Reshaping the Research Agenda on the Model Minority Myth

• In Event: 32.082 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 32.082-19 - Model Minority Myth and Asian Pacific Islander and Desi Americans: Examining Research, Policy, and Practice

Abstract

The presenters below will lead the research component for this symposium session:

Presenters:
Jenna Sablan, Ph.D. focuses on college readiness, college access, and quantitative methods. She recently accepted the inaugural AERA Congressional Fellowship, and will work on education policy on Capitol Hill over the next year. Her dissertation, which received the 2016 Rossier School of Education Dissertation of the Year Award, utilized quantitative methodology to examine a culturally relevant model of college readiness using Guam’s postsecondary education system as the setting, and she has research Pacific Islander education in the U.S. mainland and U.S-affiliated Pacific Island territories of Guam, CNMI, and American Samoa.

Contribution: Dr. Sablan provides an alternative perspective on the MMM by examining the implications of separating Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander as a separate racial group in the late 1990s. Sablan will discuss what the MMM means for Pacific Islanders in light of shifting constructions of racial categories and the unique histories and experiences of students in the Pacific diaspora.

Melissa Vang, M.A. is a doctoral student in Higher Education & Student Affairs in the joint Ph.D. program between San Diego State University and Claremont Graduate University. She is a researcher for the Minority Male Community College Collaborative (M2C3). Melissa is actively engaged in research on the college experiences and ethnic identity development of Southeast Asian students and how that impacts their academic development. As the co-founder of Hmong Women Today, Vang also serves on the Southeast Asian Community Taskforce in Fresno, California and the Supporting Southeast Asian Student Success Project at California State University, Fresno.

Contribution: Vang will lead participants in a discussion regarding the effect of immigration status on educational attainment and opportunities for Southeast Asian subgroups within the APIDA population. Her discussion will draw connections between contemporary barriers like the MMM, and their impact on the college experiences of Southeast Asian American students. The presentation will also include a discussion on categorization of Southeast Asian American students as accelerators or under-performers in higher education.

Authors

• Melissa Vang, San Diego State University

• Jenna Sablan, American Educational Research Association