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Placing Education in Diaspora: Transmigrant Educational Experiences of Contemporary 1.5-Generation Chinese Youth from a Public High School in California

Thu, March 12, 11:30am to 1:00pm, Washington Hilton, Floor: Concourse Level, Jefferson East

Abstract

Through the intersection of immigrant education (Lukose, 2007; Suárez-Orozco, Darbes, Dias, and Sutin, 2011) and diaspora studies (Brubaker, 2005; Ong, 1999; Safran, 1991; Tölölyan, 1991; Wang, 1995), theories on transnational migration and transnational social field (Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanto, 1995; Levitt & Schiller, 2005), this paper attempts to explore how contemporary 1.5-generation Chinese youth perceive their transnational migrant status and position themselves in and out of school. This group of 1.5-generation youth is defined as those born in Mainland China (i.e., excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau) and who immigrated to the U.S. before the age of 13 having had some schooling in China. To better understand the variation within the Chinese immigrant community and the nuances resulting from the interplay between immigration and education in the United States, this ethnographic research was conducted in a public high school in the suburban enclave of Cupertino, California, which comprises a significant Chinese immigrant population.

Methodologically, this qualitative research combines ethnographic approach (Fetterman, 2010; Wolcott, 2008) with narrative inquiry (Clandianin and Connelly, 2000; Riessman, 2008). Respectively, ethnography gives a lens through which culture of the group of Chinese immigrant youth can be captured and thick description can be achieved. Narrative inquiry enables the researcher to focus on each life story of the participants and interpret it comprehensively and deeply. Since the capacities of Internet, in particular from social media, the lens from online ethnography has an impact on this research (Markham, 2005). Online ethnography is not used as a strategy of inquiry. Rather, it urges me as an ethnographer to redefine the research field and the notion of boundaries that are no longer determined by the researcher, but created by both the researcher and participants beyond the physical space. Therefore, cyberspace is included to examine and analyze in the research. The discussion of traditionally geographic location of field shifts to imagination of cultural boundaries that guide the researcher to find.

I contacted and talked to hundreds of individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area throughout the fieldwork. A total of 14 students, 8 parents, and 13 educators from the public high school in Cupertino participated throughout the research from April 2013-July 2014. Narrative analysis is used to guide the interview and observation field notes analysis, along with descriptive and in vivo coding as the first coding strategy and pattern coding as the second coding strategy (Saldaña, 2009). The three coding methods are used as the initial step in generating themes. All Chinese transcripts are coded in Mandarin Chinese first and translated into English. For the coding of audio-visual material data such as photos, Internet websites, art projects and social media images, a holistic and interpretive lens guided by strategic questions is used. In other words, reflection and descriptions on visual data provides an approach to analyze the data. The extensive data analysis generates six key themes: pre-migration preparation and arrival in Cupertino, 1.5-generation and immigrant status, “home” and China visit, connection beyond the nation-state boundaries through social media, the U.S. citizenship and global citizen, and future plans for post-US education. This research compels us to rethink the complexity of immigration and education, and the interplay of historical, cultural, social, and economic factors. The lens of transnational migration and diaspora studies will insightfully shift our perception on Chinese immigrant education constructed in a single context of the United States to a globalized context, which will in turn provide us an opportunity to reflect on our own position to interpret and reevaluate the educational experiences of contemporary 1.5-generation Chinese youth. Perspectives offered from the youth, their parents, and school educators provide alternative lenses through which we can interrogate differences between the mentalities held by a range of Chinese recent immigrant families. In the process it is hoped that the findings of this research will assist in redefining the term “immigrant” in the context of globalization and transnationalism.

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