The Educational Aspirations and Expectations of Japanese Immigrant Mothers: Narratives of Raising Bicultural Nikkei Children in the Post-1965 Diaspora

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study analyzed the diverse narratives of 10 Japanese immigrant mothers who reared their second-generation children in a midsize metropolitan community in the Midwest. The primary research questions are as follows: How have Japanese immigrant mothers envisioned academic success in relation to contemporary interpretations of diasporic Nikkei identity? How have the participants made sense of and negotiated their educational aspirations against the expectations of U.S. K–12 schools? Based on focus groups, individual interviews, and narrative analyses, this study captured the multiple ways by which Japanese immigrant mothers facilitated opportunities for their children to maintain a distinct but flexible Nikkei or diasporic Japanese identity (Nukaga, 2012; Takamori, 2010) that was centrally focused on rearing academically successful children who also exhibited cultural competence and confidence as bicultural Americans.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dr. Violet J. Harris and Dr. Yoon Pak from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in addition to the anonymous reviewers, for their extensive feedback on this project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Endo

Rachel Endo is Chair of the Teacher Education Department at Hamline University. Her primary areas of interest include Asian American education; the language and literacy needs of diverse populations; and transnational studies of Asian America.