Children’s national identity in multicultural classrooms in Costa Rica and the United States

Abstract

The development of healthy national identifications in children and youth has important implications for the construction of democratic citizenries in culturally and linguistically diverse societies. In this comparative qualitative case study of two multicultural public schools-one in the United States and one in Costa Rica-I examined children's understandings of national identity formation. I conducted individual and focus group interviews and ethnographic observations for 12 weeks in each school. I found that children conceptualized national identity using both concrete and abstract elements. In addition, children in each school deployed particular types of narratives to talk about national identifications. Although children in both schools reported ideas of "civic nationality," children in the US school were more likely to express ideas of "ethnic nationality" (Hoyos et al., 2004). Further, children in the US school reported more cosmopolitan perspectives toward national identity than the children in the Costa Rican School. Based on the findings, I suggest expanding research to study the "national identity maps" of children in multicultural contexts.

Language Ideologies in a U.S. State-Funded International School: The Invisible Linguistic Repertoires of Bilingual Refugee Students

“…I conducted this qualitative case study in the spring of 2012. The research was part of a larger comparative study of language ideologies and civic practices in culturally and linguistically diverse schools in Costa Rica and the United States (Solano-Campos, 2014b, 2015). In this article, I refer exclusively to the data and findings related to language ideologies from the case study in the United States.…”

Cultural alloys and heterogeneous mixes: Contextualized and comparative language differences in literacy assessment of U.S. and Canadian youth

“…For instance, in comparisons between U.S. and Cosa Rican students, U.S. students were more likely to reflect “ethnic nationality” in how they reported their identities in addition to being civic-minded. They also tended to show a more cosmopolitan perspective than their Costa Rican peers (Solano-Campos, 2015). Using Yoon’s logic, the anticipated response to policies that value and embrace heterogeneous mixtures seems more likely to encourage active participation in classrooms rather than resistance and superficial acceptance.…”

Implementasi Kurikulum Multikultural Di Sekolah Dasar

“…Beberapa hasil penelitian mengenai pendidikan multikultural telah dilaksanakan dengan berfokus pada keragaman agama, kemasyarakatan, dan perbedaan etnis (Olmedo, 2004;Mentz & van der Walt, 2007;Lykogianni, 2008;Okoye-Johnson, 2011;Miafodzyeva, dkk., 2013;Agirdag, dkk, 2016;Solano-Campos, A. 2015).…”