1st Edition
Navigating Model Minority Stereotypes Asian Indian Youth in South Asian Diaspora
Though Asian Indians are typically thought of as a "model minority", not much is known about the school experiences of their children. Positive stereotyping of these immigrants and their children often masks educational needs and issues, creates class divides within the Indian-American community, and triggers stress for many Asian Indian students. This volume examines second generation (America-born) and 1.5 generation (foreign-born) Asian Indians as they try to balance peer culture, home life and academics. It explores how, through the acculturation process, these children either take advantage of this positive stereotype or refute their stereotyped ethnic image and move to downward mobility.
Focusing on migrant experiences of the Indian diasporas in the United States, this volume brings attention to highly motivated Asian Indian students who are overlooked because of their cultural dispositions and outlooks on schooling, and those students who are more likely to underachieve. It highlights the assimilation of Asian Indian students in mainstream society and their understandings of Americanization, social inequality, diversity and multiculturalism.
1. Worlds of the Asian Indian second-generation: The Asian Indian Diaspora in the United States, silent voices, achievement and positive stereotyping 2. Investment in education and influence of cultural context: Science, technology and math education, parental role in academic and career choices 3. In between Indianness and Americanness: Identities in practice within lived worlds 4. A balancing act in triple quandary: Navigating advantages of two worlds 5. Beyond stereotype: Voices of unmodel minority students 6. Listening to voices on race and class: Neighborhood enclaves, race relationships, interracial animosity, coexistence and friendship 7. Conclusion
Biography
Rupam Saran is an Associate Professor at the Education Department, Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. Her book with Dr. Rosalina Diaz, Beyond Stereotype: Minority children of immigrants in urban schools, analyzes the effect of stereotyping on the school experiences of children of new immigrants. Recent journal publications include articles in Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, In the South Asian Diaspora, The Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS) Online Journal, and The Anthropologist.
"A brilliant analysis of the interplay between class and culture among minorities. Saran's fascinating account of Asian Indian culture explains why the stereotype of this group as a highly successful minority is only partially correct and why Asian Indians don't always make it. A landmark achievement in our understanding of the complexity of immigration to the U.S." - William Helmreich, author of The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City; Professor of Sociology at CUNY Graduate Center and at the Colin Powell School of Civic & Global Leadership
