Integration of community and learning among Southeast Asian newcomer Hmong parents and children
Author(s):
Lopez-romano, Sylvia Silva
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ed.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : University of San Francisco, 1991.
Pages:
122
Language:
English
Abstract:
The increasing ethnic diversity of the California population is creating concerns and needs throughout each of the state's counties, cities, and towns. These needs and concerns have become very prominent in the public schools as administrators strive to cope with the problems of teaching ethnic cultures and traditions along with traditional American curriculum in California schools. This study concentrates on these educational problems within Southeast Asian groups in northeastern California. An investigation into the ways school personnel develop and sustain a sense of involvement and community among both Southeast Asian students and their parents provides the basis for this study. In particular, personal interviews and observations were made in various schools and homes in the hermeneutic tradition of engaging in open and active discussions and conversations. It became apparent that four main areas of concern exist among the Southeast Asians with whom interaction occurred: (1) learning a new language while still remembering their own; (2) remembering an existing culture while being expected to learn a new one; (3) finding work in surroundings which are made up of people who do not understand the Asian languages or cultures; and (4) fitting in with the traditions of a new community. Further research is essential to the proper integration of ethnic people into California. It appears that schools and their administrators are the primary socializing agents in California's society and, therefore, they play the necessary key roles in this process of teaching and learning new cultures, languages, and traditions.