Response 1
Response 1: Climb Over or Fight Through the Barrier
Even though it may be psychologically detrimental, many individuals opt to work through the barrier. Individuals can quickly identify a cultural barrier and will work through the challenge. Some individuals take working through the challenge as a point of pride that a larger system could not stop them or hold them back from their accomplishments. This perseverance does not mean the individuals do not experience negative experiences within the culture or that they did not experience a change in culture. On the contrary, such individuals may have experienced more negative experiences, yet still persisted in their academic or professional pursuits. One’s ability to select this approach is often rooted in personality, self-efficacy, and social support.
According to Rudmin (2003) and other social science researchers, individuals self-select strategies to cope with assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization. These strategies are called adaptive acculturative responses. The responses occur due to changes social changes in the learning environment. These are called adaptive cultural responses. The four responses are:
Assimilation: The complete adoption and absorption of a culture.
- Assimilation individuals fully adopt and understand the culture within the learning.
For instance, if an individual selects the strategy of assimilation it may be that they are familiar with academic culture and their brain is open to learning because they do not feel the need to protect themselves within that culture. This is because they are comfortable and familiar with the learning process and the educational and social culture associated with it. However, the institution at large, may contribute to feelings of marginalization.