When "Helping Someone Else" Is the Right Answer: Bridging Cultures in Assessment

Abstract

The Bridging Cultures Project is a longitudinal action-research project that began with teacher professional development on differences in cultural values orientations that have been associated with conflicts between home and school. Teachers used the cultures values framework of individualism and collectivism as a starting point for exploring students' home values and devising new strategies that were more culturally harmonious for their students. Data show how elementrary school teachers have used immigrant Latino students' value of helping, in both instruction and test preparation, to positive ends. Two questions are addressed. First, how did teachers' knowledge of children's home-culture value of helping affect their assessment practices? Second, where does helping leave off and cheating begin? The implications of teachers' beliefs about what constitutes helping versus cheating in terms of their potential effects on students are explored in light of cultural value systems. Keywords: assessment, culture, helping, cheating, professional development, Latino