In a collaborative research study with a Samoan community leader and a high school student, the authors explored the academic and cultural identities of 10 Samoan high school students. In-depth qualitative interviews revealed the students' struggles with negotiating cultural and academic identities in the ecological contexts of home, peer, teacher, school, and commxmity. Using grounded theory, the authors described the reciprocal, contradicting, and ahenating nature of Samoan and academic identities in the face of negative stereotypes, competing relational obhgations, and low expectations. Findings and implications also focused on cultural strengths and values such as unity, giving back to the community, and respect.

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To empirically investigate language learning in relational and cultural settings, the authors developed and administered the Ecological Language Learning and Academic Success scale to an ethnically diverse sample of 269 urban high school students who speak a language other than English at home. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor structure (Educational Learning, Friend-Based Learning, Family-Based Learning, and Community-Based Learning) with strong reliability estimates. To explore the interrelationships across the various ecological settings, the authors then conducted multidimensional scaling to create a visual representation of the distances between scale items in three-dimensional space. Their findings reveal a disconnect among the various settings. The authors discuss these findings in the context of maximizing bilingual students' cultural assets by bridging the social communities in which they learn English and achieve academically.

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