Sociocultural Contexts and Learning: Anglophone Caribbean Immigrant Women in U.S. Postsecondary Education

Abstract

This study drew from sociocultural theory to understand the learning experiences of Anglophone Caribbean immigrant women in U.S. postsecondary institutions. As a British Caribbean immigrant, the author acted as both researcher and participant in this qualitative research study. The findings suggest that culture and early schooling socialization in the country of origin influence learning experiences in the host country. Some of the major challenges participants faced in the United States were in transforming cultural assumptions about silence, negotiating language and identity, and reorienting to a new meaning of teaching and learning. The study also found that the length of time spent in a new culture, the level of social support inherent in the culture, and the characteristics of the sociocultural environment greatly affect learning among immigrants in postsecondary institutions. Within discourse communities in higher education, participants were often located at the margins, thus hindering their full participation in such communities.