ABSTRACT
Even under the best of circumstances, the secondary school experiences of most students are characterized by uncertainty and tension. For culturally and linguistically dominated students, whose schooling can hardly be defined as occurring under the best conditions, such tensions are almost inevitable (Gillborn, 1995; Nieto, 1994; Olsen, 1988). Aside from the normal anxieties associated with adolescence, additional pressure for culturally subordinated students may be the result of several factors, including the physical and psychological climate of the schools they attend, the low status their native languages and cultures are accorded in the societies in which they live, the low expectations that society has of them, and their invisibility in traditional curricula.
