Korean American High School Students’ Perspectives on U.S. History

Abstract

Along with the ever-increasing racial/ethnic diversity in U.S. schools, researchers began to investigate the impact of racial/ethnic identity on young people's understanding of the nation's history. Compared to other racial minorities, Asian American students have received little academic and educational attention. This article seeks to address this gap through a qualitative study on Korean American youth. Drawing from in-depth interviews with twenty Korean American high school students, this article examines how Korean American youth make sense of U.S. history and how their sociocultural backgrounds affect their historical perspectives as well as their ideas and experiences of learning history historical perspectives.

Keywords:

• historical understanding
• history/social studies education
• Korean American youth

Notes

1. The names of participants and schools are pseudonyms.

2. Their parents (mostly fathers) were international students in U.S. higher education, and they decided to get a job and live in the United States instead of going back to South Korea.

3. Julie's father was a professor, and her mother was a scientist. In other cases, parent occupation refers to the father's. The mothers of nineteen participants were at-home parents.