Leadership Achievement Gap of Asian/Pacific American Librarians
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LEADERSHIP ACHIEVEMENT GAP OF ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN LIBRARIANS Jian-zhong “Joe” Zhou B.S., Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, 1985 M.L.S., Dominican University, River Forest, IL, 1990 M.B.A., University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 1996 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP at CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO SPRING 2012 Copyright © 2012 Jian-zhong Zhou All rights reserved ii LEADERSHIP ACHIEVEMENT GAP OF ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN LIBRARIANS A Dissertation by Jian-zhong Zhou Approved by Dissertation Committee: _________________________________ Rose M Borunda, Ed.D., [Chair] _________________________________ Frank Lilly, Ph.D. _________________________________ Timothy Fong, Ph.D. _________________________________ Betty Ronayne, M.L.S. SPRING 2012 iii LEADERSHIP ACHIEVEMENT GAP OF ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN LIBRARIANS Student: Jian-zhong Zhou I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this dissertation is suitable for shelving in the library and credit is to be awarded for the dissertation. , Director Carlos Nevarez, Ph.D. Date iv DEDICATION First of all, this dissertation is dedicated to my wife Min and my mother Ding, the two women who love me the most in their lives. Without my wife’s love and her permission to be absent from the family every Friday night and all day Saturday for three years, it would not have been possible for me to complete this dissertation. As a computer engineer with Intel, my wife provided the main financial support for the family and became “a single parent” on weekends as I took a pay cut with a reduced work schedule to go back to school. My 88-year old mother, a retired Chinese history professor at Beijing Normal University, is another source of culture capital and inspiration for me to conduct high quality dissertation research. Every week when I called her during the last three years, instead of asking me when I would be completing the dissertation; my mother always asked how many articles I plan to publish based on my dissertation research. Now I have completed my dissertation, but I still have to answer my mother’s inquiry on scholarly publications. Secondly this dissertation is dedicated to my late father Zhi-Yao and my late grandfather Ming-Shan. My grandfather was the first in the family to receive a 4-year college degree (Engineering) in the early 1920s in Shanghai, China. He has had a great impact on our family’s education ever since. My grandfather’s accomplishment assured that his three daughters, his son (my father) and daughter-in-law (my mother) complete 4-year colleges. My grandfather also supported more than 30 of his nieces and nephews, including six of my mother’s siblings, and enabled them to complete 4- v year colleges or 2-year technical schools from 1940s to 1960s. To put this into context, even in 2012, China has difficulty enforcing its 9-year public education mandates. Under the influence of my grandfather, my father was the first in the family to receive graduate degrees, including one from Europe, after finishing a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1949 from the prestigious college in China -- Beijing University. Thirdly, this dissertation is dedicated to my sister Hsiao-Ling and brother Yi-zhong. As the oldest of three siblings, Dr. Hsiao-ling sets the bar high as she is the first in the family to receive a doctoral degree (Astrophysics) from the University of Colorado at Boulder. My older brother never had a chance to attend colleges when he graduated from high school in 1967 due to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a period when there was no college admissions at all from 1966 to 1976 in China. But he spent 7 years (1978-1985) self studying after 48-hour work-weeks as a building construction worker, and received two engineering degrees (Mechanical and Civil/Structural) by taking Tsinghua University’s course exams. He passed the Professional Engineer’s (PE) license exams in Chinese and the International PE license in English later on, all through self-education. He has served as the Building and Engineering Division Chief for Beijing Foreign Studies University since 1990. My brother also has been taking care of my aging parents in China for the last 25 years since my sister and I came to the United States in the mid-1980s. He expects me to match the high bar set by our older sister; in his words “boys cannot lose to girls in our family.” vi I would also like to dedicate my dissertation to my cousin June. She and I grew up together in our grandfather’s house in Shanghai, China until the Culture Revolution took away all assets from our grandfather. Now June and I both are settled in Northern California within 100 miles of each other, but 10,000 miles away from our grandfather’s house in Shanghai. June works as an electrical engineer and lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Dr. Ningjia. Their son has just graduated from college and attends a medical school in Chicago. June’s understanding of female immigrant engineers with American educated kids provided spiritual support to my wife and my boys when I was away writing this dissertation. Lastly, I dedicate my dissertation to my three teenage sons, Glen, Allan, and Milan. I was absent from their weekend sports and extra-curricular activities for 128 weekends. During these weeks, my oldest son Glen graduated from high school not only with 4.35 GPA, but also as varsity tennis team captain and Folsom Teen Council President to demonstrate his leadership potentials. But his Dad did not attend any of his college visits during his high school years. Glen took trains and flew twice to potential colleges all by himself in 2011 and 2012. My middle son Allan graduated from his middle school and went to two state level competitions as he was either the first or the second place in Sacramento County. His Dad was unable to attend any of his state competition finals. My youngest son Milan went to the California National History Day competition twice in Southern California as the winner of Sacramento County History Day. His Dad missed the first one, but was able to take him to the vii second State Finals in late April 2012. Many researches show that parents support is strongly correlated to children’s performance at high level competitions. Milan’s 2012 National History Day documentary film was titled “Proposition 98: its impact to California Education.” viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to first acknowledge and thank the dissertation committee members, Chair Dr. Rose Borunda, Dr. Frank Lilly, Dr. Timothy Fong, and Education Librarian Betty Ronayne. Their dedication and guidance helped me greatly to complete my dissertation. I want to pay special thanks to Chair Dr. Borunda and Education Librarian Ronayne for adding their great insight of minorities in higher education and librarianship, plus editing my dissertation writing tirelessly. I would like to acknowledge and thank members of the California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) Ed.D. Cohort III. Over the past three years, we all experienced some times of excitement, anxiety, and hardship. and we helped each other by sharing experiences, technology, languages, and food and drinks. I had unprecedented intellectual challenges and brain stimulations on Friday night and Saturdays through conversation, presentations and discussions with the CSUS EDD Cohort III members. I also had one physical challenge during the Peak Adventure climbing trip with Cohort III and I wish I could have been in better physical shape and not have my leg muscle about to cramp 30 feet up on a climbing post. I survived both physical and intellectual challenges, as the majority of Cohort III members did. I would also like to acknowledge CSUS Ed.D. Cohort III entire faculty and staff who lead us and support us through this doctoral education journey. Dr. Nevarez, the Ed.D. Program Director and our first course faculty, set an example of what a transformational leader can do. Dr. Rodriguez, the President of Mira Costa ix Community College District, flew to Sacramento from San Diego every other week to teach Human Resource Management course. Dr. Britt, a professor younger than the median age of Cohort III students and good with both qualitative and quantitative research methodology, flew baby sitters from Oregon to watch her two young kids while she taught us research methodology course on weekends. I must acknowledge CSUS and the American Library Association (ALA) for their financial support to conduct my research. Without these grants, the research of this dissertation would not be at this scale and finished within three years. Finally, I want to acknowledge Chinese American Librarian Association (CALA) and Asian and Pacific American Librarian Association (APALA), the two ALA affiliated librarian associations for Asian/Pacific Islanders for their support of my surveys to their members. I want to thank computer system administrator Bin Zhang for his technical support in sending my surveys to several hundred Asian/Pacific librarians in every geographic region in the United States. x CURRICULUM VITAE EDUCATION Master of Business Administration (MBA with Finance Concentration), University of Delaware, College of Business and Economics, Newark, Delaware, 1996. Master of Library and Information Science (MLS), Dominican University, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, River Forest, Illinois, 1990. Advanced Studies in Computer and Information Science, Discrete Math and Statistics (43 units), University of Delaware, Division of Continuing Education. Newark, DE, 1990-1993. Post-graduate Research in Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics. Beijing, China, 1985-1988. Bachelor of Science in Physics, (with national credentials for high school Math and Physics teaching).