Nine Daughters ≠ One Son: Case Study of a Hmong Family's Educational Expectations and Experiences

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Asian Americans' Stories and Identities

Abstract

Although previous researchers have analyzed the gender, cultural and social barriers that Hmong students’ experience, parental expectations of educational achievements remain an understudied area. In this paper, I examine a critical case study of one Hmong family to understand the parents’ educational expectations, and how that has shaped their children’s educational expectations and experiences. My preliminary findings demonstrate contradictory educational expectations between spouses and that children themselves perceive their parents’ educational expectations differently. By illuminating these paradoxical educational expectations, I provide one example of how individuals in the Hmong community have come to terms with equal educational opportunities available to both sons and daughters in the United States.

Author

• Kaozong Nancy Mouavangsou, University of California - Davis