Resume Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5: Asian American Teachers

• Immigration and a New History for Asian Americans

As one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in America, Asian Americans provide a unique challenge to our understanding of diversity. The influx of Asian immigrants since 1965 has led many urban schools to reconsider stereotypes not only of the so-called ‘model minority’ Asian American but also of who in fact makes up the socially constructed and ill-conceived term ‘Asian’ (Hartman and Askounia, 1989; Nakanishi and Nishida, 1995).

• The Image of Teaching and Asian American Teachers

The Asian American viewpoint, and this is defined here by interviews with teachers of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Pilipino and Vietnamese backgrounds, was frequently explained in terms of cultural background. Traditionally, the status of teachers in East Asia has been very high (Baruth and Manning, 1992; S.J.Lee, 1994; Y.Lee, 1991). Based primarily on Confucian values that dictate respect for relationships and hierarchy, Asian cultures have placed teachers in the educated, if not ruling, elite (Smith, 1994). Although this is gradually being eroded by materialist influences that tie status to accumulated wealth (Goodman, 1990), the teachers interviewed had been raised under the more traditional system. 

• Asian American Resistance to Teaching as a Career 

As of 1994, Asian American teachers constituted less than two percent of all K-12 teachers with a mean of only eight Asian Americans each enrolled in pre-service teacher education programs in the United States (AACTE, 1994). Low involvement in teacher preparation is not because of any lack of success in education generally.  Given that Asian Americans, in the aggregate, enjoy relatively high academic success through to the level of graduate study, reasons for their lack of involvement in teacher education must be found that vary from the reasons for other minority groups whose low college attendance and graduation levels provide the most obvious explanation for lack of participation in the teaching profession. 

• The Problematic Issue of High Standards Set by Chinese Traditions of Schooling 

So what is the source of these attitudes that apparently cause the hesitancy toward, if not resistance to, teaching as a career? Ironically, the answer seemed to reside in Chinese culture itself, more specifically in the high regard for teaching and the standards set by Chinese culture for teachers. As one informant said: ‘You have to think of yourself as a great person to be a teacher.’ (188/ASf) In Japanese, the term erai hito explains this concept. This was not simply hesitancy on the part of youth who have not had adequate experience educating others; rather, informants claimed that the title of teacher had to be reserved for those who neared perfection. ‘If there are ten qualities that a teacher needs and Chinese people do not meet all ten of those qualities, they will consider themselves not qualified to be a teacher’ (156/ASf) or ‘Young Asian people do not see themselves as good enough to be a teacher’ (182/ASm) were comments sprinkled throughout the interviews. To tell others that you were interested in becoming a teacher verged on arrogance, not only because of the assumption that you were qualified beyond reproach, but also that you had the audacity to assume that you could teach other people’s children to a standard that would be acceptable to Asian parents.