Assimilation, absorption, or separatism?: Observations from a High School study. Brian Astill The Flinders University of South Australia "The survival of mankind will ... depend on the ability of people who think differently to act together" (Hofstede, 1980) Abstract The paper reports on an examination of the social values of senior students within a high school with a culturally diverse population, in South Australia. The sample (n=101) contained Australian born students of Australian parents (34 per cent), Asian born students of Asian parents (41 per cent), and students of continental European origin (24 per cent). Their social value patterns were determined using the internationally recognised Schwartz Values Questionnaire, and compared with a control group of Australian born students of Australian parents in a representative group of culturally monogamous schools. Findings gave support for the 'melting pot' approach to cultural interaction, although there was some evidence of cultural resistance in particular areas of valuing. The results suggest that there is room for doubt that a particular minority culture can survive in its original form, even if an enclave is set up (either voluntarily or by external design) to protect it. Additionally, the idea that the majority culture can remain unaffected by a large influx of people of 'foreign' cultures, was not supported. The work has relevance for teaching methods, and suggests that special sensitivity might need to be developed towards cultural imperatives and values in a multi-racial setting. Background It is clear from studies of human behaviour that there exists within each individual a set of values or social constructs against which the person's experience of their world is measured. It is also clear that there is generality within geographically located groups which gives rise to an accepted commonality of social value structure. Bateson summarised the position thus: The human individual is endlessly simplifying, organising and generalising his own view of his own environment; he constantly imposes upon this environment his own constructions and meanings; those constructions and meanings ...[are]... characteristic of one culture, as over against another.(Bateson, 1944) Kluckholn and Strodtbeck(1961) postulated that there is a limited number of common human problems which all peoples must address and solve. They also suggested that while variations in those solutions exist, they are neither limitless nor random either within or between cultures. Kluckholn, in a personal view in the same publication, proposed a systematic variation in cultural phenomena comprising required behaviours and permitted behaviours or variations. Rokeach(1973) and Feather(1975) added support and clarification to earlier concepts of values. Rokeach contributed the concept of terminal values (desired end conditions, such as wealth) and instrumental values (interactive action values such as honesty), and his Values Survey was based upon it.. Feather defined social values as abstract structures which while more or less permanent are nevertheless subject to change in the light of experience, and he has conducted much research in the field. Hofstede(1980) pointed out that social systems could only operate if human behaviour was more or less predictable. He suggested that people were subject to mental programming at three levels - individual, collective, and universal. Hofstede was invited to head a team of personnel researchers by a large multinational organisation. The team's brief was to develop and administer a standard measure of employee attitude throughout the organisation, so as to report the different characteristics of people from 40 different countries with which the multinational organisation traded. They developed four indices of values to fulfil this purpose. The first index was Power-Distance (PDI), the extent to which the society accepted an established authoritative hierarchy. The second was Uncertainty Avoidance(UAI), the degree to which obedience to rules and regulations was expected. The third was Individualism(IDV), which related to the level of independence an individual was permitted in the society. Finally, Masculinity(MAS) is a gender-preference index, related to the extent that a society was matriarchal or patriarchal, and the level of gender rôle rigidity. On this basis, Hofstede constructed a table of the indices for the 40 countries he and his team examined. Table 1 is an abbreviated version, showing the differences between some influential countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Table 1: Values of the four indices for several countries Country Power Distance Index(PDI) UncertaintyAvoidance Index(UAI) Individualism (DVI) Masculinity(MAS) Australia 36 51 90 61 Great Britain 35 35 89 66 Greece 60 112 35 57 India 77 40 48 56 Italy 50 75 76 70 Hong Kong 68 29 25 57 Philippines 94 44 32 64 Singapore 74 8 20 48 Thailand 64 64 20 34 (from Hofstede, 1980,p ) Feather has conducted a number of studies of the influence of culture upon values, principally using the Rokeach Values Survey. His definition of culture is widely accepted. A culture is associated with a common set of shared beliefs attitudes and values among its members .... [this bias] still allows variations to exist in the orientations of individuals.(Feather, 1975, p195) He found differences between Australian and United States students, and between Australian and Papua-New Guinean students, but reported that while there were recognisable national characteristics, there were also variations among groups of people within cultures (Feather, 1980). He reported this latter finding more comprehensively (Feather, 1986) where he found that two groups of Adelaide secondary students surveyed in 1970/71 and 1983 showed value structure differences, and a group of Flinders University students had value preferences different from either of the secondary school groups. However, there was an overall commonality. Similar observations were made about a group of Chinese students. In considering the work of Gordon(1964), Rokeach, and other researchers in the field of cultural adjustment, Feather (1979) contrasted subjective assimilation, where an external adjustment to the host culture was made without change to internal belief systems, with acculturation. He pointed out that an observer might not notice the difference. Moreover, his research with Ukrainian students and their parents in Australia, and with the Latvian community, showed that there was a progression of values towards those of Australians generally, over time. Attempts at retaining the original culture, for example by the Latvian students attending Latvian Sunday Schools, were therefore likely to be ultimately ineffective. Feather also found that there the perception by the Latvian students of Australian values were incorrect. This error would have made effective subjective assimilation difficult. Ninnes(1994) conducted an investigation of the adjustment of Vietnamese secondary students to South Australia. He confirmed aspects of Gordon's work, in which he described seven modes of adjustment, of which two were variations. The main five, as described by Ninnes, were: (1) acceptance of the host culture's values to the destruction of one's own - acculturation; (2) retention of a weaker version of one's original culture to adjust to the host -structural assimilation; (3) complete retention of one's original culture without compromise to the host - isolationism; (4) a weakening of the original culture by adoption of some host culture mores - attitude or behavioural reception assimilation (cultural blending); and (5) a weakening of the original culture without adaptation to the host - marginalisation. Ninnes found that cultural blending was most common, followed by the retaining of some aspects of the original culture while adjusting to the host culture. There were also examples of replacement of the original culture by complete adoption of host cultural values. It would appear from the foregoing that it might be expected that there would be some blending of values in a multicultural situation. Method Social values research methods There have been many research methods employed to investigate people's social values. Hofstede used a comprehensive survey to construct attitude indexes whereas Rokeach and Feather have tended to use the Rokeach Values Survey. The latter much simpler instrument requires the participant to arrange two groups of cards (one being a list of terminal values, and the other of instrumental values) to their complete satisfaction. A later development is that of Schwartz (1992) which used the same theoretical concept of terminal and instrumental values as Rokeach, but increased the number of value descriptors from 35 to 56, and asked the participant to rate each value on a scale of -1(abhor) to +7(adore). The Schwartz Values Survey has been satisfactorily administered in over 200 countries, and appears likely to be universally understood across cultural boundaries. This instrument is also easy to administer in the school setting. Schwartz' research identified ten major value groupings (Achievement, Benevolence, Conformity, Hedonism, Power, Security, Self direction, Stimulation, Tradition, and Universalism) and four bipolar orientations (Openness to Change, Conservatism, Self-enhancement, and Self-transcendence). Method used in this research As part of a larger study, which was undertaken in 11 schools, the whole of the year 12 cohort of one school was assembled and addressed by the researcher, who described the survey, its purpose, and the method of completion. The students were then asked to complete the values survey "on the spot", together with the Australian Work Ethic Scale (Ho, 1984), an Education Ethic Scale (Astill 1993), and a brief sociodemographic questionnaire. Teachers and the researcher were available while the tasks were being completed, to answer any queries. The completed forms were then processed using a purpose-designed computer program, before transfer into SPSS for Windows format for statistical examination. A similar procedure was applied to Year 12 students in the other schools chosen as the research sample. The results from all schools were subjected to analysis using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM, Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) adopting Schwartz four bi-polar value orientations. The social values of Australian born students of Australian born mothers and Australian born fathers in the schools other than the particular school under investigation were used for comparison with those of the Australian students in that school, using Schwartz' ten value groupings. Results HLM is a multi-level regression technique, which among other things tests the significance of regression equations describing relationships between the variables available. It is not the purpose of this paper to present the detailed results of the multilevel analyses; but the regression equations which apply to the students are of interest. Among the data collected from the students was information on the frequency of their speaking a language other than English (LOE) within their home environment. This was used as a coarse measure of their closeness to their original culture. Table 1 shows that of the six areas investigated using the HLM technique, five were influenced by LOE, namely, by cultural background. It also shows that school, of itself, has little influence on student values in that the only influences at that level derive from the students' families. This in turn suggests that such values differences as might be observed are the result of cultural influences within the students' families and do not derive from any influence of the school attended. Table 1: A Simplified summary of HLM results, showing the effect of cultural influence (as indicated by the frequency of speaking a language other than English (LOE)), and school influence. Student values at Level 1 School influence at Level 2 Openness to Change CHANGE=b0 +b1(MED) +b2(CHRIST) +r (none) Conservatism CONS=b0+b1(LOE)+b2(SOCDEM)+r b0=g00+g01(PCONS)+u0 Self Enhancement SLFENH=b0+b1(LOE)+r ** b0=g00+g01(ATT)+u0 Self Transcendence TRANS=b0+b1(SEX)+b2(LOE)+b3(CHRIST)+r (none) Work Ethic WKETH=b0+b1(LOE)+b2(ATT)+r b0=g00+g01(PWKETH)+u0 Education Ethic EDETH=b0+b1(LOE)+r b0=g00+g01(SOCDEM)+u0 CHRIST =active Christianity; ATT = Active faith; LOE = language other than English; MED = mothers education; PCONS = parent conservatism; PWKETH= parent work ethic; SEX =sex of student; SOCDEM =social position ** equation derived from Student-Parent pairing at Level 1 In order to investigate the cultural influence on social values in more detail and with greater clarity, the responses and ratings of Schwartz 10 value groupings of students from a "multicultural" school were examined and comparisons made between those students born in Australia of Australian born parents, Asian born students of Asian born parents, and students born of European born parents. The three sets of values were compared with those of 561 Australian born students of Australian born parents attending the other schools in the project. There are two alternatives for the presentation of profile comparisons. The first is to compare the mean scores of the values of the subject groups. This method has the advantage of being close to the responses the groups provided, and allows for the possibility that one group's higher rating of a value than that of another group, might be meaningful. An alternative is to use a z score comparison. It is well known that group responses can vary in a quite arbitrary manner, depending on the mood or orientation of the group. An adventurous group might use many extreme high and low scores; an agreeable group might centre their scoring in the higher range; a disagreeable group might centre their scores in a low range and in a narrow band; and so on. Z-score measures avoid such distortions by reporting only the differences from the group's score centring and range. Because this research was concerned with adolescents, and because it was suspected that some raw score differences might be due solely to cultural habit, the z score method was preferred. The results of the z score comparison are shown in Table 2. Table 2: "Z" scores comparison of student groups Australian(n=34) "OTHER"(n=561) Asian(n=40) European(n=24) Achievement 0.20 0.37 0.36 0.57 Benevolence 0.17 0.38 0.35 0.25 Conformity 0.05 -0.18 0.39 0.30 Hedonism 0.76 0.91 0.25 0.28 Power -0.65 -1.15 -0.69 -1.01 Security 0.20 0.08 0.30 0.17 Self Direction 0.27 0.60 0.17 0.34 Stimulation 0.05 0.17 -0.50 -0.12 Tradition -1.09 -1.37 -0.71 -0.71 Universalism 0.04 0.20 0.07 -0.07 Figure 1 shows the differences between the groups very clearly. Figure 1: A graphical representation of Z score results The most important and noticeable feature is the position of the "OTHERS" Australian value scores, shown as a solid line with a solid square block. They occupy an extreme position relative to the three "multicultural" groupings in nine of the ten value groups (Achievement being the one exception). The Australian students in the multicultural setting, shown as a dotted line with a hollow square block, have values closer to those of their Asian and European colleagues. In two cases (Benevolence and Power) they occupy a position more extreme than either. This suggests that the Australian students have absorbed aspects of the values of the Asian and the European students. It was not possible to find a suitable control group for the Asian or for the European students, however, the closeness of the scores in some areas (Benevolence, Security, Self Direction, and Universalism) and the involvement of the "OTHERS" Australians in three of these four value groups suggests that there has been some movement towards the host Australian culture by the two immigrant student groups. Conclusions The findings give support for the 'melting pot' approach to cultural interaction, and confirm Ninnes conclusion, that the most common mode of assimilation is by a cultural blending. The situation on Achievement, and the wide differences in Hedonism and Stimulation, would seem to suggest that some areas of cultural value systems were more resistant to change than others. This might be described as cultural resistance in those particular areas of valuing. As Feather(1986) had found, the results suggest that there is room for doubt that a particular minority culture could survive in its original form, even if an enclave were set up (either voluntarily or by external design) to protect it. The multicultural school involves a high concentration of immigrants, and the Asian students in the sample actually outnumber the Australian students; nevertheless their Asian values appear to have been changed towards those of Australia. An important additional finding is that the idea that the majority culture can remain unaffected by a large influx of people of 'foreign' cultures, was not supported. It was quite clear that the values of the Australian students in the sample were changed by significant contact with those of other cultures. The foregoing suggests that teachers in a multicultural setting might need to be prepared to encounter a wide range of social values among their students, and be aware that those values are likely to be undergoing change due to cultural blending. Considerable sensitivity to the issues involved could be important in ensuring successful teaching. References Bateson G(1944), Cultural determinants of Personality, In Hunt J(Ed), Personality and the Behavious Disorders, Ronald Press, NY, VII, p273 Bryk AS Rodenbush SW(1992), Heirarchical Linear Models: Applications and data analysis, Sage, Calif. USA Feather NT(1975), Values in Education and Society, Free Press, NY Feather NT(1980), Similarity of value systems within the same nation: Evidence from Australia and Papua New Guinea, Australian Journal of Psychology, 32, 17-30 Feather NT(1986), Cross-cultural Studies with the Rokeach Values Survey: The Flinders program of research on values, Australian Journal of Psychology, 38(3), 269-283 Gordon M(1964), Assimilation in American life, OUP, NY Ho R(1984), Development of an Australian Work Ethic Scale, Australian Psychologist, 19(3), November Hofstede G (1980), Cultures Consequences: International differences in work-related values, SAGE, Calif USA Kluckhohn F and Strodtbeck K(1961), Value Orientations, Row Peterson, USA Ninnes P(1994), Values and cultural change amongst Vietnamese students in Adelaide, Paper presented to the International Conference for Cultural Democracy, Adelaide, May 1994 Rokeach M(1973), The Nature of Human Values, Free Press, NY The Author Brian Astill has an extensive background in adult education and training, and youth training schemes. He has taken a keen interest in young people's disposition in society, and his activities in this area have been recognised by the honour of lifetime membership of Teen Challenge. He has diploma, degree, and Master's qualifications in education, and is writing his doctoral thesis "Social Values in the senior high school milieu". 8