The development of ethnic identity and ethnic role taking skills in children from different school settings

The current studies were designed to investigate the influence of variations in type of school setting on the development of role‐taking skills and ethnic identity. We were interested in groups of school children in grades 1 to 5 inclusive from three different types of language programs: (1) instruction in the native language (English in this case); (2) total instruction in a second language (French); and (3) partial instruction in a second language (French). All children were native‐English speaking, and came from perdominantly middle class families with monolingual English‐speaking parents. The children from each program were equated at each grade level on age, and verbal and non‐verbal I.Q. It was expected that (1) children in the second language programs would develop identity with their native language reference group later and less consistently than children in the native language programs; because (2) the second language children would identify more with the second language ethnic group; (3) the second language children would be able to understand at an earlier grade level than the native language group the principle of reciprocity in role‐taking; and (4) these difference would be more pronounced for the totally than for the partially immersed second language children. The children were required to rate a number of ethnic dolls on a 20 point rating scale according to (1) how much each would be desired as a personal friend, (2) how much each would be desired as a friend for a member of another specific ethnic group, and (3) how similar each doll was to the child. The results indicated general support for hypotheses (1), (2) and (4), particularly among the primary school samples (1, 2), but a lack of support for hypothesis (3). These results demonstrate the influence of socio‐cultural factors on the development of ethnic identity and ethnic role‐taking skills. RÉSUMÉ Les deux études présentées dans cet article avaient pour but de déterminer l'influence de différents types d'enseignement sur la genèse de l'identité ethnique et de l'aptitude à assumer un rôle ethnique donné. Les expériences ont porté sur des groupes d'écoliers du premier au cinquième degré, appariés quant à l'âge et le Q.I., et participant à trois programmes scolaires : instruction dans la langue maternelle (groupe témoin), instruction complète dans la seconde langue (immersion totale) et instruction partielle dans la seconde langue (immersion partielle). La langue maternelle de tous ce