John Ogbu s Oppositional Culture Theory - 1325 Words

John Ogbu’s oppositional culture theory explains racial differences in educational performance by looking at the societal structures of minorities. Ogbu uses case studies which he looks at the affluent neighborhoods that represent oppositional culture. There are several explanations as to academic disengagement among certain minorities. He also looks at white academic efforts and explanations of their own disengagement. According to James Ainsworth-Darnell and Douglas Downey, they state that, â€Å"Immigrant minorities tend to compare their condition to that of relatives in their homelands and because this comparison is usually favorable, they develop optimistic attitudes regarding both their chances for success in the new country and the payoff for efforts aimed at promoting achievement† (p. 536). However, involuntary minorities are in a â€Å"psychologically vulnerable position; their members did not migrate with an expectation to improve their condition, but were in corporated into society against their will† (p. 536). Ogbu pointed out that there are high achieving blacks that did not adopt the oppositional theory. They responded using the burden of â€Å"acting white† which suggested that minority students do perform well in school; they take the risk of negative consequences by their same race and peers because of acting white. The â€Å"acting white† plays out in educational settings because minorities interact within a classroom setting receiving good grades and enjoying school. Also,Show MoreRelated Teaching Race Explicitly in the Classroom Essay4727 Words   |  19 Pagesstudents is different from teaching white students. This distinction exists because of the relationship of power between blacks and whites, whites being dominant and blacks being subordinate. The authors agree that educators need to be aware of the ‘culture of power’ in order to meet the needs of black students. According to Villegas, culturally diverse students’ failure in school results from societal conflict that entails a struggle for power (253). As a result of this asymmetrical pow er structure