Citation

Whaley AL, Noel L. Soc. Psychol. Educ. 2011; 14(2): 149-168.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11218-010-9142-y

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Some theories have posited that African American youth are academic underachievers because of sociocultural factors. We label this point of view the cultural incompatibility perspective. Ogbu's oppositional culture theory and Steele's stereotype threat theory are selected as popular examples of this viewpoint. A critical review of the literature on these particular theories was conducted. It was concluded that there is limited empirical support for the cultural incompatibility perspective on African American academic achievement. This raises questions about the focus on academic underachievement among African Americans versus high achievement among other ethnic/racial groups. Implications of the empirical findings on the incompatibility perspective for the role of African American culture in Black student achievement are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Academic achievement; Adolescence; African Americans; Multicultural context; Oppositional culture theory; Stereotype threat theory