A Sociocultural Approach to Planning Programs for Immigrant Learners

This article illustrates the cultural character of planning adult education programs and the connections among culture, immigrant learners, and learning. Key factors that are useful for developing a sociocultural approach to planning programs are presented along with current data of immigrant groups in the United States. I begin with the assumption that adult learning is a cultural event and a key element in program planning. Immigrants bring a multiplicity of characteristics and resources with them as they look for educational assistance with the transition process into a new society. They bring such things as socioeconomic status, literacy levels, education experiences, English proficiency, legal status, and physical and psychological health (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2000). To this list, we can acid their experiences with resettlement, historical conditions of the home country, transnational family and social support networks, and motivations for immigration. Educational styles learned from differing educational systems are equally important. Immigrant learners must also contend with a variety of host culture variables, according to Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco (2000). The host culture variables are the major aspects that structure schooling experiences and outcomes among learners, raising questions about a series of factors. For example, what are the occupational opportunities available in local communities? What structural barriers do immigrants encounter? Are they finding work in low-skill service sectors or knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy? Are they finding work in the underground economy? Are they recruited by co-ethnics into ethnic enclaves? What are the interactional affects among educational outcomes, economic opportunity, cultural models, and social practices of immigrant families and communities? What attitudes do members of U.S. society hold toward immigrants? Immigrant education, however, is not a purely technical "problem" dealing with "student limitations," a typical view of educators who take an assimiliationist approach. This perspective suggests that all immigrants, regardless of race, ethnicity, or class level should eventually assimilate into the dominant Eurocentric white culture. Rather, if one takes the challenge of planning adult education programs responsibly and democratically, it means generating new approaches that consider culture and difference and understanding how learning is used in social interaction within a situational context. The New Immigrants In 2000, 28.4 million foreign-born people resided in the United States, representing 10.4% of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001a) and a 44% increase since the 1990 census (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001b). Foreign-born individuals are a heterogeneous group made up of legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, and temporary residents such as students and workers on business visas. Among this group 51.0% were born in Latin America defined as Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, 25.5% were born in Asia, and 15.3% were born in Europe with the remaining 8.1% born in other regions of the world. There is an emergent pattern of immigrant adaptation that seems to follow a new hourglass segmentation found in the U.S. economy and society (Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 2000). What this means is there are those immigrants who are quickly achieving upward mobility primarily through educational success and high-tech jobs, while on the opposite end of the hourglass, large numbers of low-skilled workers find themselves locked into low-wage service jobs. Those in between approximate norms of the majority, culture and "disappear" into U.S. culture and institutions without much notice. This concept of the hourglass segmentation raises questions, not only about education, but also about race and racial locations. Which immigrants are at one end and which are at the opposite end? …