Argues that child socialization is directed toward the development of instrumental competencies related to imperatives that vary across cultures. Criticizes the use of White middle-class standards in developmental research and proposes a cultural ecological model which studies competence in the context of the cultural imperatives of a given…

Provides a model for conceptually distinguishing among different kinds of minorities. Applies such distinctions to the school experiences of one castelike minority group (Black Americans) and one immigrant minority group (Chinese Americans) to show why the former but not the latter is characterized by persistent disproportionate school failure.…

A study examined differences between cultural models and educational strategies of three minority groups (African Americans, Chinese Americans, and Mexican American/Latino) to help explain the differences in school performance. Data also provide the first large scale test of J. Ogbu's theory of these school performance differences. Surveys were…

Social scientists have adopted two different views on the influence of the community and home on academic achievement of lower-class and minority students. The first is the deficit perspective, or the failure-of-socialization hypothesis. The second is the difference perspective, or the cultural-discontinuity/failure-of-communication hypothesis.…