different from their

school in Haiti? What sorts of things?

What do you want your children to get from their schooling? How far would you like them to go

in their education?

What do you think teachers could do to help Haitian students do well in school here in Miami,

and in U.S. society in general? What could parents do?

Negotiating a Sense of Identity in a Foreign Land: Navigating Public School Structures and Practices that Often Conflict with Haitian Culture and Values (2013)

Documents