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In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the unique challenges faced by Asian and Pacific Islander students in higher education. Despite the prevailing "model minority" myth, which suggests that all AAPI students achieve academic excellence, research reveals a more complex picture. This myth not only obscures the diverse experiences within the AAPI community but also contributes to flawed data collection and research methodologies. These shortcomings prevent educators and policymakers from fully understanding and addressing the needs of AAPI students. To foster more inclusive and effective educational experiences for these students, it is crucial to dismantle these misconceptions and refine our approaches to data collection and analysis.
The Model Minority Myth and Its Consequences
The model minority myth perpetuates the stereotype that all AAPI students excel academically and do not face significant barriers in their journey through higher education. This generalization is harmful not only because it is used to characterize other marginalized racial groups in a negative light, but also because it obscures the wide-ranging experiences of AAPI students from diverse backgrounds.
Research has shown that aggregated data on AAPI students tends to mask these differences, leading to policies and interventions that fail to address the needs of those who do not fit the stereotype. For example, an analysis of Pew Research Center data shows that while 56% of Asian Americans overall held at least a bachelor’s degree, among those of Burmese or Bhutanese communities, just 23% and 15% held at least a bachelor’s degree. Among Pacific Islanders, 18% held a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Likewise, although high school graduation rates for Taiwanese and Japanese American students are around 95%, they’re less than 70% for Cambodian and Laotian students. Aggregating data from distinct Asian and Pacific Islander communities hides these disparities and prevents institutions of higher education from creating targeted interventions to address them.
Problematic Aggregation of Data from Distinct AAPI Communities
One of the most pressing issues in research on AAPI students is the lack of data disaggregation. The term "Asian" encompasses a vast array of ethnic groups, each with its own unique cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Lumping all these groups together into a single category results in misleading conclusions and inadequate support systems.
A report by the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) underscores the importance of disaggregated data, noting that while East Asian students often perform well academically, students from Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds face lower graduation rates and higher levels of financial hardship. The challenge of inadequate disaggregation of data from AAPI stems in part from the fact that these groups make up a relatively small percentage of the U.S. population, and researchers and policymakers often aggregate subgroups to achieve sufficient sample sizes. However, conclusions from these aggregated analyses must be treated with caution and should be supplemented with robust qualitative insights from smaller subgroups to provide a complete understanding of the challenges that distinct AAPI communities face.
Inadequate Understanding of Anti-AAPI Racism and Discrimination
Racism and discrimination significantly impact Asian and Pacific Islander students, yet these issues are often overlooked in research. While much research has focused on graduation rates and grades among Asian and Pacific Islander students — often (problematically) in comparison to those of Black, Native American, and Latino/a/x students — psycho-social outcomes such as racism, discrimination, and belonging among AAPI students are often overlooked. For example, one study found that over 60% of AAPI students experienced racial discrimination on campus, which in turn led to worse mental health and academic outcomes. This work also found that AAPI students experience a lower sense of belonging in college compared to white students. When they graduate and enter the workforce, AAPI students are often paid less and are less likely to occupy leadership positions than their white peers.
Addressing these gaps requires a nuanced approach to data collection, such as incorporating qualitative methods like interviews and focus groups to capture the lived experiences of AAPI students and looking beyond tangible outcomes such as graduation rates and grades. Institutions must also commit to fostering more inclusive and supportive environments by adopting strategies such as training faculty and staff on cultural competency and anti-racist practices.
Solutions to Improve the AAPI Experience in Higher Education
At WGU Labs, we take an equity-centered approach to understanding the student experience. When exploring student trends by demographics, we take extra care to “mind the margins,” giving equal value to the patterns and experiences of students who appear in small numbers as well as large numbers. To better support AAPI students in higher education, it is critical to adopt strategies that address the gaps and flaws in current data collection and research methodologies:
- Disaggregate Data: Institutions should collect and analyze data that distinguish between different AAPI subgroups. By doing so, they can identify the specific challenges faced by each community and develop tailored interventions to support their needs.
- Incorporate Qualitative Research: Incorporating qualitative research methods, such as focus groups and interviews, will allow institutions to gain deeper insights into the lived experiences of AAPI students. This qualitative data can complement quantitative findings and provide a more comprehensive understanding of their needs.
- Address Anti-Asian Racism: Institutions should also develop and implement training programs for faculty and staff on cultural competency and anti-racist practices. This can help create a more inclusive and supportive campus environment where the impacts of racism and discrimination are actively acknowledged and addressed.
By implementing these strategies, higher education institutions can move beyond the model minority myth, better support the diverse needs of AAPI students, and allow all students to thrive.