Analyzing the Impact of Asian American Studies in the Curriculum:
Making Meaning Over Time in the Lives of Alumni
A Summary of Preliminary Findings

by Dr. Peter Kiang and Emi Emura with Albert Koo, Naoki Koyama,
Hyun Jung Lee, Yen Phi Mach, Yuko Matsubara, and Stacy Pires ¹

A Project of the Diversity Research Initiative (DRI)
University of Massachusetts Boston -- Spring 1997

Background:

With Spring 1997 marking the 10th anniversary of Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, this project of the Diversity Research Initiative analyzes what meaning and impact Asian American Studies² courses have had over time in the lives of alumni. Our research supports continued program development for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston as well as a concrete assessment of the university's Diversity Course graduation requirement which most of the Asian American Studies courses satisfy. Our work also informs national debates about diversifying the curriculum and the long-term impact of ethnic studies courses. Our data are based on mailed surveys with both closed- and open-ended questions and semi-structured individual and focus-group interviews with alumni. Designed as a student-faculty-alumni collaboration, our research process has integrated explicit goals of training/mentoring and community-building among different generations of students, together with our focus on meaningful data collection and analysis.

A Sampling of Findings:

• Asian American Studies courses have had overwhelmingly positive impact in enabling UMass Boston alumni to develop and apply specific sets of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that have had direct relevance and meaning across a range of domains, including their jobs/careers, education, family life, friendships and interpersonal relationships, community involvements, social awareness, and personal identities.
• While these positive impacts cut across all groups, regardless of race, gender, number of courses taken, or year of graduation, there are some meaningful differences in emphasis based on race. Asian³ alumni, for example, specifically point to personal identity -- becoming more aware of who they are in U.S. society -- along with social awareness such as learning about the immigrant experience as the areas of strongest impact. White alumni highlight areas of social awareness such as interacting more comfortably with Asian Americans, learning more about the immigrant experience, and becoming more aware of racial stereotypes. They also include their academic and intellectual interests as areas in which Asian American Studies courses have most influenced them.
• The survey responses of Black and Latino alumni are quite consistent with the responses by Asian students, but their sample sizes are not large enough to generate reliable data. This can be partially addressed by oversampling techniques in our continuing research. However, this also reflects a programmatic need to encourage greater numbers of Black and Latino students to take Asian American Studies courses.
• Based on coding and thematic analysis of the open-ended survey responses and interviews, we find a web of powerful themes emerging from the data that includes: gaining knowledge and new perspectives, interactions and relationships, becoming open and active, gaining voice and listening to others, clarifying education and career goals, and impacting the community and society. Impacts at the level of "Self" -- particularly in terms of personal development, identity, and gaining voice/power -- are especially important to explore more fully.
• Although their responses to both the survey and interview questions are consistently thoughtful, many informants agree that they did not consciously recognize the impact of their learning from Asian American Studies courses until we asked our research questions: As a 1994 alumna explained, "It just makes me remember how valuable the courses were and how much of an influence it's had in changing my life, you know, changing the way I look at things... I feel like it's just a part of me now."
• While some students choose to take Asian American Studies courses for personal or academic and professional reasons, others enroll simply to fulfill the university's Diversity Course graduation requirement. From their experiences, however, alumni interviewees consistently stress the importance of the Diversity Requirement as a valuable and essential learning opportunity.
• Nine out of ten alumni (92%) rank their Asian American Studies courses as either very good or among the best when compared to all courses they took at UMass Boston. Furthermore, their experiences in these courses help most alumni (72%) feel significantly more positively about UMass Boston as an institution. In light of the university's efforts to mobilize alumni support for its ambitious capital campaign, the positive memories and associations of former students who took Asian American Studies courses must be a valuable resource to recognize and cultivate.
• Our data sharply contradict assertions within the national debate over multicultural curricular reform that ethnic studies courses/programs have divisive and exclusionary effects. Only 2% of all survey respondents, for example, noted that their experiences in Asian American Studies courses made them feel very isolated from the rest of society, compared with 87% who said this type of effect was little or not at all. Similarly, no (0%) survey respondents reported feeling much or very much discouraged or bitter about living in the U.S. as a result of their Asian American Studies coursework.
• Our collaborative process in conducting this research has been challenging, time-consuming, and stressful. Yet, our learning has been powerful and our data are clearly rich with meaning and implications. We will individually and collectively continue developing and reflecting on this work at many levels and in many forms in the future.

Endnotes

1. A more comprehensive report and related documentation are available by request from Dr. Peter Kiang at UMass Boston kiang@umbsky.cc.umb.edu.

2. Asian American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field dedicated to the documentation and interpretation of the history, identity, social formation, contributions, and contemporary concerns of Asian and Pacific Americans and their communities.

3. "Asian" in this paper refers to alumni of Asian origin who may have been immigrants, refugees, U.S.-born, or international students with visa status.