Growing up in education: An ethnography of Southeast Asian adolescent life in Philadelphia schools

Studies of ethnicity traditionally focus on adult rather than preadult culture. Too, studies which do examine preadult expressive behavior often portray their subjects as passive recipients of adult views or practices. By examining the artwork and writings of Southeast Asian students, this dissertation demonstrates the active role of adolescents in constructing personal and communal identities within the school, especially through the invocation and manipulation of tropes of ethnicity. The study contributes to research in folkloristics, education, and the anthropology of education. The students whose work is examined ranged in age from 13 to 18 years old and attended Philadelphia public or private schools. Half were women, half were men. They belonged to three different refugee groups: Vietnamese, ethnic Chinese from Viet Nam (Hoa), and Khmer (Cambodian). Gender and ethnicity proved important in shaping the works, and strong differences were observable in rural vs. urban Vietnamese essays. Chapter 1 documents the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees in Philadelphia, the academic and popular models by which Americans conceptualize them, and the historical construction of adolescence, education and cultural difference. Chapter 2 concerns the history projects of two Khmer brothers. These works reflect a learning process by which adolescents construct and test ethnic self-presentations in a public forum. Chapter 3 examination essays by rural Vietnamese students: how these authors establish authority for themselves as ethnics through adopting ethnological discourse, and how they adapt such discourse to suit personal agendas and interests. Chapter 4 focuses on escape narratives written by students of various backgrounds. The formal aspects and ideological implications of the genre are explored. Chapter 5 presents fictional short stories by ethnic Chinese students from Viet Nam. The Hoa possessed an ethnic identity before arrival in the US, and certain aspects of this identity become apparent in the texts. Chapter 6 examines questions of language and expression raised by the previous chapters