Among the many factors that influence the level and quality of Southeast Asian parents' involvement with schools are parents' literacy level, prearrival education, and strong cultural beliefs. Provides implications for principals and selected resources. (13 references) (MLF)

Barriers to Hmong adults' participation in adult basic education (ABE) include nonliterate tradition, age, cooperative-learning style, and stress. Various programs attempt bilingual English as a Second Language, vocational English as a Second Language, or multicultural training for ABE staff. The lack of Hmong educators makes the latter an…

This study proposes an alternative approach to research on the acquisition of sociocultural competence, focusing on a speech event rather than a speech act, and drawing on the concept of scripts as developed by cognitive psychologists. (51 references) (JL)

The history of the Hmong people of Southeast Asia is based mainly on oral traditions, and until recent decades there was no written Hmong language. With the introduction of writing, a new view of history is beginning to emerge, as demonstrated by college student term papers. (SLD)

Problem solving and social support, as different styles of coping with intergenerational family conflict, were examined among 86 Hmong American college students. Problem solving and social support were hypothesized to differentially moderate the effects of family conflict on psychological adjustment. Furthermore, the effects of attributions of…

Analyzes and introduces folklore and fairy tales of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Hmong, and Southeast Asian cultures as compared to Western fairy tales and Western corruptions of Asian tales. Reviews several titles currently available and introduces the scholarly literature on Asian folk tales designed for Asian American parents. (JB)

Explored how Hmong American high school students interpreted the meaning of being Hmong in the United States, examining how the culture of whiteness shaped their experiences and understandings of being American. The culture of whiteness led these students to internalize the message that whites were the only real Americans. They were very aware…

This investigation is an ethnographic case study of the literacy learning opportunities of a fifth-grade Hmong child (pseudonym Deng) who came to the United States from Laos via Thailand at the very end of his third-grade year in school. Deng was one of 25 students in a mainstream urban classroom in the Midwest during his fifth grade in school…

This ethnographic study explored Hmong cultural and educational values. The interview data revealed some Hmong values similar to mainstream American values such as a respect for hard work; a concern about personal honor; and honesty. Some values, however, were in conflict with dominant American values such as: a strong clan-oriented society; a…

This paper discusses differences between the Hmong culture and American culture and resulting implications for provision of special education services. The Hmong population in the Fresno County (California) area has consistently grown since 1977, reaching approximately 26,500 in 1990. The major reason that Hmong refugees settled in agricultural…

A curriculum project is described that consists of a unit developed for a writing class in a secondary English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom. Although the unit is intended to present an idea of what can be accomplished in the ESL classroom with developing writers, it does not give any specific "recipes" for writing development. The setting…

For a number of reasons, U.S. educational policy has failed to integrate the Hmong into the mainstream of American life. First, lacking transferrable job skills, the Hmong were further disadvantaged by the inability of public schools and contracted English-as-a-Second-Language schools to assimilate traditional Hmong culture with new settlement…

This study investigated the attitudes of seven Hmong parents of hearing impaired children attending an American public school. Most parents reported limited knowledge of the policies, practices, and organizational structures of special education, and all cited communication barriers as impediments to involvement in their child's education.…

Describes a lesson plan that introduces students in grades 10-12 to the decorative arts as a vehicle for exploring the cultural framework as a means of communicating various aspects of the human experience. Students design a story cloth based on a visual symbol they have developed to represent a human issue such as famine or war. (LS)

Reproductive factors for Hmong immigrants (mothers of 1,937 children) were compared with those of 3,776 white, non-Hispanic women. Despite a high proportion of births at high parity and advanced maternal age, Hmong women gave birth to very low birth weight babies at about the same rate as white women. (SLD)