Challenging Racist Stereotypes: An Examination of the Portrayal of Asian American and Pacific Islander Students in Higher Education Research

• In Event: 67.058 - Dismantling Institutional Racism in Asian American and Pacific Islander College Student Experiences

Abstract

Purpose: Scholarship illuminating how AAPI students fare in college is growing as over 100 peer-reviewed articles, reports, and academic books have been published on this group since 2002 (Poon et al., 2016). However, educators and leaders in postsecondary institutions are influenced by how AAPIs are treated within the logic of U.S. racism rather than educational research. Pervasive racist stereotypes, such as the model minority, continue to motivate practices such as excluding AAPIs from programs, services, and research focused on students of color. In disproving stereotypes, research has been less focused on demonstrating how institutional environments contribute to AAPI college students’ racialized experiences. In this scholarly paper, I argue institutional racism, as a historical and contemporary feature of U.S. higher education, is an enduring and salient force shaping the educational trajectories of AAPI college students. Attending to how AAPI students experience institutionalized racism contributes to a fuller understanding of how racism is structurally and culturally embedded in the university.

Theoretical Framework: Institutional racism is the main conceptual lens through which the literature is examined. According to Feagin and Sikes (1994), “racism is enforced and maintained by the legal, cultural, religious, educational, economic, political, environmental, and military institutions of societies” (p. 3).

Method: This scholarly paper is a systematic literature review on AAPI college student experiences from empirical, theoretical, and historical work pertaining to AAPI college students since 1977. Scholarship in the fields of higher education, sociology, psychology, ethnic studies, and Asian American Studies were culled from databases, including ERIC, Education Source, and Google Scholar. Search terms included Asian American and Pacific Islander in conjunction with higher education, college students, and college. 180 studies were reviewed.

Findings: Three main findings emerged from the literature review. First, institutional racism manifests in an interaction of three dimensions of campus climate: psychological, behavior, and organizational. Second, AAPI students’ mental health is negatively impacted by institutional racism. Lastly, AAPI students encounter limiting frameworks of who they are, which result in a constant negotiation of belonging.

Significance: By applying the concept of institutional racism to previous literature, it becomes apparent how policies, practices, and campus culture produce racialized experiences that are not merely coincidental or cultural in nature. An institutional racism lens illuminates how organizational and structural features of inequality lead to a dominant culture, which excludes AAPI students and reinforces the power structure. Future research should foreground institutional racism in study design and analysis.

Author

• Jude Paul Matias Dizon, University of Southern California