The impact of culturally derived schema on the interpretation of narrative

Schema theory asserts that knowledge based on life experience is utilized to achieve comprehension during a reading task. Researchers have found evidence that individuals from distinctly different cultures interpret reading materials differently. These same researchers suggest use of less distinctive cultures in similar research.; This research study investigates whether individuals from the larger culture (majority) and inner-city micro culture interpret narrative differently. The work of Elijah Anderson (1999) defines the inner city micro culture examined in this study. His work asserts that inner city residents live according to a "code" of conduct that differs from that of the larger culture in that while most inner city residents are law abiding citizens, they are forced to live among individuals who embody an oppositional culture that regularly uses violence to resolve disagreements.; Three populations were sampled: a juvenile detention center, an inner city middle school and a suburban middle school. Narratives were adapted from the work of Narvaez, et al., (1999). Participants completed a series of tasks designed to reveal what they interpret as the message or lesson of the story. Choices of interpretation were offered that reflected either the larger culture or the micro culture.; Analysis of the data from this study indicate that culturally derived schema does play a role in the interpretation of narrative. As predicted, the suburban group provided the most homogeneous and larger culture responses, the detention center group provided the most micro culture responses and the inner city group fell in between. Variation in the groups points to the inner city and detention center participants as possibly demonstrating "code switching" (Anderson, 1999) or seeing both the micro and larger culture ways of thinking.; Findings in this study have implications in two realms: moral development and standardized testing. Variation in the interpretation of narrative may point to a possible contributor to the achievement gap between whites and minorities exhibited through standardized testing.; Standard in the field of character education and moral psychology is the idea that morality is developmental; however, analysis of the data in this study supports defining what is seen as "moral" as relevant to culture.