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ERIC Number: ED219030
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1982
Pages: 14
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Asian Refugee Students: Innovative Programming for America's Newest Immigrants.
Thoen, Gail Ann
An experimental course on Asian American women, offered by the Department of Family life at the University of Minnesota is described. The curriculum innovation was designed in response to the Asian refugee settlement in the St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, area. The undergraduate course used a 1982 anthology containing works focusing on Asian women's experiences here and abroad. The course begins with tracing the history of Asians in America and concludes 10 weeks later with a lecture and demonstration on assertiveness training for Asian refugees. An interdisciplinary approach is used and additional topics include: Asians and California Anti-Miscegenation Laws; the life history of a Filipina in Hawaii; family structure and acculturation in the Chinese Community in Minnesota; Asian and white interracial relationships in dating, marriage, and divorce; Asian women and family law; and nursing care for Indochinese refugees. The course faculty, a Caucasian female and a Japanese male, served as role models for the students, hopefully illustrating how issues of sexism and racism could be publicly discussed, argued, and overcome based on classroom dialogues. A student evaluation was accomplished using a questionnaire that dealt with students' diverse backgrounds and their levels of English proficiency, along with the professors' judged competence and course content. A summary is presented of the responses from the 80 refugees, who ranged in age from 17 to 55 with a mean age of 22. Most students immigrated from Vietnam, but Laos and Cambodia were also well represented. (SW)
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A