Living up to Expectations: The Strengths and Challenges Experienced by Chinese Canadian Students

Abstract

This article reviews qualitative and quantitative studies related to the academic achievement of youth from immigrant Chinese families. Overall, the literature suggests that Chinese Canadian students demonstrate high levels of achievement and that this academic success is associated with factors such as stronger feelings of ethnic identity, better English language skills in the family, Chinese cultural values, parental emphasis on schooling, and access to social networks that support achievement. Barriers to high achievement are created by stress in the home, experiences of peer discrimination, cultural differences in school-related expectations, and obstacles to parental involvement in schooling. Importantly, despite high average levels of achievement, the reviewed literature also highlights the psychological and social struggles that many Chinese youth experience. High achievement for some Chinese Canadian adolescents comes at a cost of other aspects of their well-being. In particular, intense parental expectations for these youth, as well as the extremely high standard set by the “model minority” stereotype of Chinese youth, contribute to students’ psychological distress and alienation from parents and peers. Furthermore, the almost exclusive attention to high achievement among Chinese youth ignores those Chinese youth who are not high achievers. Implications are discussed for educational policy and practice related to the schooling of Chinese Canadian youth specifically, as well as youth from families with diverse ethnic backgrounds more generally.

Ce papier présente des études qualitatives et quantitatives liées aux accomplissements académiques des jeunes de familles immigrantes chinoises. Globalement, il est suggéré dans la littérature que les étudiants canadiens d’origine chinoise démontrent un haut niveau de réussite et que ce succès académique est associé à des facteurs tels qu’un ressentiment d’identité ethnique plus fort, un niveau d’anglais supérieur au sein de la famille, des valeurs culturelles chinoises, un intérêt des parents pour la réussite scolaire et l’accès à un réseau social qui supporte la réussite en milieu scolaire. Des barrières à la réussite sont crées par le stress dans les foyers, les expériences de discrimination, les variations dans les attentes scolaires liées aux différences culturelles et les obstacles à l’implication des parents dans la scolarité. Plus important encore, malgré les hauts niveaux de réussite, la littérature met en évidence les troubles sociaux et psychologiques rencontrés par de nombreux jeunes chinois au cours de leur expérience. Pour certains adolescents chinois, ce haut niveau de réussite se paye aux prix d’autres aspects de leur bien-être. En particulier, de hautes attentes de la part des parents, ainsi que des standards placés extrêmement haut dus au stéréotype du “minorité modèle” des jeunes chinois, contribuent à la détresse psychologique des étudiants et à l’aliénation des parents et des pairs. Par ailleurs, cette attention, presque exclusivement concentrée sur les grandes réussites parmi les jeunes chinois, ignore ceux n’entrant pas dans cette catégorie. Les implications sont discutées pour la politique et la pratique de l’éducation dans le cadre spécifique de la scolarité des jeunes canadiens chinois ainsi que plus généralement pour les jeunes provenant de familles d’ethnies variées.

Keywords

achievement Chinese Canadian model minority stereotype parental expectations

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