Academic Needs and Family Factors in the Education of Southeast Asian American Students: Dismantling the Model Minority Myth

Abstract

The model minority myth is a powerful force in schools. Many teachers believe that Asian American students do not need academic interventions. The purpose of this study was to examine the student achievement of almost a million seventh-grade students from California.

Accounting graduate readiness for work: a case study of South East Asia

“…4.2.6 Role of parents. Because of the oriental culture, parents in SEA play a more critical role than peers do in the Western world (Lee et al, 2017). Although universities provide enough technical skills, parents play a pivotal role in providing encouragement, developing soft skills and modelling the right behaviours for their children (Keller and Whiston, 2008).…”

“This is why nobody knows who you are:” (Counter)Stories of Southeast Asian Americans in the Midwest

“…Cambodian refugees arrived later in the second wave as survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide (Kula & Paik, 2016). The experiences of refugees who lost family members, escaped war, sought asylum in crowded camps outside of their home countries, then suddenly relocated to the United States is understandably filled with trauma, poverty, conflict, and complexity that manifested in a multitude of ways as they adjusted to life in a new country and raised the next generation (Kula & Paik, 2016;Lee et al, 2017). Although the first wave of Southeast Asian refugees were mostly educated, affluent, and had some fluency in English, the second wave had little education, limited command of English, and minimal industrial job training.…”

“…As a result of these multiple conditions, SEAAs experience lower educational and occupational attainment than the overall Asian American population and the U.S. average (Kula & Paik, 2016). Lee et al (2017) found that Cambodian American, Lao American, and Vietnamese American standardized test performance was heavily influenced by families' socioeconomic status and parents' educational levels. Uy (2008) suggests that the lack of formal education of many Southeast Asian refugee parents and the inability to read or write in their native languages may result in a lack of understanding of the U.S. education system and their subsequent interaction with it.…”

Bridging the Gaps: Parental Involvement and Asian Non-native English Speakers’ Postsecondary Enrollment

“…However, it is hard to generalize Asian populations since they include diverse sociocultural and linguistic aspects, as well as different cultural values and norms. Although many Asian American families are regarded as the "model minority," educators shouldn't neglect the fact that many students are non-English native speakers (NNESs) whose parents are often ill-equipped to support NNESs in the complex and foreign US educational system (Gándara & Rumberger, 2009;Her, 2014;Lee et al, 2017;Li & Wang, 2012;Paik, Rahman, Kula, Saito, & Witenstein, 2017;Suárez-Orozco, Pimentel, & Martin, 2009). Prior research investigating the impacts of socioeconomic stress and low language proficiency levels on academic attainments has predominantly focused on European Americans and African Americans to the exclusion of adolescents from immigrant backgrounds and particularly those with Asian heritages (Kiang, Andrews, Stein, Supple, & Gonzalez, 2013).…”