Abstract
How are concepts such as ethnic identity, acculturation and cultural orientation being perceived by a child? What is the process of identity construction in early preschool age? How is children’s wellbeing affected by parents’ desire to expose them to a certain culture, other than the one the children were born into? How natural is learning a foreign language for children, given a multiethnic space characterized by adversity and disparities such as “them”- -“us”? And what are the potential outcomes of the phenomena in question? These are a few questions that the current study refl ectively followed up upon by using a qualitative research design and data triangulation in order to increase its validity. The SDQ Questionnaire used to study the children’s wellbeing, the semi-structured “in-depth” interviews conducted on the main early preschool identity builders in the Cristian community and the participative observation indicated the children were proud to be part of the German department group. They did not undergo a brutal process of affi liation to the Saxon ethnicity due to the educators’ various compromises, and their wellbeing didn’t seem to be affected at the SDQ administration stage. However, learning German proved to be a diffi cult process and the two potential outcomes included hitting the language barrier or resuming adaptation to the native ethnic code. This study highlights the impact of the cultural code on the early identity foundation.
Highlights
Ethnic Identity, Acculturation and Cultural OrientationEthnic identity deÞnes the degree to which an individual perceives oneself as a member of a speciÞc ethnic group
Research Questions The research questions this study followed up upon include: 1) What is the process of identity construction in early preschool age? 2) How is children’s wellbeing affected by parents’ desire to expose them to a certain culture, other than the one the children were born into? 3) How natural is learning a foreign language for children, given a multiethnic space characterized by adversity and disparities such as “them”-“us”? 4) What are the potential outcomes of the phenomena in question?
As we emphasized in the theoretical part of the article, exploring the ethnic identity elements, and the knowledge of the identity belonging are mechanisms necessary for the development of the ethnic identity
Summary
Ethnic identity deÞnes the degree to which an individual perceives oneself as a member of a speciÞc ethnic group. Acculturation, as brießy described, is the process of one’s afÞliation to a culture different from the one that the individual is born into. While cultural orientation represents individual perception and the extent of adherence to different cultures. Recent studies indicate certain common structures underlying the general view on ethnic identity. Phinney (1990, 1992), ethnic identity development involves two interdependent mechanisms: exploration and afÞrmation/belonging
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