The Leadership of the Portuguese Community Schools of the East Coast of the United States and Cultural Identity: A Multiple Case Study

Abstract

1 IntroductionThe ethnic groups try to reproduce in their new environments the traditions, the mores and the systems of organization of the mother-land. Among the various forms of communitarian organizations are the 'ethnic schools', educational institutions with a basic common objective: To teach and to preserve the language and the culture of one determined ethnic group. While that Joshua Fishman (1966) considers those schools as the factor most active in the maintenance of the language in the biggest part of the ethnic communities, Bradunas and Topping (1988) describe those same schools as formal manifestations of adaptations of the immigrants to the American society.Are counted by the thousands the ethnic schools that in the United States continue to provide an alternative education and/or supplemental education to many American children (Fishman, 1980a) and among these thousands are about seventy Portuguese Official Schools (POS). With a long historical tradition, the Portuguese communities in the United States have come to create and to keep these schools for almost a century (Bradunas & Topping 1988).For many Luso-Americans, the Portuguese Official Schools (POS) represent the natural symbiosis with the language and Portuguese culture and a community effort in the direction of awakening the conscience and sensitivity of the children for the cultural values inherited from their parents and grandparents (Bento, A educacao: Da familia a escola, 1985) and to perpetuate our language, culture and identity in the time and communitarian Luso-American space.2 Literature Review2.1 The ethnic schools in the United StatesJoshua Fishman, leader and pioneer in researching the Ethnic instruction relates that the United States, as the greater multilingual and multicultural nation cannot disregard the thousands of schools and the hundreds of thousands of children that the ethnic schools serve. Fishman (1980a) affirms:These schools must be enclosed in the list of our educational, social and intellectual resources for national reasons given the fact that the United States cannot give itself the luxury to ignore six thousand schools attended by six hundred thousand children (p. 236)The Ethnic Schools are supplemental schools functioning between six and 10 hours per week and between three to five sessions of two hours each (Bradunas & Topping 1988). According to Fishman (1989), linguistic education is only one of the multiple objectives of the ethnic schools. The education of traditions and history of ancestors, the wakening and the development of the ethnic identity, the improvement of communication between parents and children and the creation of chances for the members of the community to work and to socialize among them, are also essential objectives of great importance. In this way, Ethnic Schools had given an important and independent contribution to the maintenance of ethnic languages and cultures. Bentley (1982) affirms:For besides keeping the identity and increasing academic education, the proficiency in two languages is one advantage in a cosmopolitan world. Nine of ten Americans don't know how to speak, to read or to understand another language for beyond the English. An education that leads to a high degree of bilingualism in English and a minority language is of great value for this country (p. 114).As all the other ethnic schools, the POS transmit to its pupil's significant levels of reading, writing and comprehension of the Portuguese language. Moreover, POS give also emphasis to history, literature, mores and traditions of the Portuguese people.2.2 Language and cultural identityThe language is not only one instrument of communication. According to Haugen (1974), the language is a social instrument that follows and gives to existence to all the other social institutions because the language is the base of all the others institutions of the society. …