This article discusses the initiatives of Purdue University President France Cordova in boosting minority and female representation among administration and students and in improving overall undergraduate performance. Dr. France Cordova is by no means the first college president to declare increasing the presence of women and minorities on campus…

The present study examined consistency and inconsistency in adolescents' ethnic identification (i.e., self-reported ethnicity) across the 6 middle-school semesters. The sample (N = 1,589, of whom 46% were boys and 54% were girls) included African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Caucasian/White, Latino/Latina, Mexican/Mexican American, and…

Ethnomethodology frames "culture" as enactments by participants that need to be studied in specific moments of interaction. The key research question is how people display in their talk particular understandings of culture with and for each other. In this paper we explore the way cultural categories are deployed by teachers and parents (of Chinese…

On March 1-2, 2008, FPRI's Wachman Center presented a weekend of discussion on "China's Encounter with the West" for 45 teachers from 21 states across the country, held at and co-sponsored by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Asia Program. Sessions included: (1) China's Early Encounters with the West: A History in Reverse…

Using a data set (N = 1,600) collected in the city of Urumchi in 2005, this article examines ethnic differences in arranged marriages in urban China. Data analysis shows a rapid decline in parental arrangement for both Uyghur Muslims and Han Chinese in Urumchi. Han Chinese are less likely than Uyghur Muslims to report arranged marriages, with main…

This article analyzes the process of youth political activism and development by drawing on ethnographic research on Asian and Pacific Islander youth activists. Young people revealed that collective action begins with a critical analysis of their lived experiences with inequalities. Their actions also involved oppositional consciousness that was…

Social support is one of the most effective means by which people can cope with stressful events. Yet little research has examined whether there are cultural differences in how people utilize their social support networks. A review of studies on culture and social support presents evidence that Asians and Asian Americans are more reluctant to…

This article addresses the ways in which the experiences of immigrant youth and families in U.S. schools and society have been conceptualized primarily as conflicts between immigrant cultures and dominant U.S. culture. Exemplified by the discourse of culture clash or of immigrants being torn between two worlds, this prevalent understanding…

The paper explores the issue of teachers' professional vulnerability using a range of messages from an online teachers' community on the Chinese mainland. The study reveals how macro changes at policy level impact on teachers' professional relationships and in turn their professional identities in teacher discussants' perceptions. Furthermore, the…

This article examines Asian women's experiences of belonging to communities of practice within higher education in Britain. The research explores the ways in which women engage in friendship and support networks, how they negotiate their identities and their experiences of being marginalised and "different". The research argues that…

Culture has been shown to influence the way people apprehend their physical environment. Cognitive orientation is more holistic in East Asian cultures, which emphasize relationships and connectedness among objects in the field, than in Western cultures, which are more prone to focus exclusively on the object and its attributes. We investigated…

This study investigated the quality of parent-child relationships in Asian-American families and its association with various aspects of acculturation. Participants were 173 Asian-American undergraduates who had at least one parent in the study. The results show that acculturation factors, in particular acculturation conflict between parents and…

Through the use of novels, the author presents teaching techniques and suggestions for incorporating cultural awareness with historical background in an Asian studies survey course at the college level. (JR)

Students' reflections about their experiences teaching an introductory course in Asian American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. (Author/AM)

Notes that the Chinese Revolution is a complicated subject to teach. On top of the issue of a western versus a third world perspective, and the issue of whether China has anything in common with most of the formerly colonized world, one must come to terms with a Marxist perspective and its influence on Asian thinkers. (Author/AM)