Supporting the Development of Ethnic Identity and Leadership Knowledge through Computer Coding Activities: A Case Study of Korean American Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session Group 2
  In Poster Session: Supporting the Development of Ethnic Identity and Leadership Knowledge through Computer Coding Activities: A Case Study of Korean American Adolescents

Proposal

The development of ethnic identity is a critical task particularly for adolescents of immigrants (Dimitrova, Bender, Chasiotis, van de Vijver, 2013). Ethnic identity can be understood as a sense of belonging to a group connected by history, cultural values, religious practice, and language (Phinney & Ong, 2007). Providing immigrant youth with an opportunity to explore the meaning of one’s ethnicity is important because minority youth who belong to the majority ethnic culture may not even recognize their ethnic identity, making it hard for them to adapt to multiple cultures (Branch, Tayal, & Triplett, 2000; Phinney, 1989). Asian immigrants in particular are less likely to develop ethnic identity through ethnic socialization compared to African Americans or Hispanic immigrants because they tend to be more geographically scattered. Providing Asian American youth with intentional education opportunities that help them learn their own history and social values is thus important to help these teenagers develop ethnic identity (Yoon, Adams, Clawson, Chang, Surya, & Jérémie-Brink, 2017).

Another area that is need for Asian Americans is leadership education. Despite the high rates of educational achievement and the rapid growth in the Asian American populations in the U.S., the number of Asian American leaders in private, public, and nonprofit sectors has remained very low (Akutagawa, 2013). According to Sy et al. (2010), Asian Americans are perceived to be less leader-like due to the conflict between traits commonly associated with western-style leaders (e.g., assertiveness, eagerness) and Asian stereotypes (e.g., compliant, lack of social skills). There is a need for providing youth with opportunities to develop ethnic minority leadership, which “consider the cultural context and tailor training to meet their unique needs (Sy et al, 2017, p. 143).

The purpose of this presentation is to share the experience and outcomes of a project designed to assist Korean American youth living in the Southeastern part of the U.S. with the development of ethnic identity and leadership knowledge. Despite the importance of educating minority youth about cultural heritages and engaging in leadership activities, our project team has found that encouraging Korean parents and students to attend Korean American leadership classes is challenging due to various reasons including (a) students’ lack of confidence and interest in leadership, (b) parents’ lack of interest in ethnic related activities due to the high emphasis on academic activities, and (c) students’ lack of time. These challenges encouraged us to think about creative ways to design a program where both students and parents would find the topic interesting while learning the history of Korea and the importance of becoming Korean American leaders. As the coordinator of the program who has worked with a Korean youth group for over six years, I’ve observed students’ high interest in computer coding activities. Thus, I designed a youth leadership program where students are making a computer program related to famous Korean historical leaders.

The 12-hour summer workshop (2 days) was offered in summer 2021, and a total of 22 Korean adolescents (aged 12-16) participated in the program. The program was co-designed with a faculty in journalism, a graduate student in education, and three undergraduate students in computer science. The morning activities included lectures related to famous Korean historical figures and elements of effective leaders, and the afternoon activities included hands-on computer coding activities with Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/). In addition to the in-class activities, video tutorials were provided for those who need additional support to learn the Scratch programing language.

The analysis of program evaluation data demonstrated students’ high satisfaction with the program as well as the increased knowledge of important Korean historical figures. Participants particularly indicated the benefits of learning environments where they learned about Korea from Korean teachers with Korean students. The evaluation data also demonstrated several recommendations for the program such as more hands-on activities and shortening daily class times. Despite the positive experiences of participants, the evaluation data also revealed that the 12-hour workshop was too short for students to reflect on their leadership potential and to discuss and develop their ethnic identity.

Author

• Jung Won Hur, Auburn University