Language and Identity in the Education of Boston-Area Khmer.

Smith-Hefner, Nancy J.

Khmer refugee parents express strongly positive attitudes toward their native language, and toward bilingual education for their children. Yet not all parents enroll their children in bilingual classrooms. Research conducted among Boston-area Khmer refugees explored this discrepancy between stated ideals and educational decisions and found that parents' decisions concerning their children's language learning and general education often have less to do with language attitudes than they do with Khmer notions of person, intelligence, and motivation. These notions are only implicit in Khmer discourse and behavior, and are thus often overlooked or misinterpreted by teachers and school officials. Moreover, in important respects these ideas distinguish Khmer from other Southeast and East Asian immigrants. KHMER REFUGEES, NATIVE LANGUAGE ATTITUDES, MINORITY EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE, ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 1990, Vol 21, Issue 3, p250

0161-7761

Academic Journal

10.1525/aeq.1990.21.3.04x0608j