酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

FYI:

In this past July, The Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association (CAERDA), which was founded on September 28, 1992 to promote excellence in education for all students, particularly among Chinese and Chinese Americans, held its annul meeting in Chicago, and its main theme was “Demystifying Model Minority’s Academic Achievement: Implications of Chinese/Asian Educational Principles and Practices for a Global Learning Community,” providing multiple venues for a renewed interest in understanding the “Model Minority” phenomena and soliciting a heightened focus on the recent advances in cross-cultural multi-ethnic educational research.


Debunking the “Model Minority” Myth


Over the past four decades, because of the loosening-up of the immigration policy, Asian children have become one of the fastest growing populations in North American schools; however, they have received relatively little attention in educational research due to their “model minority” status: seen as honorary whites, willing to assimilate into the mainstream and as high achievers who can succeed on their own. Within the limited research on the Asian student population since the term “model minority” was coined in the 1960s, scholars as well as the media have devoted much research to the search for explanations of Asian high achievement by comparing the Chinese with other ethnic groups. Viewed by many as diligent and hard-working, Asians, especially the Chinese, have been characterized as a people of ambition, succeeding where other minority groups have failed. In our present culture, politicians routinely advocate the self-determination that Asians exhibit as an attitude for all American minorities to adopt. Indeed, Asians are often held up as the “model minority.”

However, there is growing research to indicate that the “model minority” stereotype does not reflect the increased evidence of Asian underachievement, dropout rate, and the socio-economic gap. The National Center for Educational Statistics (NECS) (2004) reports that Asians have lower achievement levels in reading, writing, and mathematics than their white counterparts. Therefore, some of the researchers and educators in the North American educational research community have turned their attention to Asian children's social processes of learning, social class, and cultural identity on language and literacy development. Dr. Guofang Li, an emerging scholar who has been dedicating her career to debunk the “model minority myth,” is one of them.

Guofang Li, a native Chinese, is an associate professor of second language and literacy education, whose academic interests focus on Asian immigrant children's home literacy practices, cultural conflicts and educational dissensions between Asian immigrant parents and mainstream schools/teachers. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia during 2000-2001, during which time she conducted a year-long ethnographic investigation into the home-school divide about literacy practices and educational goals between Canadian mainstream teachers and Chinese immigrant parents. The intellectual outcome of her one-year study is Culturally Contested Pedagogy: Battles of Literacy and Schooling between Mainstream Teachers and Asian Immigrant Parents. This book focuses on a Vancouver suburb, Richmond, where the Chinese population constitutes more than one third of its population and surpasses the white community numerically and socioeconomically, but not politically, and where the author uncovers disturbing cultural conflicts, educational dissensions, and "silent" power struggles between teachers and parents.

Taking an ethnographic approach and well-grounded in socio-constructivist educational theories that view literacy learning as situated practice shaping and being shaped by the contexts of learners and educators, Li spent one-year in classroom observation and interviewing teachers, students, and parents. Her book reveals disturbing cultural conflicts and power struggles between mainstream school teachers and middle- and upper-class Chinese immigrant parents. The subjects of the book demonstrate that many white, middle-class teachers believed that student-centered and meaning-based teaching was the most effective approach, while many Chinese immigrant parents believed that teacher-centered, skill-focused teaching was far better. The home-school divide about literacy practices and schooling between Canadian mainstream teachers and Chinese immigrant parents caused cultural and educational disruptions that have impeded their children’s learning. The discontinuities included (1) parents' preference for word-by-word decoding versus teachers' preference for semantic connections between pages, (2) parents' and teachers' different interpretations of what and how much homework should be given, (3) parents' and teachers' perspectives on the causes of the children's low literacy performance, and (4) lack of communication between the school and home.

Li’s study raises critical issues in understanding the multivoicedness concerning struggling English language learners and it provides educators with guidance for effective instructional planning and for building school-parent partnerships. It offers an illustrating case study to debunk the “model minority” myth, the popular idea that Asian students -- Chinese students, in particular -- are, by nature, better equipped to succeed academically than other minority groups in the U.S. and Canada. In her interview with UB Reporter contributing editor Patricia Donovan, Li says, “Contemporary public perceptions of Chinese and other Asian students are based on reports of their high test scores and high grades when compared to minority groups like black and Latino students in the U.S. and aboriginal groups in Canada, and so these students are constructed as ‘academic nerds,’ ‘high-achievers’ and the like.” She also emphasizes that this stereotype is reinforced by “research literature that reports only Asian success stories, and that is destructive for those children whom the schools are failing.”

In his telling book entitled Unravelling the “Model Minority” Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth, Stacey Lee unpacks the “model minority” characterization in one high school by examining how the stereotype of Asian Americans as model minorities affected the Asian American students' experiences, their relationships with non-Asians, and their self-defined identities. Despite the differences noted among Asian students, teachers at Academic High persisted in characterizing all Asians as highly motivated and successful when in reality some were not. Having come to believe that Asians represented the model for members of all minority groups, teachers failed to see the degree to which many Asians did not fit their stereotype. They saw in Asians what they wanted to see. In her well-publicized journal article Other People’s Success: Impact of the “Model Minority” Myth on Underachieving Asian Students in North America, Li also revisits the “model minority” myth and examines how it has become a “destructive myth” for those underachieving Asian children who do not fit the stereotypes. She argues that contemporary “model minority” images promote invisibility and disguise the social realities of many Asian students who are not successful. Therefore, these images are false representations of many Asian students and have posed as a threat to their educational advancement.” Furthermore, she emphasizes that “the presentation of Asians as a ‘model minority’ has reinforced the ‘blame the victim’ approach to minority students' failure, and it has promoted the ‘invisibility’ of troubled students and disguises the social realities of many children who are not academically successful.”

Although she recognizes that many Asian students do quite well in school and on standardized tests, Li maintains their success often reflects the additional expensive private schooling provided by upper- and middle-class parents on evenings and weekends, which is well-documented in her book, Culturally Contested Pedagogy. However, based on the statistics in the U.S.A., only about 30 percent of Chinese Americans have attained middle-class status; most of the Chinese immigrants remain members of the working or lower class, manual labourers with little English proficiency and limited education; thus, they do not have any resources to enhance their children’s learning when schools fail their children. “The persistence of these ideas about the ‘model minority’ myth,” says Li, “prevents us from unraveling the social realities of those who face problems in the educational system.” Furthermore, she says, they authorize a flat denial of racism and structures of social dominance, and silence those who are not economically successful; more importantly, they have prevented mainstream educators from re-evaluating their pedagogy in order to facilitate minority students’ learning.

The devastating consequence of this myth is that minority students often fall through the cracks in overburdened and underfunded public school systems without getting any help. Li’s focused attention on Chinese immigrant families’ literacy practices, cultural beliefs about schooling, and English learning barriers not only dismantles the “model minority” myth but it also opens up an educational forum to challenge the mainstream discourses about literacy and schooling particularly at a the time of cutting back the number of ESL teachers and diverting already limited ELS funding elsewhere, her views about literacy as situated practice will significantly challenge mainstream teachers’ uncritical acceptance of the de-contextualized “holistic” approach to literacy practice, which teach English and literacy from the viewpoint of native English speakers.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

FYI:

In this past July, The Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association (CAERDA), which was founded on September 28, 1992 to promote excellence in education for all students, particularly among Chinese and Chinese Americans, held its annul meeting in Chicago, and its main theme was “Demystifying Model Minority’s Academic Achievement: Implications of Chinese/Asian Educational Principles and Practices for a Global Learning Community,” providing multiple venues for a renewed interest in understanding the “Model Minority” phenomena and soliciting a heightened focus on the recent advances in cross-cultural multi-ethnic educational research.


Debunking the “Model Minority” Myth


Over the past four decades, because of the loosening-up of the immigration policy, Asian children have become one of the fastest growing populations in North American schools; however, they have received relatively little attention in educational research due to their “model minority” status: seen as honorary whites, willing to assimilate into the mainstream and as high achievers who can succeed on their own. Within the limited research on the Asian student population since the term “model minority” was coined in the 1960s, scholars as well as the media have devoted much research to the search for explanations of Asian high achievement by comparing the Chinese with other ethnic groups. Viewed by many as diligent and hard-working, Asians, especially the Chinese, have been characterized as a people of ambition, succeeding where other minority groups have failed. In our present culture, politicians routinely advocate the self-determination that Asians exhibit as an attitude for all American minorities to adopt. Indeed, Asians are often held up as the “model minority.”

However, there is growing research to indicate that the “model minority” stereotype does not reflect the increased evidence of Asian underachievement, dropout rate, and the socio-economic gap. The National Center for Educational Statistics (NECS) (2004) reports that Asians have lower achievement levels in reading, writing, and mathematics than their white counterparts. Therefore, some of the researchers and educators in the North American educational research community have turned their attention to Asian children's social processes of learning, social class, and cultural identity on language and literacy development. Dr. Guofang Li, an emerging scholar who has been dedicating her career to debunk the “model minority myth,” is one of them.

Guofang Li, a native Chinese, is an associate professor of second language and literacy education, whose academic interests focus on Asian immigrant children's home literacy practices, cultural conflicts and educational dissensions between Asian immigrant parents and mainstream schools/teachers. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia during 2000-2001, during which time she conducted a year-long ethnographic investigation into the home-school divide about literacy practices and educational goals between Canadian mainstream teachers and Chinese immigrant parents. The intellectual outcome of her one-year study is Culturally Contested Pedagogy: Battles of Literacy and Schooling between Mainstream Teachers and Asian Immigrant Parents. This book focuses on a Vancouver suburb, Richmond, where the Chinese population constitutes more than one third of its population and surpasses the white community numerically and socioeconomically, but not politically, and where the author uncovers disturbing cultural conflicts, educational dissensions, and "silent" power struggles between teachers and parents.

Taking an ethnographic approach and well-grounded in socio-constructivist educational theories that view literacy learning as situated practice shaping and being shaped by the contexts of learners and educators, Li spent one-year in classroom observation and interviewing teachers, students, and parents. Her book reveals disturbing cultural conflicts and power struggles between mainstream school teachers and middle- and upper-class Chinese immigrant parents. The subjects of the book demonstrate that many white, middle-class teachers believed that student-centered and meaning-based teaching was the most effective approach, while many Chinese immigrant parents believed that teacher-centered, skill-focused teaching was far better. The home-school divide about literacy practices and schooling between Canadian mainstream teachers and Chinese immigrant parents caused cultural and educational disruptions that have impeded their children’s learning. The discontinuities included (1) parents' preference for word-by-word decoding versus teachers' preference for semantic connections between pages, (2) parents' and teachers' different interpretations of what and how much homework should be given, (3) parents' and teachers' perspectives on the causes of the children's low literacy performance, and (4) lack of communication between the school and home.

Li’s study raises critical issues in understanding the multivoicedness concerning struggling English language learners and it provides educators with guidance for effective instructional planning and for building school-parent partnerships. It offers an illustrating case study to debunk the “model minority” myth, the popular idea that Asian students -- Chinese students, in particular -- are, by nature, better equipped to succeed academically than other minority groups in the U.S. and Canada. In her interview with UB Reporter contributing editor Patricia Donovan, Li says, “Contemporary public perceptions of Chinese and other Asian students are based on reports of their high test scores and high grades when compared to minority groups like black and Latino students in the U.S. and aboriginal groups in Canada, and so these students are constructed as ‘academic nerds,’ ‘high-achievers’ and the like.” She also emphasizes that this stereotype is reinforced by “research literature that reports only Asian success stories, and that is destructive for those children whom the schools are failing.”

In his telling book entitled Unravelling the “Model Minority” Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth, Stacey Lee unpacks the “model minority” characterization in one high school by examining how the stereotype of Asian Americans as model minorities affected the Asian American students' experiences, their relationships with non-Asians, and their self-defined identities. Despite the differences noted among Asian students, teachers at Academic High persisted in characterizing all Asians as highly motivated and successful when in reality some were not. Having come to believe that Asians represented the model for members of all minority groups, teachers failed to see the degree to which many Asians did not fit their stereotype. They saw in Asians what they wanted to see. In her well-publicized journal article Other People’s Success: Impact of the “Model Minority” Myth on Underachieving Asian Students in North America, Li also revisits the “model minority” myth and examines how it has become a “destructive myth” for those underachieving Asian children who do not fit the stereotypes. She argues that contemporary “model minority” images promote invisibility and disguise the social realities of many Asian students who are not successful. Therefore, these images are false representations of many Asian students and have posed as a threat to their educational advancement.” Furthermore, she emphasizes that “the presentation of Asians as a ‘model minority’ has reinforced the ‘blame the victim’ approach to minority students' failure, and it has promoted the ‘invisibility’ of troubled students and disguises the social realities of many children who are not academically successful.”

Although she recognizes that many Asian students do quite well in school and on standardized tests, Li maintains their success often reflects the additional expensive private schooling provided by upper- and middle-class parents on evenings and weekends, which is well-documented in her book, Culturally Contested Pedagogy. However, based on the statistics in the U.S.A., only about 30 percent of Chinese Americans have attained middle-class status; most of the Chinese immigrants remain members of the working or lower class, manual labourers with little English proficiency and limited education; thus, they do not have any resources to enhance their children’s learning when schools fail their children. “The persistence of these ideas about the ‘model minority’ myth,” says Li, “prevents us from unraveling the social realities of those who face problems in the educational system.” Furthermore, she says, they authorize a flat denial of racism and structures of social dominance, and silence those who are not economically successful; more importantly, they have prevented mainstream educators from re-evaluating their pedagogy in order to facilitate minority students’ learning.

The devastating consequence of this myth is that minority students often fall through the cracks in overburdened and underfunded public school systems without getting any help. Li’s focused attention on Chinese immigrant families’ literacy practices, cultural beliefs about schooling, and English learning barriers not only dismantles the “model minority” myth but it also opens up an educational forum to challenge the mainstream discourses about literacy and schooling particularly at a the time of cutting back the number of ESL teachers and diverting already limited ELS funding elsewhere, her views about literacy as situated practice will significantly challenge mainstream teachers’ uncritical acceptance of the de-contextualized “holistic” approach to literacy practice, which teach English and literacy from the viewpoint of native English speakers.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[星子]

I am busy, even have no time to write.

I will print this and read it later.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

I am busy, even have no time to write.

I will print this and read it later.
_________________

[Champagne]

Yes, the "model minority" stereotype is destructive for all minority students whom schools are failing.

[[Champagne]]

Yes, the "model minority" stereotype is destructive for all minority students whom schools are failing.

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[星子]

It is interesting to read this since the issue of education rises everywhere.

The struggle and confliction between different ways in teaching also occurs between generations. In my house, I disagree with Jason’s grandparents’ teaching theory.
Just look at ourselves, how many of us had free spirits to express us or to pursue what we wanted? Some even did not care what they wanted or thought. They just followed. When we got together lately, some of my classmates regretted they never had their own thoughts about who they were. Our model minority is more like model to pursue what their parents prepared or hoped for them. As parent, I agree this is a shortcut to be successful. I have watched a movie titled “Shortcut to Happiness”. The angel asked the protagonist what he wanted most in his mind. After thinking a few minutes, he replied “To be a successful man.” he was a writer, so the angel fulfilled his dream and in 10 years, he was a very successful man. But during his rapidly accumulated reputation and richness, he recognized he didn’t feel happy.
When I watched the movie, I had wondered if the protagonist was a lady, what she would have dreamed for. Maybe it was not to be successful but happy. Maybe she would not ask for reputation and richness, but for happiness and love.

Back to “Model minority”, I guess in some way it rings the alarm.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

It is interesting to read this since the issue of education rises everywhere.

The struggle and confliction between different ways in teaching also occurs between generations. In my house, I disagree with Jason’s grandparents’ teaching theory.
Just look at ourselves, how many of us had free spirits to express us or to pursue what we wanted? Some even did not care what they wanted or thought. They just followed. When we got together lately, some of my classmates regretted they never had their own thoughts about who they were. Our model minority is more like model to pursue what their parents prepared or hoped for them. As parent, I agree this is a shortcut to be successful. I have watched a movie titled “Shortcut to Happiness”. The angel asked the protagonist what he wanted most in his mind. After thinking a few minutes, he replied “To be a successful man.” he was a writer, so the angel fulfilled his dream and in 10 years, he was a very successful man. But during his rapidly accumulated reputation and richness, he recognized he didn’t feel happy.
When I watched the movie, I had wondered if the protagonist was a lady, what she would have dreamed for. Maybe it was not to be successful but happy. Maybe she would not ask for reputation and richness, but for happiness and love.

Back to “Model minority”, I guess in some way it rings the alarm.
_________________

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]