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A Poetry Collection, Jenna Le

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This is a poetry collection by Jenna Le.

Literacy Skills And Practices In Cambodian-American Families: A Portraiture Of Ten Women, Sothy Tep

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Abstract:This research article describes the literacy skills and practices in ten Cambodian-American (CA) families within their home environment. It also investigates such contextual problems as CA students not being a part of the Asian model minority and the invisibility that some experience at school.Its literature review addresses the evolving concept of family literacy scholarship, specifically diversity scholarship, with a conceptual framework focusing on Dewey’s (1916) ideas linking family literacy ultimately to human empowerment, hope, progress, growth, and meaning within society. A narrative inquiry technique called portraiture is employed to collect the data of its ten participants’ …

Book Review Of A Career In Student Affairs, Brandon Xiong

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

A Career in Student Affairs: Reflections from Hmong Student Affairs Educators is a collection of unique experiences from Hmong professionals who work in student affairs, edited by Dr. Soua Xiong and Dr. Brian V. Xiong. This volume highlights different stories about how Hmong students came into their current student affairs careers. Each chapter has important advice for Hmong students considering a career in student affairs and examine what it means to be a first-generation Hmong student affairs professional. The collection of stories beautifully captures the hopes and dreams of those who immigrated from Thailand to America. In comparison, the book …

#35 Understanding In Lao, Victoria Gill

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This piece is a celebration, an interpretation, and translation of Lao words and of the Lao language as poetry. This poem dissects and discuss the differences between how the word "understand" is conceptualized and embodied in the Lao language versus English. Further, it shows how in Lao, there are even deeper nuances between what it means "to know" versus "to understand" in Lao.

A Review Of Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir Of Love, Loss, And Family Recipes, Engheang Nol

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

"Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes" by Chantha Nguon, with assistance from Kim Green, is a poignant exploration of the author's journey from a Cambodian refugee to a beacon of empowerment in her homeland. This review delves into the book's narrative structure, which intertwines personal anecdotes with culinary reflections, offering a unique lens into the complexities of Chantha’s personal life. Through a detailed analysis of select chapters, including "Chicken-Lime Soup for the Village Soul" and "Instant Noodles," the review examines themes of resilience, identity, and especially societal expectations for what and how Cambodian women should …

A Review Of Building Little Saigon, Manoka Y

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Building Little Saigon: Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs by Erica Allen-Kim is a multidisciplinary exploration that integrates perspectives from urban studies, refugee studies, and cultural geography. In this book, Allen-Kim, a second-generation Korean American, draws on her own experiences living near Vietnamese American and Chinese communities. She examines how Little Saigon developed its identity and the ongoing challenges of establishing and sustaining these neighborhoods in American cities and suburbs.

“Not The Player Nor The Coach”: Considerations For Peer-Tutor Education In Heritage Language Writing Centers, Agustina Carando, Claire J. Lozano

The Writing Center Journal

This study analyzes the experiences of undergraduate peer-tutors in a heritage language writing center (HLWC) located at a large public university in the United States. As former heritage language (HL) students themselves, tutors have to navigate the complexities of being bilingual advocates for their tutees while promoting the linguistic ideals of the academic community, where literacy expectations can be more rigid. In order to delve into their experiences at the center, this qualitative investigation examines the end-of- term reflections of 19 Spanish HL tutors working at a Spanish HLWC, addressing the following questions: (1) How do tutors perceive their role …

Thai Americans: A Poem Collection Featuring "Bilingual หมา Standard Poodle" And "Last Name กู Too Long", Simon Boonsripaisal, Ravadee Boonsripaisal

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This is a co-authored poem collection focusing on Thai American life. In Bilingual หมา Standard Poodle, interactions and observations are made between a Thai American family and their supportive standard poodle named Pumpkin. This poem interjects on the disaggregated Southeast Asian American experience with inclusion of a pet companion. In Last Name กู Too Long, a Thai American graduate student discusses with their mother the challenges of gaining employment. This poem brings attention to hiring bias in the screening and interview process.

Khi Ăn, Nhai Kỹ (When Eating, Chew Carefully): Poetry Collection, Ngoc My T. Tran

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

In this poetry collection, I used my own experiences as a Vietnamese-American to present a realistic image of life in America as a minority. With the use of translanguaging and presentation of social norms in both Vietnamese and American cultures, my hope is to promote awareness of issues such as racism, colorism, body shaming, and language insecurity among Asian communities so that these problems can be healthily addressed. Khi ăn, nhai kỹ (When eating, chew carefully) is a Vietnamese proverb and is similar to the saying "think before you speak," by naming the collection this, it serves as an underlying …

Centerless? Making Sense Of Disruptions In The Graduate Writing Center, Shannon Mcclellan Brooks

The Writing Center Journal

This critical self-reflection is not a success story; rather, it is an effort of decolonial thinking that reckons with the idea, experience, and practice of centerlessness during pandemic-induced online transitions and operations in a graduate writing center (GWC). By tracing the contours of a series of interlocking disruptions the author and her graduate writing center community experienced during COVID-19, this article brings into sharp focus present colonial legacies inhibiting effective developments, moves, and adaptations to the GWC physical center space and praxis. Through retrospectively following pandemic-induced disruptions to her center, the author critically engages how epistemologies of coloniality and modernity …

Reflexiones Sobre La Construcción De Espacios Bilingües: Los Centros De Escritura Como Puentes De Diálogo Académico En Torno A La Escritura Y A La Cultura, Andrea Salamanca Mesa, Ana Sofía Ramírez Viancha

The Writing Center Journal

This article reflects on the creation of bilingual spaces, focusing on writing centers as facilitators of academic dialogue regarding academic writing and culture. The writing centers of Pontifical Javeriana University and Florida International University jointly explore how these centers can serve as bridges to promote effective communication and cultural exchange in educational environments where different languages coexist. The analysis addresses the significance of these spaces in fostering linguistic diversity and the impact on academic development. Este artículo reflexiona sobre la creación de espacios bilingües, centrándose en los Centros de Escritura como facilitadores del diálogo académico en torno a la escritura …

Re/Searching (For) Hope: Archives And (Decolonizing) Archival Impressions, Romeo Garcia

The Writing Center Journal

On archives and archival impressions, this essay extends archival research to the elsewhere and otherwise. The essay asks, how do we reposition the contents of archives so that we can position ourselves in relation to it otherwise? It puts forward a theory of (decolonizing) archival impressions.

Decolonizing Tutor And Writing Center Administrative Labor: An Autoethnography Of A South Asian Writing Center’S Personnel, Saurabh Anand

The Writing Center Journal

This piece informs my journey of thinking and contextualizing the validity of autoethnography as a decolonial qualitative research method in writing center scholarship. This piece provides the lilt of everyday writing center initiatives, labor, and workings using five email exchanges as data depicting my interactions with various writing center stakeholders as a transnational writing center studies student-tutor, administrator, and doctoral student from South Asia, specifically India. This piece also argues how I used my experiences as one of a writing center’s personnel as a tool of empowerment in my liminal position in my writing center and elaborates on those experiences, …

Factors Supporting Academic Engagement Among Cambodian American High School Youth, Vichet Chhuon, Angela Dosalmas, Nida Rinthapol

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This exploratory study examined the relationship between Cambodian American

students’ (N = 77) attitudes and beliefs regarding school climate and school

engagement. We examined engagement through two primary constructs:

academic intrinsic motivation and future educational expectations. Four specific

correlates of engagement were examined to understand the quality of Cambodian

American students’ school engagement: sense of racial fairness; feelings of

teacher support; perceptions of self-competence; and perceptions of positive

classroom environment. Perceptions of self competence were positively

associated with higher educational expectations. Our regression models found

that students’ sense of positive classroom environment in addition to teacher

support was important …

A Review Of The Cambodian Family: Holocaust Survival By Cathy Long, Jalisa Sang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

The Cambodian Family: Holocaust Survival, by Cathy Long, is a powerful memoir that recounts the darkest days or “Year Zero” in Cambodian history. It captures the story of how the author survived the harsh regime under the Khmer Rouge as a wife, mother and caregiver. Long’s memoir also touches on the horror, trauma, grief, family separation and the loss that occurred from 1975-1979 that was experienced by so many, shedding a light on the atrocities of the Cambodian people during this era. Through the hardships, Long instilled a pillar of hope, resilience and faith for a better future for her …

A Review Of The Song Poet, Vikrant Chap

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

The Song Poet is a collection of Kwv txhiaj (Hmong songs) by Kao Kalia Yang and her father Bee Yang. The songs were the senior Yang’s way of honoring Hmong traditions and history. The collection symbolized his careful selection of language to communicate softly with family, even during the war. His nurturing words accompanied his family’s survival through those difficult moments. However, at one point in his life, the songs refused to unfold, disrupting the happy chapters. To honor her father’s legacy, Kao Kalia Yang completed his songs in The Song Poet. The album begins with a note on Bee …

Cultural, Psychosocial, And Educational Factors In Relation To Ethnic Identity Among Cambodian High School Students In The United States, Traci L. Weinstein, Khanh Dinh, Tamara Springle

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study examined the relationship between preferred ethnic labels an cultural, psychosocial, and academic variables in a sample of 174 Cambodian high school students in the U.S. Results indicated that participants who chose “American” ethnic labels reported higher scores on White/Anglo orientation and on English language usage and fluency, whereas participants who chose the “Cambodian” ethnic label reported more Khmer language usage and frequency. Students who chose the combined “Cambodian American” ethnic label reported stronger beliefs in the utility of education and higher academic aspirations. The findings from this study expand the research on ethnic identity by focusing on 2nd …

Book Review: Teaching Asian America In Elementary Classrooms, Jenna Cushing-Leubner

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Book Review Rodríguez, N.N., An, S., & Kim, E.J. (2024). Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms. New York: Routledge.

192 pp.

Pb. $23.96 ISBN-13: 978-1032597157

The Latino Cultural Center: Higher Education And The Importance Of Community, Kamilah Mercedes Valentín Díaz

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The Latino Cultural Center (LCC) at Purdue University is 1 of 2 in the state of Indiana, with the other housed at Indiana University. Choosing to pursue higher education has its challenges, but not everyone has access to the same resources or community support that helps make the process easier. The LCC, like the other cultural centers on campus, is vital in distributing resources that aid in student success. They work to create an inclusive environment for the entire campus community by fostering meaningful dialogue and cultural understanding of the Latino/e/x community. They aim to support Latino/e/x faculty and staff …

Linguistic Diversity From The K–12 Classroom To The Writing Center: Rethinking Expectations On Inclusive Grammar Instruction, Zoe Esterly, Hannah L.W Swoyer, Bridget A. Draxler

The Writing Center Journal

Language expresses our values and identities, but in educational spaces, multidialectical and multilingual students’ voices are often silenced in favor of Standard English (Lockett, 2019). As writing tutors and future language arts educators, we have developed a research-based inclusive grammar curriculum and classroom-based resources to expand the conversation surrounding linguistic inclusion. Guided by the principle that all students should be offered the opportunity to learn the conventions of Standard English, we advocate for inclusive teaching of Standard English grammar in K–12 classrooms and writing centers (Godley et al, 2015). Using previous research on multilingual students, linguistic inclusivity, and dialectical diversity, …

“Neoliberal Diversity” At The University Of California, Merced: Hmong Students Creating Belonging And Building Community, May Kao Xiong

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Neoliberalism impacts the implementation of diversity in higher education, consequently this affects the place and meaning of diversity as it relates to Hmong students. Within the neoliberal university, diversity is increasingly co-opted to stand for institutional inclusivity and implemented to silence critiques about the academic industrial complex. I consider and examine the interplay between “neoliberal diversity” and Hmong students’ experiences at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced). I use critical refugee scholar Yên Lê Espiritu’s (2014) refugee framework and Indigenous scholar Glen Coulthard’s (2014) self-recognition model to examine the Hmong Student Association. The data for this study is from …

Sib Hlub Sib Pab As Cultural Capital: Community Cultural Wealth, Radical Love, And A Hmoob Language Teacher’S Determination, Ariana Yang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This theoretical article examines a form of cultural capital, sib hlub sib pab as capital, that emerged out of my dissertation research with HMoob American teachers. Drawing on the structure of Yosso’s (2005) theory of community cultural wealth (CCW) and literature on radical love (Freire, 1970; hooks, 2003, 2006), this article outlines an alternative form of cultural capital: sib hlub sib pab as capital, which encompasses an obligation to community and relationality rooted in radical love. Although this is a primarily theoretical article, I provide an excerpt from an interview with a HMoob language teacher and her struggles with building …

Hmoob Eldership As Pedagogy: Reclaiming Hmoob Knowledge As Hmoob Education, Thong Vang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

For centuries non-HMoob people and scholars have sought to label and define who HMoob people are, but this paper reclaims and repositions HMoob people as agentic and reinforces our people’s power to define themselves as we have for centuries. This paper also addresses problematic discourse about HMoob people and HMoob education, such as “peb HMoob tsis muaj kev kawm”1 or “peb tsis muaj kev txawj hab kev ntse le lwm paab lwm pawg.”2 Departing from such deficit discourse, this paper explores HMoob eldership as pedagogy as one way that HMoob people have valid knowledge systems. HMoob eldership as pedagogy examines …

Hmong Narratives As Testimony, Pa N. Vue

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Refugees are often depicted in studies and popular media as helpless and in need of rescuing. In the song “Hmoob Zaj,” which was released on YouTube in 2019, Hmong rapper Shong Lee humanizes Hmong refugee experiences by sharing a story that has been “secreted” (M. Vang, 2021, p. 10) by the U.S. government. Through the public archiving of this story on YouTube, Lee presents what Espiritu (2014) calls an “oppositional narrative” (p. 163) that speaks back to the empire. He asserts a critical stance to challenge the dominant narrative, validate the experiential knowledge of Hmong people, contribute to Hmong collective …

Paj Xyeem, Mao S. Lee

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Paj Xyeem reflects a time period when I was processing my educational experience. It expresses my emotions of being invisibilized—existing without being seen or heard—in U.S. academic spaces. This invisibility is the ways in which my belonging in intellectual spaces were challenged and denied. Paj Xyeem, which is translated to grade, captures moments when I was made invisible in classrooms that operated on White Supremacist ideology. In this writing, I highlight the problematic processes of classroom policies and teaching pedagogies that centered Whiteness. Additionally, this poem captures instances when I was given a majoritarian narrative (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) to …

“My Own Kwv Txhiaj: Reflecting On Self Learning Of A Hmong Oral Tradition”, Chong A. Moua

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This piece is inspired by the life of my mother, Yaj Mim Hawj, sister, Npib, and father, Npuag Looj. I have yet to tell them but this is my way of thanking them for showing me what it means to love my language. I also want to thank the teachers who’ve been a part of my kwv txhiaj learning journey: Mai Na M. Lee, Bounthavy Kiatoukaysy Thao, and Caroline Paaj Zaub Thao-Vue.

Toward Hmoob-Centered Inquiries: Reclaiming Hmoob American Educational Scholarship And Curriculum, Choua P. Xiong, Kaozong N. Mouavangsou

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

As the intersecting field of HMoob (Hmong/Mong) Studies/Hmong American Studies, Southeast Asian American Studies, and Education Studies grow, there is also an increased desire to learn, read, and produce scholarship by HMoob people. Throughout our graduate journeys and as early career scholars and educators at the intersections of Critical HMoob Studies and Education Studies, we—Choua and Kaozong—have yearned for scholarship on HMoob that is not just about representation but includes research that recognizes HMoob strengths and assets. Specifically, we craved scholarly knowledge that employed HMoob assets to interrogate racist, colonial discourses and decenter whiteness. This special issue centers HMoob (Hmong/Mong) …

“I’M Here, I Can Help”: Supporting Southeast Asian American Community College Students, Johanna M. Tigert, Phitsamay S. Uy, Argyro A. Armstrong, Francine Coston, Elias Nader

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study examined the experiences of Asian American students with one community college’s student services: Writing Center, Financial Aid Center, and Asian American Student Center (AASC). Data included survey responses, focus group interviews, and individual student interviews. Chi square tests were conducted to see if there were significant differences in participants’ responses based on ethnicity (Cambodian/Khmer vs. other), gender, and age (traditionally vs. non-traditionally aged). Focus group and individual interview data were analyzed thematically. Results showed that about half of the students had accessed the Writing Center and the AASC, while over 85% accessed the Financial Aid Center. There were …

Emergent Bilinguals’ Participation In Multilingual Engineering Learning Ecologies, Alberto Esquinca, Maria Teresa De La Piedra, Lidia Herrera-Rocha

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Students classified as English language learners (ELLs), many of whom are also Hispanic/Latine´/x, are at times excluded from opportunities to engage in engineering design experiences due to the emphasis on learning English. In dual language bilingual education, however, language policies that allow for the use and development of more than one language afford opportunities for ELLs that are not available in monolingual environments. We draw on a multilingual learning ecology theoretical framework to analyze data gathered from a two-year ethnographic study. During approximately 200 hours of field work, we gathered multiple forms of data through ethnographic methods, to include field …

Transtrauma: Conceptualizing The Lived Experiences Of Vietnamese American Youth, Khánh Lê

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Drawing on empirical data from qualitative research I conducted with eight Vietnamese American youth in the Fall of 2020, this paper forwards transtrauma, a new framework for conceptualizing and understanding the lived experiences of Vietnamese American youth. The concept of transtrauma goes beyond the pathologizing of individual trauma, to examine how structures of domination inflict and extend trauma in marginalized communities, such as that of Vietnamese American communities. Transtrauma transcends the overt and linear focus on trauma as a single experience and the examination of how institutionalized violence by nation states shapes the experiences of Vietnamese Americans. This conceptualization …