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This paper explores the role of gender and ethnicity in the education of Cambodian American high school students. Using a qualitative approach, we interviewed ninth-grade Cambodian American students (n=10), teachers (n=4), and administrators (n=2) at a Southern California high school. The data revealed that Cambodian students were often mistaken fo...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... lead author (Tang) conducted in-person interviews with the administrators, teachers, and students, using three different semi-structured questionnaires specifically tailored for each group (see Table 2 for sample questions). The interviews consisted of open-ended questions that explored the perceptions regarding how Cambodian American students were faring, with a specific focus on issues related to gender and ethnicity. ...
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Opportunity theory enhances one’s understanding of school-based adolescent victimization. Race and ethnicity plays a significant role in school-based victimization. What is uncertain is how opportunity is linked to the school-based victimization of racial and ethnic minority adolescents. This study explores how race and ethnicity interact with oppo...
Citations
... Various factors can impact ethnic identity formation, including country of birth, immigration history, parents' ethnic identities, prejudice experienced in the United States, and ethnic socialization, including the ethnic composition of one's school (e.g., Le & Stockdale, 2008;Museus et al., 2023;Rumbaut, 1994). Past researchers have noted that the unique experiences of Asian refugees, such as Cambodian youth, may become invisible in research because they tend to be aggregated into the universal "Asian American" categorization (Museus, 2013;Spring, 2016;Tang & Kao, 2012;Wallitt, 2008). There is limited research that highlights the unique experiences of the Cambodian youth refugee population, particularly relating to the ethnic identity development of those of second-generation status. ...
... Another modification that would benefit students includes access to classes in Khmer language and culture, such as the access that students in this study's sample benefitted from. Longitudinally, there is the goal of promoting the positive benefits of ethnic label associations that can endure post-high school (Tang, & Kao, 2012). For example, lower discrimination and societal devaluation by ethnic labels has been shown to be associated with more success through college (Huynh & Filigni, 2012;Tang et al., 2013). ...
... Filipino Americans and East Asian Americans, for example, may be similarly perceived as perpetual foreigners and treated as second-class citizens (Nadal et al., 2012;Sue et al., 2007). Filipino, Vietnamese, Lao, and other Southeast Asian students also report feeling the pressure and stress to perform up to stereotypically high-academic expectations that are typically associated with East Asians (Ngo & Lee, 2007;Rodriguez-Operana et al., 2017;Tang & Kao, 2012). As such, we should expect that regardless of their specific ethnicity or cultural background, East and Southeast Asians alike would be subject to similar stereotypes and/or anticipate similar fallout from such stereotypes because they tend to be perceived similarly by outgroups. ...
The anti-Asian sentiment in Canada and the U.S during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic centers on perceptions of East and Southeast Asians as “health hazards”, due to their alleged animal-eating habits, uncleanliness, and tendency to spread diseases. In a preregistered study, we demonstrated that for East and Southeast Asians in Canada and the U.S., their belief that society holds the Asian health hazard stereotype was associated with higher distress and lower life satisfaction. No differences were observed between East and Southeast Asian Americans (n = 352) and Canadians (n = 351), as well as Chinese and non-Chinese participants. Importantly, these effects were robust to pandemic- and discrimination-related stressors. We also demonstrated that Asian health hazard and perpetual foreigner stereotypes were psychometrically distinct. Overall, our findings highlight how perceptions of negative societal views, particularly those reminiscent of the Yellow Peril narrative, are uniquely associated with psychological well-being among East and Southeast Asian Americans and Canadians.
... Family obligation is one's sense of responsibility to assist other family members, or respect for and consideration of other family members' needs (Fuligni et al., 1999). One form of family Tang and Kao's (2012) sample. c In this category, references marked with an asterisk had a third generation or beyond and its proportion, while the others did not. ...
... When this value is highly maintained and practiced in Asian American families, children have the potential to overcome previously mentioned risk factors from familial financial strains and be highly achieving (Kim, 2014). However, research on 1st-, 1.5-, and 2nd-generation Cambodian American youth indicates that although Region of data Regional data 37 ( Zhou (2009) such value can be a protector, it cannot effectively compensate for the negative effect of low-SES when low-SES parents have poor academic skills (e.g., being illiterate or have poor basic math or science knowledge; Chhuon, Hudley, et al., 2010;Tang & Kao, 2012). Another protector for low-SES Asian American students is social capital, which we discuss below. ...
... Research on both firstand second-generation Cambodian American high school students showcases that students who receive teacher support display better academic competence in high school and better transition into college than those receiving little or none (Chhuon, Dosalmas, & Rinthapol, 2010;Chhuon, Hudley, et al., 2010). Another study found that 1st-, 1.5-, and 2nd-generation Cambodian American high school students were less likely to actively seek support from teachers when they were marginalized by their peers and teachers, which is a risk factor for their academic achievement (Tang & Kao, 2012). In addition to teacher support, teachers' overall quality also plays a crucial role in Asian American students' education. ...
The model minority myth portrays Asian Americans as academically successful and has been criticized for
its failure to consider heterogeneity within this population. Utilizing the integrative ecological model of
minorities’ development, this review addresses how Asian Americanican children’s and youth’s educational
achievement varies according to their family, school, and community contexts. We adapted the Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist for this review. Based on
48 reviewed articles published between 2005 and June 2020, familial facilitators for academic achievement
include supportive and autonomy-granting parenting, high-quality parent–child relationship, appropriate
parental expectations and involvement, and social capital. School facilitators are high-quality teaching and
teacher–student relationship, and peer support and positive academic orientation. Ethnic-community-based
programs and resources promote Asian American children’s and youth’s academic performance. By
contrast, Asian American children and youth tend to underachieve in families with hostile parenting,
excessive family obligations, and low-socioeconomic status (SES), and in schools with high-rate peer
delinquency and racial discrimination or prejudice. Recommendations for promoting Asian American
students’ academic well-being are discussed.
... Cambodians first came to the United States as refugees in the 1980s after escaping genocide, poverty, starvation, and violence in their home country and spending time living in refugee camps (Smith-Hefner, 1993). Current research on Cambodian youth is limited; the literature on Cambodian youth have focused on intergenerational conflict, criminalization of male youth, and the role of ethnic and gender identity in education (Chhuon & Hudley, 2010;Chhuon, 2014;Ngo & Lee, 2007;Tang & Kao, 2012;Wallitt, 2008). This study adds to the existing literature by shifting the focus from a deficit-to an assets-based view by engaging Cambodian youth as coresearchers in a Photovoice process to bring to light their community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) and to use this knowledge for advocacy and policy change. ...
... relationships with immigrant and nonimmigrant peers, including experiences with racist bullying (Garver & Noguera, 2014;Tang & Kao, 2012). According to a recent policy report, immigrant students are subjected to a troubling pattern of racial and cultural discrimination on both personal and structural levels (Adair, 2015). ...
Racial categories, inequalities, and hierarchies have shaped life in the United States since the formation of the country. For children and youth in the immigrant and second generations, schools are central sites of racialization. In this article, we focus on what the educational research suggests about the role of schooling in the racialization of ethnically diverse Asian immigrant and refugee groups in the United States. Specifically, we examine how schools have been implicated in the racialization of Asian Americans from immigrant families in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as how Asian immigrant youth have used schooling to respond to the forces of racialization. Through policies of exclusion and segregation in schools, the state often positions Asian Americans as outside the realm of Americanness. Today, in addition to an ongoing image of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners, we see racialization processes expressed in the religification of South Asian immigrant students and in the ideological Blackening of some Southeast Asian youth. At the same time, schools have often positioned Asian Americans as model minorities whose academic success is used to argue that US schools are meritocratic and to blame other students of color for their own academic challenges. Our review demonstrates that Asian immigrant students experience racialization in diverse and contradictory ways that intersect with other identities like class, religion, and ethnicity, making the notion of a single Asian American subject problematic. Although it may seem as though Asian Americans are not subjected to racism, due to the model minority stereotype and their relative racial privilege, our review of the literature clearly challenges this assumption. Rather than proof of the absence of racism, the model minority narrative arguably demotes Asian Americans to 2nd-class citizenship, which hinges on the approval of Whites.
... The research on retention and persistence seldom includes Asian Americans even though Southeast Asians encounter educational challenges (Chhuon & Hudley, 2008; Ngo & Lee, 2007; Yeh, 2004). For example, Cambodian American students who struggle academically may not express their struggles for fear of being ridiculed by peers or disappointing their teachers (Chhuon & Hudley, 2011; Tang & Kao, 2012). As the ethnic/racial group increases and becomes more diverse, underrepresented Asian Americans such as the Southeast Asians, risk falling further behind if they are denied resources and support. ...
Cambodian American college students are often overlooked in academe because of the model minority myth. The stereotype overshadows the challenges and heterogeneity in the Asian American and Pacific Islander population. This exploratory study examined the experiences of 13 first-generation Cambodian American college students at a large, public institution in California. Findings revealed that, despite obstacles of being first-generation with limited cultural capital, students were transformed into successful leaners when they received validation from their parents and peers and felt a sense of belonging to the college community through their involvement in an ethnic-based student organization.
... In the Afro-Caribbean population, for example, parents may be unaccustomed to or uncomfortable with schoolbased involvement practices, focusing instead on preparing young children for academic success by teaching them foundational pre-academic skills and proper behavior (Clay, 1995;Mitchell & Bryan, 2007;Roopnarine, Bynoe, & Singh, 2004;Roopnarine, Krishnakumar, Metingdogan, & Evans, 2006). Similarly, Latino parents, particularly those who are non English-speaking, may not often attend school events, volunteer in the classroom or communicate directly with school staff (Llagas & Snyder, 2003;Mariñez-Lora & Quintana, 2009;Wong & Hughes, 2006; but see Durand, 2011), but they appear to engage in high levels of home-based involvement by emphasizing educational values, engaging in educationally relevant home-based activities such as monitoring homework and curfews, and providing educational resources and adequate nutrition and rest for their children (Chrispeels & Rivero, 2001;Hill & Torres, 2010;Martinez, DeGarmo, & Eddy, 2004;Niemeyer, Wong, & Westerhaus, 2009;Quiocho & Daoud, 2006;Tang & Kao, 2012). ...
Parent involvement is a robust predictor of academic achievement, but little is known about school- and home-based involvement in immigrant families. Drawing on ecological theories, the present study examined contextual characteristics as predictors of parent involvement among Afro-Caribbean and Latino parents of young students in urban public schools. Socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with lower home-based
involvement. Several factors were associated with higher involvement, including parents’ connection to their culture of origin and to U.S. culture, engagement practices by teachers and parent–teacher ethnic consonance (for Latinos only). Findings have implications for promoting involvement among immigrant families of students in urban schools.
Many Asian Americans suffer from mental health problems, and only a fraction of them receive necessary counseling and therapy services. This chapter examines cultural competence issues among Asian Americans in the context of their historical and cultural background and immigration patterns; the impact of the model minority myth on Asian Americans that has become a pivotal and ubiquitous cause for their mental health problems; and some of the salient challenges faced by Asian Americans as well as two models of cultural competence that can be used when working with Asian Americans. With the lack of disaggregate data on the number of Asian Americans who received mental health services (as opposed to that of specific Asian ethnic groups), there is a need for large-scale and longitudinal studies for Asian Americans in regard to the issues of mental health disorders (involving the multidimensionality of various factors) affecting Asian Americans. It is suggested that mental health professionals utilize the 3H principles to further develop a new model of cultural competence for the delivery of mental health services for Asian Americans.
Southeast Asians were some of the first refugees arriving in the United States of America with federal refugee assistance after the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. A large population from Cambodia entered the United States in the 1980s as a result of one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century. In this paper, I investigate the scope and motives for remittances from the United States that are transferred to Cambodia, the country of origin of the refugees. This will be done by taking a closer look at trends in remittances between 1992 and 2013, factors that contribute to the decisions to send remittances, and the characteristics of remittance recipients. The study found out that: (1) around half of the total remittances in the world transferred to Cambodia were derived from the United States, while amounts from each individual sender depended upon the economic condition of Cambodian Americans and the financial needs of their target recipient; (2) factors influencing decision-making in sending remittances included regular communication, age, amount of time for arrival to the receiving country, and closer association to Cambodian communities in the United States; and (3) remittances were primarily transferred to senior and younger family members for use in daily expenditures, health care and educational support.
