Contemporary Chinese-American Education

In the era of globalization, the stellar achievement of Asian and Asian Americanstudents continues to intrigue and inspire educational researchers and practitioners. Withevidence from both U.S. assessments (U.S. Department of Education,2006a-c) andinternational competitions (Lemke&Gonzales,2006; OECD,2007), the United States andthe world began to recognize the competitive edge of Asian and Asian American students.Increasingly, educational researchers and practitioners are turning to Asian success stories,and this has resulted in labeling Asian American students as “model minority student”,overlooking the educational realities of Asian American students and the challenges theyface.As the largest subgroup among Asian American communities, Chinese Americanchildren are also subjected to being labeled as “model minorities”, and their educationalexperiences are often being simplified. Much of the research on education has beendirected to the high academic achievement of the Chinese American group andhomogenized them into a social group widely celebrated as the “model minority”. Lessemphasized are the great diversity of the Chinese American population and the fact thatthere are many, many more people who do not fit the stereotype.With an awareness of similarities and differences of Chinese Americans, this paperattempts to present a relatively comprehensive and panoramic picture of the educationalexperiences of contemporary Chinese Americans. The thesis is built upon the previouslypublished literatures regarding Chinese Americans and their educational experience. Bycombining historical research with methodologies commonly used in sociological andanthropological approaches, this paper will be done in the broader context in the hope ofpresenting the actual picture of the educational experiences of Chinese Americans. Itincludes not only the positive side but also the negative side of the Chinese Americaneducational experiences, or the educational challenges facing the Chinese community.This thesis focuses on three main areas in its discussion: immigrant family,educational environment and social settings.