Editing Cultural identity (section)

==School Transitions==
How great is "Achievement Loss Associated with the Transition to Middle School and High School"? John W. Alspaugh's research is in the September/October 1998 ''Journal of Educational Research'' (vol. 92, no. 1), 2026. Comparing three groups of 16 school districts, the loss was greater where the transition was from sixth grade than from a K-8 system. It was also greater when students from multiple elementary schools merged into a single middle school. Students from both K-8 and middle schools lost achievement in transition to high school, though this was greater for middle school students, and high school dropout rates were higher for districts with grades 6-8 middle schools than for those with K-8 elementary schools.<ref name="Copyright Prakken Publications, Inc. May 1999">{{cite book|last=Terrence N|first=Tice|title=Cultural Identity|year=1999|publisher=Prakken Publications, Inc.|pages=43–44|id={{ProQuest|218180019}}}}</ref>

The Jean S. Phinney Three-Stage Model of Ethnic Identity Development is a widely accepted view of the formation of cultural identity. In this model cultural Identity is often developed through a three-stage process: unexamined cultural identity, cultural identity search, and cultural identity achievement.

Unexamined cultural identity: "a stage where one's cultural characteristics are taken for granted, and consequently there is little interest in exploring cultural issues." This for example is the stage one is in throughout their childhood when one doesn't distinguish between cultural characteristics of their household and others. Usually, a person in this stage accepts the ideas they find on culture from their parents, the media, community, and others.

An example of thought in this stage: "I don't have a culture I'm just an American." "My parents tell me about where they lived, but what do I care? I've never lived there."

Cultural identity search: "is the process of exploration and questioning about one's culture in order to learn more about it and to understand the implications of membership in that culture." During this stage a person will begin to question why they hold their beliefs and compare it to the beliefs of other cultures. For some this stage may arise from a turning point in their life or from a growing awareness of other cultures. This stage is characterized by growing awareness in social and political forums and a desire to learn more about culture. This can be expressed by asking family members questions about heritage, visiting museums, reading of relevant cultural sources, enrolling in school courses, or attendance at cultural events. This stage might have an emotional component as well.

An example of thought in this stage: "I want to know what we do and how our culture is different from others." "There are a lot of non-Japanese people around me, and it gets pretty confusing to try and decide who I am."

Cultural identity achievement: "is characterized by a clear, confident acceptance of oneself and an internalization of one's cultural identity." In this stage people often allow the acceptance of their cultural identity play a role in their future choices such as how to raise children, how to deal with stereotypes and any discrimination and approach negative perceptions. This usually leads to an increase in self-[[confidence]] and positive psychological adjustment<ref>http://www.niusileadscape.org/docs/FINAL_PRODUCTS/NIUSI/toolkit_cd/4%20%20Implementing%20Change/OnPoints/OP_cultural_identity.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>


There is a set of phenomena that occur in conjunction between [[Cyberculture|virtual culture]] – understood as the modes and norms of behavior associated with the [[internet]] and the [[online world]] – and [[youth culture]]. While we can speak of a duality between the virtual (online) and [[Reality|real]] sphere (face-to-face relations), for youth, this frontier is implicit and permeable. On occasions – to the annoyance of parents and teachers – these spheres are even superposed, meaning that young people may be in the real world without ceasing to be connected.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002475/247577E.pdf|title=Youth and changing realities: Rethinking secondary education in Latin America|last1=López|first1=Néstor|last2=Opertti|first2=Renato|last3=Vargas Tamez|first3=Carlos|publisher=UNESCO|year=2017|isbn=978-92-31 00204-5|pages=44–45}}</ref>

In the present techno-cultural context, the relationship between the real world and the virtual world cannot be understood as a link between two independent and separate worlds, possibly coinciding at a point, but as a [[Moebius Strip|Moebius strip]] where there exists no inside and outside and where it is impossible to identify limits between both. For new generations, to an ever-greater extent, digital life merges with their home life as yet another element of nature. In this naturalizing of digital life, the learning processes from that environment are frequently mentioned not just since they are explicitly asked but because the subject of the internet comes up spontaneously among those polled. The ideas of [[active learning]], of [[googling]] 'when you don't know', of recourse to tutorials for learning a program or a game, or the expression 'I learnt English better and in a more entertaining way by playing' are examples often cited as to why the internet is the place most frequented by the young people polled.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Políticas TIC en los Sistemas Educativos de América Latina. Informe sobre tendencias sociales y educativas en América Latina|last=SITEAL, IIPE-UNESCO y OEI|publisher=Buenos Aires, IIEP-UNESCO Regional Office in Buenos Aires.|year=2014}}</ref><ref name=":02" />

The internet is becoming an extension of the expressive dimension of the youth condition. There, youth talk about their lives and concerns, design the content that they make available to others and assess others' reactions to it in the form of optimized and electronically mediated social approval. Many of today's youth go through processes of affirmation procedures and is often the case for how youth today grow dependent on peer approval. When connected, youth speak of their daily routines and lives. With each post, [[image]] or [[video]] they [[upload]], they have the possibility of asking themselves who they are and to try out profiles differing from those they assume in the 'real' world. The connections they feel in more recent times have become much less interactive through personal means compared to past generations. The influx of new technology and access has created new fields of research on effects on teens and young adults. They thus negotiate their identity and create senses of belonging, putting the acceptance and censure of others to the test, an essential mark of the process of [[Identity formation|identity construction]].<ref name=":02" />

Youth ask themselves about what they think of themselves, how they see themselves personally and, especially, how others see them. On the basis of these questions, youth make decisions which, through a long process of trial and error, shape their identity. This experimentation is also a form through which they can think about their insertion, membership and sociability in the 'real' world.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Los adolescentes y las redes sociales|last1=Morduchowicz|first1=R.|last2=Marcon|first2=A.|last3=Sylvestre|first3=A.|last4=Ballestrini|first4=F.|year=2010}}</ref><ref name=":02" />

From other perspectives, the question arises on what impact the internet has had on youth through accessing this sort of 'identity laboratory' and what role it plays in the shaping of youth identity.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet|last=Turkle|first=S.|publisher=New York, Simon & Schuster|year=1995}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The psychology of the Internet|last=Wallace|first=P.|publisher=Cambridge, Cambridge University Press|year=1999}}</ref> On the one hand, the internet enables young people to explore and perform various roles and [[personification]]s while on the other, the virtual forums – some of them highly attractive, vivid and absorbing (e.g. [[video game]]s or virtual games of personification) – could present a risk to the construction of a stable and viable personal identity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zegers|first1=B.|last2=Larraín|first2=M.E.|year=2011|title=El impacto de la Internet en la definición de la identidad juvenil: una revisión|url=http://www.psykhe.cl/index.php/psykhe/article/view/469/448|journal=Psykhe|volume=11|issue=1|access-date=2018-09-07|archive-date=2020-10-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030014055/http://www.psykhe.cl/index.php/psykhe/article/view/469/448|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":02" />