This thesis examines the media representations of Chien-Ming Wang, a Taiwanese baseball player who played for the New York Yankees, in American and Taiwanese print media from 2005 to 2009. Wang had been attracting media attention in both the United States and in Taiwan during the time because of his athletic performance and dual identities in the two places. The results show that the Taiwanese media usually placed heavy emphasis on his national identity, making him one of the most high-profile athletes in Taiwan. On the other hand, as a foreign player and an Asian athlete, his racial identity was sometimes the focus of the American media. While he had been generally portrayed in a positive way, his Asian identity is still well-scrutinized. I argue that his media representations in the United States fit the model minority discourse which remains the typical perception in the US, meaning that stereotypical characteristics of Asians or Asian Americans are emphasized or overrepresented.

This study explores how Asian Americans’ educational aspirations are different from other racial groups as well as uncovers differences among Asian American subgroups. This study developed a hypothesized model on the formation of educational aspiration. Among factors affecting educational aspirations that were derived from the literature review, students’ academic effort and performance, students’ perceived academic self-efficacy, and support received from students’ significant others were hypothesized to have direct effects on students’ educational aspirations. In addition, students’ perceived self-efficacy and academic effort were hypothesized to have indirect effects on students’ educational aspirations through students’ academic performance. Students’ demographic and socio-economic characteristics were controlled to examine if they had any direct and indirect effects on educational aspirations. In order to test validity of the hypothesized model on educational aspiration, this study adopted structural education modeling (SEM) to analyze the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). As a result, the hypothesized model was confirmed because of its adequate model fit. In addition, this study found that Asian American students’ educational aspirations were different from other racial groups. First, neither academic effort nor performance affects Asian Americans’ educational aspirations whereas both affect aspirations significantly in the entire sample. Second, there was a positive effect of academic self-efficacy on Asian Americans’ educational aspirations whereas efficacy did not affect aspirations in the entire sample. Third, there was a positive effect of support with college information from significant others on Asian Americans’ aspirations, which was not statistically significant in the results of the entire sample. This indicates that Asian American students’ educational aspirations are more influenced by subjective or perceived factors such as academic self-efficacy and support with college information received from significant others, rather than objective indicators such as academic performance and academic effort. Moreover, there are differences in aspirations by Asian American ethnic subgroups even after controlling for other variables. Compared to Filipino Americans, all other four Asian American subgroups show significantly higher educational aspirations. The findings of this study help to understand how high school students’ educational aspirations are formed in general by examining the conceptual model with the entire data. In addition, the findings help to fill the gap in the literature about debunking the model minority myth about Asian American students by proving that they are heterogeneous. / text

The present study examines issues that South Asian youth face as members of a model minority group. Using 14 semi-structured interviews, South Asian youth (aged 18-26) discussed issues they encountered as they navigated educational institutions in Canada. The study found that participants were not aware of the term model minority. Furthermore, participants received input, either directly or indirectly, from family and community members regarding their career choices. Lastly, participants experienced guilt and shame during decision-making processes, but ultimately chose their own path with [eventual] acceptance from parents. Results indicate that schools in the GTA are not attuned to the needs of South Asian students which often left students at a disadvantage when making future career and educational choices. There is a need for educators, administrators, and policymakers to develop more specialized programs toward helping South Asian youth navigate the Canadian educational institutions.

The present study examines issues that South Asian youth face as members of a model minority group. Using 14 semi-structured interviews, South Asian youth (aged 18-26) discussed issues they encountered as they navigated educational institutions in Canada. The study found that participants were not aware of the term model minority. Furthermore, participants received input, either directly or indirectly, from family and community members regarding their career choices. Lastly, participants experienced guilt and shame during decision-making processes, but ultimately chose their own path with [eventual] acceptance from parents. Results indicate that schools in the GTA are not attuned to the needs of South Asian students which often left students at a disadvantage when making future career and educational choices. There is a need for educators, administrators, and policymakers to develop more specialized programs toward helping South Asian youth navigate the Canadian educational institutions.

This study measures the campus climate for Asian Americans on a college campus before and after tragic events, and places it in the context of what is known about the social location of Asian American students nationally. Using a multi-method approach, including in-depth interviews supplemented by data from content analyses and surveys, it addresses perceptions of Asian American students about themselves and the campus climate. In doing so it addresses the more general question of minority stereotyping and strategies taken by minority groups to compensate for such stereotypes. Findings from this study suggest that the campus climate for Asian American undergraduates appears to be welcoming, and respondents do not report stress emanating from their 'model minority' status. Instead, they embrace and offer full-support for the 'model minority' stereotype. / Ph. D.

This study examines the perceptions of low socioeconomonic status, high academic achievement Vietnamese middle grades students in the Vietnamese community with respect to the roles that their parents and communities play in supporting academic achievement. Previous research has established the positive relationships between parent involvement and student achievement, and between high SES and student achievement. However, this study explores the perceptions of high achieving middle grades students with low SES. Through focus group discussions and interviews, this study examines student achievement within the theoretical framework of social capital.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Kay Ann Taylor / It has been 50 years since the notion of the model minority was first used to describe Asian Americans in the United States (Petersen, 1966). In the past decade, there has been substantial scholarly growth in the model minority research, and researchers have identified racism hidden behind the notion. However, previous research has mainly addressed the model minority stereotype in the regional context with similar research topics that produce similar findings, which requires a new research paradigm to be established. To meet this theoretical and contextual need, this study locates the model minority discourse in postcolonialism, especially in the context of Empire as global sovereign power with no concrete form, viewing the model minority stereotype as Empire’s controlling strategy that ethnicizes all Asians on the globe into its “global capitalist hierarchy” (Hardt & Negri, 2000). Empirically, this study examines how the model minority stereotype is shaped, developed, and ingrained in the transnational experience of Asian international graduate students who pursue careers in the United States after their degree completion as a bridge to their future. Findings from participants’ narratives show that they became aware of their Asianness through their transnational experience and gradually embraced the hardworking image of Asians through repeated environmental and interactional input of the image. Participants also expected higher economic and social status in their home countries as a result of their degrees and work experience obtained in the United States, with Orientalist values people in their home countries attach to their U.S.-earned credentials. Asian intellectuals educated in the West, represented by the United States, serve Empire’s capitalist maintenance and expansion as a transnational workforce while seeking their self-interest and transnational competitiveness. This raises an interdisciplinary and intersectional need to empower higher education to be critically aware of the current context of Empire and globalization.

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In 2014, in the wake of #BlackLivesMatter, a call to action was made for Asian Americans to actively engage with and unlearn the age old model minority myth and join the movement for racial justice. This thesis seeks to understand and complicate what it means to subvert this ideology in the way of #modelminoritymutiny. It is divided into three primary sections: first, a theoretical framework and of the model minority myth throughout time as a tool for positioning Asian Americans; second, an application of this framework into the recent Peter Liang and Akai Gurley case this past year; and third, a course syllabus for an Asian American studies course here at the Claremont Colleges. This trajectory showcases what it means for Asian Americans to actively resist ascribed narratives, and to propose methods for learning and unlearning.

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Despite an increasing number of Asian American women earning the advanced degrees necessary to qualify them for senior administrative positions such as dean, vice president, provost and president, this group remains severely underrepresented in the upper administrative ranks in American higher education. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine if mentoring relationships, which research has shown to be vital to the success of other women administrators of color, would prove important to Asian American women administrators at critical career junctures. Eleven Asian American senior women administrators from four different ethnic backgrounds were interviewed. Two theoretical frameworks were used to interpret the data: relational cultural theory to analyze each interview from the participant's point of view, and; critical race theory to review the data from the institutional perspective. Many of the women experienced factors reported by other women administrators of color: a culture dominated by White men; sexism and racism; feelings of isolation, and; gender-typed family concerns. Most of the women also faced the model minority stereotype of being perceived as passive, yet analysis of their interviews revealed that they did not behave passively. Also contrary to what research has shown to be the experience of other women administrators of color, several reported more instances of sexism than racism. The majority of the women had White male mentors, which is consistent with the literature. For the women who had both male and female mentors, several experienced more career than psychosocial mentoring from their male mentors, a pattern opposite what is typical for other women administrators of color. No clear patterns emerged with regard to how the women utilized their mentors at critical career junctures. The interviews revealed that the women in this study were distinctly different from each other, which disputes the assumption that all Asian American women are similar. This study challenges how these women are currently perceived, and institutions must re-examine their current policies and practices to better support this population. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Higher Education Administration.