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The Road Less Traveled: Southeast Asian American Undergraduates’ College-Going Experiences

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The Road Less Traveled: Southeast Asian American Undergraduates’ College-Going Experiences THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATES’ COLLEGE-GOING EXPERIENCES by Jennifer Rene Crandall B.S., University of Colorado, 1993 M.A., University of Colorado, 1997 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2015 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION This dissertation was presented by Jennifer Rene Crandall It was defended on December 4, 2015 and approved by Michael Gunzenhauser, Associate Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies Linda DeAngelo, Assistant Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies Janelle Wong, Associate Professor, University of Maryland at College Park Dissertation Advisor: John C. Weidman, Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies ii Copyright © by Jennifer Rene Crandall 2015 iii THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATES’ COLLEGE-GOING EXPERIENCES Jennifer Rene Crandall, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2015 This hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry uses a social, cultural, and aspirational capital framework to explore the college-going experience of Southeast Asian American undergraduates to account for divergent experiences that get lost in generalizations about Asian Americans. Drawing from the college-going experience of Vietnamese and Cambodian American undergraduates at a public research university, this study provides valuable insight into the complex set of social realities for immigrant and/or refugee students and families and strategies students use to navigate their multiple worlds in their quest for a higher education and thus informs education policy and practice. Drawing from Seidman’s (1991) phenomenological interview series, data collection entailed in-depth individual interviews of seven Southeast Asian American undergraduates and analysis of participant-selected artifacts. The two primary findings—1) intimate familial relations are paramount to college-going and 2) bounded college-going habitus inhibits smooth path to university—signal variability across the three forms of capital due to tensions participants experienced when engaging with iv their respective environments. One form of capital could compensate for limitations in another, for example, the interplay of which changes over time in accordance with a student’s lived experience. While schools facilitate and validate the notion of higher education as the pathway for success, it is imperative to consider family structure and influence in order to understand how multiple complex and at times competing influences interact to impact college-going for Southeast Asian American students. Tapping into the dynamic interplay of aspirational and cultural capital through intimate familial relations was one primary strategy participants utilized to facilitate their college-going. Participants possessed a college-going habitus developed in part by parents’ high educational values and college/career aspirations and expectations. Additionally, older siblings attending or as recent college graduates facilitated college-going for younger siblings thru the various roles they played such as advisor, tutor, role model, and surrogate parent. This research points to an interdependent approach to education that challenges previous literature. Participant experiences suggest that familial roles and responsibilities are blurred, thus creating the argument for an interdependent conceptualization of family as an institutional context that influences the educational experience and outcomes of Southeast Asian American students. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................... XIII 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................. 4 1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................... 8 1.3 DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................... 10 1.4 ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTERS ................................................................ 12 2.0 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ...... 14 2.1 HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE UNITED STATES ………………………………………………………………………………… 14 2.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK..................................................................... 18 2.2.1 Cultural capital .............................................................................................. 19 2.2.1.1 Habitus .................................................................................................... 21 2.2.2 Social capital .................................................................................................. 23 2.2.3 Aspirational capital ....................................................................................... 26 2.3 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................................. 29 2.3.1 Asian American educational achievement and attainment ....................... 29 2.3.2 Model minority myth..................................................................................... 32 2.3.3 Other challenges to educational achievement and attainment .................. 34 vi 2.3.3.1 Immigrant and refugee students .......................................................... 34 2.3.3.2 Southeast Asian American students ..................................................... 36 2.4 EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS ......................... 42 2.4.1 Family obligation ........................................................................................... 44 2.5 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT ................................ 46 2.5.1 Class-based strategies .................................................................................... 50 2.6 SECTION SUMMARY ..................................................................................... 53 3.0 RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................................... 55 3.1 METHODS ......................................................................................................... 56 3.1.1 Phenomenology .............................................................................................. 56 3.1.2 Hermeneutic phenomenology ....................................................................... 56 3.1.3 Pilot study ....................................................................................................... 58 3.1.4 Research site ................................................................................................... 60 3.1.5 Recruitment .................................................................................................... 61 3.1.6 Study participants.......................................................................................... 64 3.1.7 Data collection ................................................................................................ 66 3.1.8 Data analysis .................................................................................................. 73 3.2 TRUSTWORTHINESS ..................................................................................... 78 3.3 LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................. 81 3.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ..................................................................... 83 3.5 INVESTIGATING THE LIVED EXPERIENCE .......................................... 84 4.0 PARTICIPANT VIGNETTES .................................................................................. 88 4.1 PSEUDONYMS ................................................................................................. 90 vii 4.2 VIGNETTES ...................................................................................................... 92 4.2.1 Alma-Lyn ........................................................................................................ 92 4.2.1 Art ................................................................................................................... 93 4.2.2 Artha ............................................................................................................... 94 4.2.1 NB .................................................................................................................... 95 4.2.2 Regalia ............................................................................................................ 97 4.2.1 Roman ............................................................................................................. 97 4.2.2 Rose ................................................................................................................. 98 5.0 THEMATIC ANALYSIS ........................................................................................ 100 5.1 MERITOCRACY ............................................................................................ 101 5.1.1 Education is your future ............................................................................. 103 5.1.2 Education facilitates economic stability .................................................... 107 5.1.3 Education facilitates personal development .............................................. 110 5.1.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................
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