originality, as described by Woodson ( 1933), that is often not captured by
researchers.

Culture and heritage--why are they necessary characteristics to consider in
research and policy making? Through culture, individuals' realities are constructed.
Ogbu ( 1988) indicated that people involved in social policy and intervention
programs tend to think of culture as what is in a person's immediate environment
or family. However, culture, as defined by Ogbu ( 1988), "is a way of life shared by
members of a population. It is the social, technoeconomic, and psychological
adaptation worked out in the course of a people's history" (p. 11 ). As Brown ( 1963)
said, "The simple fact is that people usually think, feel, and act as they do because
they were brought up in a culture in which these ways were accepted, not only as
good and right, but as natural. It is the sum total and the organization or
arrangements of all the group's ways of thinking, feeling and acting" (pp. 2 - 3 ). As
such, Brown further stated, "In insisting that cultures must be studied as wholes we
are really saying that no custom, belief, or behavior can be understood out of its
social or cultural context" (p. 15 ).

Cultural context, then, can be defined as interrelated characteristics that provide
a perspective--frame of reference--for understanding individuals' and/or groups'
ways of knowing and being. These interrelated characteristics generally include the
sum total of the makeup of individuals. By way of example, cultural context is to
the individual as conceptual framework is to research. When either is missing, the
purpose, clarity of meaning, or sense of direction seems to be unclear or lost.
Therefore, when research is absent a cultural context, it is like a missing part of a
puzzle. Findings and policies can never be clear because essential parts (the why
and how) of the meaning are absent.

For those who argue that all groups in America should be studied under the
rubric of the American culture, such an argument underestimates the heritages and
frames of reference of different culture groups. For some time, Banks ( 1988) has
indicated that "certain perspectives, points of view, and frames of reference are
normative within each culture and microcultural group" (p. 77 ). While it is not the
case that every individual in a group holds a particular view, it does mean that
some perspectives occur more frequently within a cultural group than do others
( Banks, 1988, p. 78). When research is conducted out of cultural context, findings
and applications are often misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Consequently, who conducts research and where and how it is produced have
tremendous implications for both the authenticity and the outcomes of research
findings and public policy. Programs are developed and instituted, court cases are
influenced, and funding patterns for institutions of all types are established based
on the outcomes of research, whether from the very basic level of statistics or from
full-scaled commissioned studies authorized by different agencies.

Research that has been conducted on African Americans has most often been
conducted by individuals unfamiliar with the historical and cultural considerations
of African Americans. For example, the most frequently quoted authors writing on
African Americans in higher education are non-African Americans. African and

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