Understanding the Identities of Mixed-Race College Students Through a Developmental Ecology Lens

Abstract

Using an ecology model of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979development (Bronfenbrenner, , 1993, I frame the exploration of racial identities of 38 college students with multiple racial heritages. I map the influence of interactions within and between specific environments on students' decisions to identify in one or more of five patterns of mixed race identity found in a previous study.The identity development of mixed race college students, those students whose parents are from more than one federally designated racial or ethnic category, does not appear to follow the path outlined in traditional models of racial identity development (e.g.,

Queer Student Leaders: An Exploratory Case Study of Identity Development and LGBT Student Involvement at a Midwestern Research University

“…As one of us has argued elsewhere (Renn, 2003), identity-based spaces on campus, whether for women or students of color or LGBT students, are critical spaces of identity formation and sources of resiliency. Certainly the experiences of Alix (with the homophobic roommate and team) and Ashley (with the ADJB complaint) echo this finding; participation as a student leader in an identity-based setting connected them to critical social supports and enabled them to persist in other campus endeavors, including academics, work, and athletics.…”

A New Theory-to-Practice Model for Student Affairs: Integrating Scholarship, Context, and Reflection

“…In their later work, Morrill and colleagues (1980) emphasized that their model was rooted in ecological development theory: In this regard, their treatment of primary and associational groups was particularly reminiscent of Bronfenbrenner's (1979) microsystems and exosystems respectively. However, even with recent resurgence of ecological approaches to development (Renn, 2003(Renn, , 2004Renn & Arnold, 2003), developmental ecology's limited representation in the student development literature (Evans et al, 2010) suggests that current practitioners would have trouble applying a theory-to-practice model with underlying ecological assumptions without a more detailed explication of the process involved.…”

No Longer Sojourners: The Complexities of Racial Ethnic Identity, Gender, and Generational Outcomes for Sub-Saharan Africans in the USA

“…For some that realise that identity can be fluid, forever changing and evolving and in their control, they assert their ethnic pride politically and by staying connected to their respective ethnic communities in the USA and abroad [20]. The emerging research highlighting the diversity in racial ethnic identity tends to focus on black-white mixed race couples and their children because they fall on the extreme ends of America's racial hierarchy, whites being on top and blacks being on the bottom [21][22][23]. As stated before skin color is a great predictor of how the outside world classifies a person racially.…”

“…The social structural approach posits that teachers and administrators in many school systems across the USA hold negative stereotypes of African Americans and relate to the students in ways that signal to the child society assumes you are not going to succeed. Given that these theories hold true, African-born American children will need a buffer that can be acquired through the knowledge of these situations, history of racial relations in the USA, and positive affirmation for continued success from adolescents to adulthood in all sectors of their lives [22][23][24][25]27]. …”