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Abstract
The past two decades have witnessed a rapid increase of immigrant population in U.S. schools. Little is known, however, about factors that promote cross-cultural experiences, academic achievement, and/or challenges of Black African immigrant youth, which is particularly significant today in the midst of the current social and political discourse over the influence of immigration in U.S. schools. Sixty Ghanaian-born immigrant students were recruited and interviewed. Analyses, which draw from in-depth interviews and observations, revealed that resilience to succeed, teacher and parent support, positive school environment, past histories including educational experiences, and challenging factors of racism, classism, xenophobia, acculturative stress, changes in curriculum, language, and cultural discrimination emerged as the major factors that largely influenced academic achievement of these learners. This article discusses the implications of these findings for educators who are tasked to render better educational settings for Black African immigrant students to succeed in U.S. schools.
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Author Biographies
Alex Kumi-Yeboah is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University at Albany – State University of New York. His research interests include examining mediating cross-cultural factors (educational, social, psychological, socio-linguistic) impact educational advancement of Black immigrant students in U.S. schools.
Patriann Smith is an assistant professor at the Department of Language, Diversity and Literacy Studies, College of Education, Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas. Her research interests draws primarily on sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and acculturation theories to examine the ways in which cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences intersect to impact literacy teaching and learning for culturally and linguistically diverse learners across local, national and international contexts.
