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Research Article
Open Access

Making Americans: Schooling, Diversity, and Assimilation in the Twenty-First Century

Cristina L. Lash
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences August 2018, 4 (5) 99-117; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2018.4.5.05
Cristina L. Lash
aDoctoral candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Education
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Abstract

How do schools teach American identity in light of immigration-driven diversity? This ethnographic study focuses on everyday nation-making at Castro Middle School, located in a city transformed by immigration. Building on theories of bidirectional assimilation, I show how assimilation can produce new definitions of Americanness more recognizable to immigrant communities, facilitating their national identification. At Castro, bidirectional assimilation supported African American students’ descriptions of Americans in multicultural terms and their own identification as American. Assimilation between the school and the larger Latino and Asian student populations, however, was limited because of a binary racial paradigm that excluded them from the national community. This study thus nuances the role of race as a barrier in the assimilation process, particularly as it unfolds in schools.

  • assimilation
  • immigration
  • national identity
  • American identity
  • school diversity
  • © 2018 Russell Sage Foundation. Lash, Cristina L. 2018. “Making Americans: Schooling, Diversity, and Assimilation in the Twenty-First Century.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4(5): 99–117. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.5.05. Sincere thanks are due to the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and the Stanford Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education for sponsoring this research. Direct correspondence to: Cristina L. Lash at cristinalash{at}stanford.edu, 485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305.

Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 4 (5)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 4, Issue 5
1 Aug 2018
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Making Americans: Schooling, Diversity, and Assimilation in the Twenty-First Century
Cristina L. Lash
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Aug 2018, 4 (5) 99-117; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.5.05

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Making Americans: Schooling, Diversity, and Assimilation in the Twenty-First Century
Cristina L. Lash
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Aug 2018, 4 (5) 99-117; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.5.05
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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • SCHOOLING, ASSIMILATION, AND NATION-MAKING
    • METHODOLOGY
    • STAFF DEFINITIONS OF AMERICAN IDENTITY
    • FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: LIMITED ASSIMILATION AT CASTRO
    • ASSIMILATION AND STUDENT NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION
    • AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICANS
    • LATINO AND ASIAN–PACIFIC ISLANDER STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICANS
    • DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
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Keywords

  • assimilation
  • immigration
  • national identity
  • American identity
  • school diversity

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