Education, Identity, and the New Asian Americans: The Case of Japanese Immigrant Families in the Midwest
Endo, Rachel Kazumi
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/87851
Description
Title
Education, Identity, and the New Asian Americans: The Case of Japanese Immigrant Families in the Midwest
Author(s)
Endo, Rachel Kazumi
Issue Date
2009
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Violet Harris
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
While mindful of the institutional and structural conditions leading to their subordination, this study also locates how the process of self-definition has shaped how the participants have co-created a distinctive image of their cultural and ethno-national identities. Therefore, this research further assesses how the co-ethnic community, through cultural, language, and literacy education, has partially compensated for the potentially subtractive impact that assimilationist practices at the K-12 schools have had on Japanese American children's bicultural identity development. Thus, this study further explicates the dialectics of cultural continuity as a complex process by which compatriots have recreated representations of Japanese culture out of a collective desire to reconstruct the lost motherland, reinforce ethno-national pride, and ultimately resist societal pressures to assimilate to Euro-American expectations. The formation and maintenance of dynamic co-ethnic networks suggest that these new immigrants have contested societal messages that assimilation is in their children's best interest. Instead, like many other Asian American communities, they have used capital, kinships, and social networks to encourage their children to learn about their bicultural identities and heritage language that have otherwise not been affirmed at their respective K-12 schools. This study ends by detailing implications for practice and theory. The major recommendations pertain to what K-12 schools and teacher-preparation programs may do to better serve the needs of Asian American families and students.
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