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Cultural Diversity Research on Learning and Development: Conceptual, Methodological, and Strategic Considerations

The Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 951521, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521; orellana{at}gseis.ucla.edu. While researching and writing this article, she was assistant professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University (programs in Human Development and Social Policy and the Learning Sciences). Her research interests include the study of language and literacy in bilingual contexts and the experiences of Latino immigrant youth in urban schools and communities

Phillip Bowman, professor and director

The Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, University of Illinois, Chicago, 412 South Peoria Street, 324 Cuppa Hall, Chicago, IL 60607-7065; pjbowman{at}uic.edu. He is a social psychologist with research interests in race, ethnicity, urban public policy, and innovative survey methodology

In this article we identify two major conceptual and methodological limitations to current treatments of cultural diversity in social science research: (a) the tendency to treat race, ethnicity, culture, and social class as fixed and often essentialized categories rather than as multi-faceted, situated, and socially constructed processes; and (b) the tendency to focus on single levels of analysis rather than to look across levels, especially by linking individual and community-based experiences to larger structural, institutional, discursive, and ideological practices. We propose a set of strategic guidelines for mitigating these limitations, and illustrate them with examples from our ongoing research on two projects: (a) a qualitative-centered research program on Latina/o bilingual children’s work as translators, interpreters, or para-phrasers;¹ and (b) quantitative-centered research on African-American culture retainers.

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