The Schooling Experiences of Southeast Asian American Youth

• In Event: Dis-Orienting Asian Pacific America: Emerging Perspectives on the Asian American and Pacific Islander Educational Experience

Abstract

Overview:
Mainstream accounts of Asian Americans in education paint a picture of high achieving, elite individuals (Lee & Kumashiro, 2015). Asian Americans, however, are not a monolithic group. While select Asian Americans are suing elite universities such as Harvard over their admissions process, Southeast Asian Americans have among the lowest educational attainment in the country. For example, 34.3% of Laotian, 38.5% of Cambodian and 39.6% of Hmong over the age of 25 do not have a high school diploma. Furthermore, compared to East Asians (i.e. Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) and South Asians (Indian, Pakistani); students of Southeast Asian descent are three to five times more likely to drop out of college (CARE, 2011).

Driven by the question “how do schooling experiences shape Southeast Asian American youth’s identities and aspirations?” we examine the high-school experience of Southeast Asian American youth in a mid-sized Midwestern city. For the purpose of this paper, we address how Southeast Asian American parents and community members’ relate to schools and how these relationships affect youth schooling experiences. Specifically, we ask: “What do parents of high school-aged Southeast Asian American youth desire from their schools and their children’s education?” and “What messages do Southeast Asian American parents and community members give to their children about the purpose of schooling?”

Methods and Theoretical Framework:
We draw from the work of scholars who complicate the image of the Asian American model minority stereotype and shed light on Asian American diversity in schooling experiences (Lee, 2005; Ngo, 2009; Chhuon & Hudley, 2011). Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation, we explore how schooling experiences influence youth identity, aspirations, and sense of belonging in both school and broader community.

Findings/Significance:
While we continue to collect data, initial research suggests that, to the detriment of Southeast Asian American communities and students, Asian American heterogeneity remains invisible. Our study, by incorporating the experiences of understudied Asian Americans, illustrates the heterogeneity of the category Asian and also complicates a Black-white formulation of the achievement gap. In this mid-sized Midwestern city, Southeast Asian American students face invisibility in their schools and communities—both researchers and schools are often unaware of the specific challenges, such as the effect of long-term language-based tracking, limited knowledge of and access to high quality school resources, and familial poverty. Thus, we suggest that Southeast Asian Americans—students and their communities—are a critically underserved group in regard to accessing and receiving educational support, especially in the form of bilingual language education for students and outreach services from school to community. By centralizing the experiences of Southeast Asian American youth, our study contributes to theorizing how, when, and with what consequences school practices and policies impact immigrant and second generation youth’s future academic aspirations, sense of self, school, and community.

Authors

• Linda Marie Pheng, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Mai Neng Vang, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Choua Xiong, University of Wisconsin - Madison