Chinese American youth's re-construction of the American experience

Research illustrates that minority students from immigrant and under-resourced communities are more prone to fail and drop out of school because of the cultural irrelevancy of academic teaching to their everyday lives. Many poor/low-income Chinese American youth attend schools in which their lived experiences, culture, and American history are omitted or distorted in the standard history and social studies curriculum. As a result, these same Chinese American youth often feel isolated and disengaged from school because their classrooms lack a culturally relevant learning environment. However, within under-resourced Chinese American communities there are community-based youth organizations that are responsive to the needs of minority youth by developing culturally relevant after-school programs.;Utilizing critical multiculturalism as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this action research explores the lived experiences and the engagement of four poor/low-income Chinese American youth in a Chinese American history after-school program located in New York City's Chinatown. This dissertation is presented in a qualitative case study which draws its data from participation observation, reflective journal, individual interviews, focus groups, and document analysis.;First, by investigating the daily lived experiences of Chinese American youth in an after-school Chinese American history program, two critical findings emerged: (1) Chinese American youth experienced a great deal of family pressure and obligation to succeed in school academically; and (2) Chinese American youth were negatively influenced by the "model minority" stereotype. Second, by examining the experiences of Chinese American youth in the after-school program as influencing their engagement in and out of school, two critical findings emerged: (1) Chinese American youth's experiences in the after-school program resulted in an increase of their engagement in learning at school; and (2) Chinese American youth developed a great sense of historical pride and concern for Chinatown.;Implications for practice indicate the significance for schools and community-based organizations to understand the lived experiences of Chinese American youth in order to develop culturally relevant teaching practices and critical multicultural education while utilizing curriculum standards. Implications for theory suggest that Asian American youth's voices can expand critical multiculturalism and provide critical insights for changing curriculum and pedagogy for all youth.