By Stacey J. Lee
Excerpted from "Additional complexities: social class, ethnicity, generation, and gender in
Asian American student experiences"
Race, Ethnicity and Education
©2006 Taylor and Francis
Despite the growing number of immigrant students in schools throughout the
country, many schools lack the expertise to adequately serve second language
students. In fact, many school districts face a shortage of certified bilingual and
English language learner (ELL) teachers. Although there is a significant body of
research that suggests that bilingual education programs are most effective, most
Asian American students who are English language learners are placed in English as
a second language (ESL) classes or other English-only environments (Hakuta &
Pease-Alvarez, 1992; Ramirez, 1991). ESL classes have been criticized for focusing
on oral communication at the expense of academic skills, offering low academic standards, and segregating students (Olsen, 1997; Valdes, 2001). ESL classes have also
been criticized for its assimilative nature. Valenzuela writes:
The very rationale of English as a Second Language (ESL)—the predominant language
program at the high school level—is subtractive. As ESL programs are designed to transition youth into an English only curriculum, they neither reinforce their native language
skills nor their cultural identities. (Valenzuela, 1999, p. 26)
Significantly, language and cultural loss among students from immigrant families
disrupts inter-generational relations.
The increasing emphasis on parental involvement in schools disadvantages immigrant parents who are unfamiliar with the US educational system, have limited
English language skills and/or have culturally different ideas about the appropriate
role of parents in their children’s education (Lee, 2005; Valdes, 1996). In her
research on Cambodian refugees, Smith-Hefner (1990, 1999) discovered that teachers incorrectly assumed that Cambodian parents do not value education because they
did not actively participate in their children’s education. In my research on Hmong
high school students, I found that Hmong parents were often confused by what the
schools expected of them (Lee, 2005). While the school assumes that it is the parent’s
responsibility to address truancy issues, Hmong immigrant parents assume that
schools will exercise disciplinary authority over their children and they are frustrated
when schools cannot control their children. Like other immigrant parents, Hmong
parents assume that schools take responsibility for the academic and moral education
of their children (Valdes, 1996).
Although Asian immigrant youth face significant barriers in school, it is important
to note that research has shown that academic achievement peaks in the second
generation (Kao & Tienda, 1995). While first generation students may struggle due
to language difficulties, second generation students outperform third-generation. A
growing body of evidence points to the negative consequences of assimilation in
explaining this downward achievement (Thao, 1999). For example, Zhou and Bankston (1998) found that Vietnamese students who are alienated from the Vietnamese
culture are at risk for underachievement in school. In my study of Hmong American
high school students, I found that 1.5 generation students had more positive school
orientations that their second-generation peers (Lee, 2005). Research on non-Asian
groups has also highlighted the phenomenon of generational decline (Valenzuela,
1999). Significantly, some researchers have identified schools as forces of negative assimilation that work against academic achievement (Lee, 2005; Valenzuela, 1999).
Eurocentric curriculum and English only instruction have helped to alienate students
from their native cultures.
According to many researchers, the most successful students practice selective
acculturation whereby they adopt aspects of mainstream US norms while preserving
aspects of their native language and norms (Gibson, 1988; Lee, 2005; Zhou &
Bankston, 1998). In discussing the benefits of selective acculturation, Portes and
Rumbaut write:
Children who learn the language and culture of their new country without losing those of
the old have a much better understanding of their place in the world. They need not clash
with their parents as often or feel embarrassed by them because they are able to bridge the
gap across generations and value their elders’ traditions and goals. Selective acculturation
forges an intergenerational alliance for successful adaptation that is absent among youths
who have severed bonds with their past in the pursuit of acceptance by their native peers.
(Portes & Rumbaut, 2001, p. 274)
The success of students who selectively acculturate challenges assumptions regarding
the importance of assimilation. Educators need to pay attention to this. Schools need
to work towards an additive model of education that builds on what Asian American
students bring with them to school.
References
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(Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press).
Hakuta, K. & Pease-Alvarez, L. (Eds) (1992) Special issue on bilingual education, Educational
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immigrant youth, Social Science Quarterly, 76(1), 1–19.
Lee, S. J. (2005) Up against Whiteness: race, school and immigrant youth (New York, Teachers
College Press).
Olsen, L. (1997) Made in America: immigrant students in our public schools (New York, New Press).
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Ramirez, J. (1991) Final report: longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early exit
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