The Cultural Broker Concept in Bicultural Education

Ethnic differences in educational achievement in the US appear explainable by the nature & extent of contact with the mainstream culture, as proposed by Peggy R. Sanday ("The Relevance of Anthropology to US Social Policy," Council on Anthropology & Education Newsletter, 1972, 3, 1-8). This suggests that an appropriate policy for solving the education problems of blacks would be establishment of the role of "cultural broker," which would involve both aiding communication between different ethnic groups & offering a role model to members of minority groups. An attempt was made to develop this role in a project funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity at Southern Illinois U, the Experiment in Higher Education. Teacher-counselors were appointed to play the cultural broker role by performing several functions for black students: translating the academic subculture to the student's ethnic subculture, translating the student's ethnic subculture to the academic subculture, & furnishing role models for students. This program had considerable success & could readily be adopted as a model for similar programs to aid minority education at relatively low expense. It is particularly significant that cultural brokers need not themselves be members of the ethnic minority aided. 26 References. W. H. Stoddard.