Week 3 - Alex Nguyen - Section 3

In Kaozong N. Mouavangsou’s article Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans, Mouavangsou discusses both her own experiences as a Hmong person in the American education system and conducts interviews to gather more data from the Hmong American community educated in the United States. She discusses the miseducation of the Hmong community through the factors of gender stereotypes and a lack of Hmong representation in American textbooks and curricula. Mong, in her article, examines the struggles of Hmong women in graduate studies rather than in holistic American education, and specifically focuses on the phenomena of the model minority myth and consequential imposter syndrome. Both authors explain the problems of the Hmong community in education to be results of misrepresentation ingrained in educational systems as well as being internalized by first and second generation Hmong individuals themselves.

Their points are things that need to be said as the miseducation of the younger generation impacts the future of a community. Also, internalizing negative stereotypes of one’s own community causes disconnect with one’s culture, and for a culture to survive, the youth have to be willing to participate in and carry it on. This lack of cultural information and perspective in the American educational system, as pointed out by Mouavangsou, is common for cultures outside of the Western / European realm. The biases of education further not only assimilation to a Western perspective but also the fading away of non-Western cultures, particularly cultures not heavily tied to America economically or politically. The Vietnam War, for example, is only ever taught from an American perspective. Rarely if ever are there discussions pertaining to the Southeast Asian people involved, even though it was a Southeast Asian war. When students don’t get to learn about their individual cultures outside of American stereotypes, they begin to feel as though these are true, such as the model minority stereotype, which demeans Asians and their accomplishments in academia.

While representation of Asian history in graduate education is important, it is also extremely important to have this representation from an early age in order to encourage children towards education and a connection with their own cultures. Are there other ways outside of the realm of education to accomplish this? Should ethnic culture and language schools be federally funded?

Moua, M. (2018). Navigating Graduate Education as a First-generation, Hmong American Woman: An Autoethnograpy. Hmong Studies Journal,19(1), 1-25.
Mouavangsou, K. N. (n.d.). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans. 1-49.

Hmong International Academy. (n.d.). [Hmong international academy students]. Retrieved from http://hia.mpls.k12.mn.us/uploads/subbanner001.png