Young Children’s Racial-Cultural Identity Negotiation and Development:A Phenomenological Case Study

Abstract

This article reports on a phenomenological case study following one Korean-American child’s negotiation and development of racial-cultural identity in the United States during the first three years of school. This study aimed to closely explore, understand, and explain the critical incidents experienced by a Korean-American child to recognize and negotiate her racial-cultural identity, and the strategies she used to navigate through the school culture. As a result, four themes were identified with the following metaphors: (a) Just give me a sandwich ？ Avoiding attention; (b) I must have been a slave ？ Trying to fit in; (c) It is my cultural water ？ Speaking up; and (d) I can be both ？ Reconstructing flexible identities. This study offers a glimpse into a complex nature of a Korean-American child’s racial-cultural identity negotiation and development in the United States calling for an expanded discourse around the issue, and sheds a light on what roles teachers and parents can play to collaboratively address and scaffold the experiences.