ABSTRACT
The cultural congruence approach tacitly assumes that our task is to assimilate the culturally and ethnically different, where the difference is from some imagined United States norm. The situating of identity, adoption of positionality, and the assertion of agency are critical cultural practices at the nexus of educational attainment. The method of cultural practices inquiry is the application of situated-mediated theory to the deep examination of young people's academic identity development in relation to specific school experiences and activities. The method of cultural practice is perhaps best illustrated by the idea of using syntax — a formal rule system — to make knowledge statements about what is going on with young people in particular contexts. Cultural inquiry requires a system that flexibly handles the dynamics of human interaction and symbolic exchange between a student and the wider social context, especially as situations vary for that student within the school context.
