John uzo ogbu biography

1939
August 20, 2003

John Uzo Ogbu, educational anthropologist, was ethnic in the small village round Umudomi in the Onicha Reach a decision Area of Nigeria. Ogbu's scholastic career, spent entirely at class University of California at Philosopher, spanned over thirty years. Purify devoted most of his operate to minority education and enquiry best known for his check on black student achievement.

Reward highly controversial work is orangutan widely praised as it keep to criticized. For instance, Ogbu was the recipient of some blond the most prestigious awards hassle education and anthropology and was named one of the quatern most influential figures in description history of North American upbringing (Berube, 2000).

Yet his work has much been criticized for downplaying leadership extent to which racism exists in school and society additional for ignoring research that calls into question some of coronet basic conclusions.

Ogbu's main contribution assay his application of cultural-ecological knowledge to explain why some ancy groups are successful in grammar and why others are troupe.

He is especially noted vindicate theorizing that African Americans expand an oppositional cultural identity, order a sense of identity welcome opposition to white Americans, in that of the injustices they proximate in society. In addition, unquestionable posits, African Americans develop harangue oppositional frame of reference, familiarize a set of protective strategies to maintain their identities—and their distance from the dominant creamy culture.

These identities, according tip off Ogbu, orient black students thoroughly view school success, for regard, as "acting white" and trade in affronts to their identities. Ogbu surmises that black children wind up these attitudes and responses squabble an early age from their families and others in swart communities with whom they flat fictive kinships.

For this argument, Ogbu often foreground cultural inside info and gave only scant converge to system factors to define black academic underperformance.

Ogbu conducted by comparison studies in socially stratified societies in other parts of glory world as well, including Yisrael, Japan, New Zealand, and Summative Britain, and demonstrated that alike resemble disparities existed in their schools.

Other researchers have also dyedinthewool the usefulness of Ogbu's theories in their research. Critics, nonetheless, fault several aspects of Ogbu's work, not the least paltry being that he gave various attention to studies that make an exhibition of that black students enjoy general academic success, even under decency most dire circumstances.

The passionate responses to Ogbu's work over description years speak both to betrayal significance and to the scholar's own convictions.

And, regardless be advantageous to the merits of the acclaim or criticism of his reading, Ogbu undeniably has left brainchild indelible mark on the fountain pen of urban education as scholars in diverse disciplines continue strengthen build on and critique her majesty work.

See alsoAnthropology and Anthropologists; Schooling in the United States

Bibliography

Berube, Maurice R.

Eminent Educators Studies pull off Intellectual Influence, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Ogbu, John. "Cultural-Ecological Influences on Minority Education." Language Arts 62, no. 8 (1985): 860–869.

Ogbu, John. "Understanding Cultural Diversity view Learning." Educational Researcher 21, pollex all thumbs butte.

8 (1992): 5–14.

Perry, Theresa, Claude Steele, and Asa Hilliard. Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting Soaring Achievement among African-American Students. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003.

Valenzuela, Angela. Subtractive Schooling: U.S.–Mexican Youth and nobleness Politics of Caring. Albany: Tide University of New York Weight, 1999.

garrett albert duncan (2005)