Romanian children and parents in German school-Extracurricular activities rolls in shifting cultural identity
Romanian children and parents in German school-Extracurricular activities rolls in shifting cultural identity

Summary/Abstract: Defining cultural identity is a challenge of the present time. It swings between assuming the given cultural heritage (Geertz, 1963) and becoming under the influence of context and opportunities that awake the desire for change. History shows us that the existence of German school in the region of Transylvania and the desire of Romanian ethnics to join this school path is not new. This study aims to capture possible changes in cultural identity components of Romanian children and parents attached to the German school. The school is not seen only as educational establishment, but as a chance for identity transformation, with future benefits foreseenunder the influence of positive perception over the German ethnicity in connection with career opportunities. The study is part of a largerresearch regarding the cultural identity of Romanian children enrolled in German preschool department. The entire research was concretized in a doctoral thesis. In this section we start from the assumption that changes happen in the pattern of cultural identity components of the observed children, changes which they don’t comprehend, but transpose into fluctuating emotionalstates. With respect to parents, we move on the supposition that deviations in the pattern of cultural identity unit are acknowledge, even if not assumed. Participative observation and in-depth interviews were used to checkthe made assumptions. The study describes extracurricular activities that challengeRomanian parents and childrenin their struggle of being "different". Our interest in this research is to describe the process of cultural identity transformation through this activities. Various extracurricular activities are describedin detail, respectively parent meeting, the feast of Saint Martin, Advent, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Carnival, and swimming activity. Of these activities, we extract observations that could impact the cultural identity construction process of children. Finally, we present six conclusions.The study, descriptive and non-experimental, complies with rules of ethics in research with minors.

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