Week 2: Natalie Hill_Section A01

As an Asian American who has been told that school was easier for me simply because of my race or culture, OiYan Poon’s and Ajani Byrd’s article, Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices, really rang true for me. Because more and more Asian Americans are going to college, many people from outside and even inside the community want to pinpoint the cause on something simple and overarching, such as a stereotype. The stereotype of the “Tiger Mom” is definitely not found in the majority of Asian American households; however, I think Poon’s and Byrd’s article points to a more truthful commonality among the Asian American community that makes Asian Americans the current leading ethnic group to be admitted into colleges today, “Broadly, research has found that Asian Americans utilize a strategic adaptation approach to education; meaning that within a society riddled with inequalities, Asian Americans place a significant emphasis on educational attainment as one of the only realistic pathways to mobility” (Poon and Byrd, 2013). I believe, from my own experience as an Asian American and from those experiences of my friends and family, that this core belief in education as a tool for upward mobility in a highly classist society is what drives many Asian Americans to do well in school.

However, though many Asian Americans share this common mindset, the idea that the importance of an education is rigorously pressed upon Asian Americans by their parents is largely a myth and is not inclusive of other Asian Americans from other socioeconomic backgrounds. For example, the article provides valuable results on a survey done to see what factors and which people influences Asian American youth the most in deciding which college to attend. The study found that because first-generation college students had parents that knew nothing of the college application process or what college in the United States is like, these particular Asian Americans relied on their college counselors and teachers more than their parents, and therefore, valued their opinions more as well as a result. In contrast, Asian Americans that had a family with a collegiate background often responded that their parent’s opinion mattered more than those of their counselors or teachers. I believe that because many non-first generation college students, primarily East Asian Americans, have had family in the United States for more generations, they had more time to accumulate resources and attain the socioeconomic status needed to make deciding on where to go for college an easier process. This is in contrast to the Southeast Asian community that have family that immigrated over to the United States more recently.  

 

Questions: Why is it that we mainly find the viewpoint of a higher education being a mechanism for upward mobility in the Asian American community in comparison to other minority groups in the United States? Why is it that this viewpoint and value of education is shared so widely amongst Asian Americans?

References:

Poon, O., & Byrd, A. (2013). “Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Difference in Asian American College Access and Choices.” Journal of College Admissions, 23-30. Retrieved October 8, 2017.

Asia Matters for America. (n.d.). Asian Students in America.

Retrieved from http://www.asiamattersforamerica.org/asia/data/students/asiansinamerica