The role schools play in facilitating acculturation for Arab American youth.

Experiences of discrimination in the school setting can impact student academic trajectories and psychological well-being by influencing student ethnic identity development and acculturative processes at critical developmental time periods (Ahmed, Kia-Keating, & Tsai, 2011). To create inclusive schools that support each student’s full development it is important to understand the unique role that schools play in supporting acculturative experiences for cultural minority youth. This study contributes to our understanding of acculturative experiences in the school setting for a historically understudied population, Arab Americans (Ahmed, Kia-Keating, & Tsai, 2011). Participants included 21 Arab American early college students and community dwellers, enough participants to have achieved data saturation. Results revealed three themes: 1) School staff perceptions of Arab students influence Arab students’ perception of their dual-cultural identity, 2) the lack of incorporating Arab culture into classroom curriculum cultivates feelings of exclusion among Arab American students, and 3) the biggest changes Arab American students would like to see in their school systems is understanding and respect for their culture. These themes highlight some of the ways interactions at school can influence acculturation and identity development for Arab youth. In our article, implications and suggestions for School Psychologists are discussed.