Describes the classification of minorities developed by J. Ogbu as autonomous, voluntary (immigrant), and involuntary (nonimmigrant) and explains Ogbu's cultural ecological theory of minority school performance. Implications of the theory for pedagogy are explored. The typology of minority groups is regarded as a heuristic device for analysis.…

This paper suggests that subordinate group parents teach their children to acquire skills different from those emphasized by the white middle-class; these skills are necessary for their future subordinate adult roles. (Author/EB)

Three aspects of desegregated schools, dealt with in the other articles in this volume, are discussed: the relation of stratification in the community to social relations and academic identities in the schools; the distinction between school desegregation and school integration; and the problem of time lag in the study of emergent social…

Attempts to define the cultural discontinuity (between schools and students) hypothesis by distinguishing between universal, primary, and secondary discontinuities. Suggests that each of these is associated with a distinct type of school problem, and that secondary cultural discontinuities commonly affect minority students in the United States.…

Argues for the application of traditional anthropological ethnography in the study of formal education and for broadening the scope of such studies. Suggests an ecological framework that permits a multilevel application of ethnography in formal education. (Author/GC)

Educational Anthropology has sought to explain performance differences between groups of students. The real issues are not language, cognitive style, or upbringing. Instead, the differences have to do with unequal educational opportunity, the relationship between minority and majority groups, and the lack of encouragement for minorities in the…