Abstract
The purpose of the study is twofold: a) to understand the Asian American community college students’self-beliefs, particularly self-efficacy, emotional awareness, and grit, while reaching their academic goals; and b) to unveil the issue of data disaggregation as it relates to Asian American students’ academic achievements. The main theories that guided this study were Asian Critical Race Theory or AsianCrit (Museus & Iftikar) and Ogbu’s Cultural Ecological Theory of Minority Performance. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, the researcher interviewed 12 students and conducted surveys of 149 participants to elicit experiences regarding their self-beliefs and perceptions of academic support provided by the community college. To debunk the Model Minority Myth, using GPA as an indicator, the researcher obtained average of students’ GPAs by Asian subgroups to show differences in academic achievements. In addition, collecting and reporting practices of the college and the Chancellor’s Office were captured as evidence in lumping Asian Americans as a monolithic group. The findings of this study revealed Asian American students believed they have high levels of self-efficacy, emotional awareness, and grit, that are greatly based on family values. Asian American students’ self-beliefs are shaped by cultural influences that are deeply embedded in the family, which can be beneficial and detrimental internally, as they pursue their academic goals. This study also proved that classifying Asian American students as one group concealed the identities of Asian subgroups. When academic achievements are reported as a monolithic group, it resulted in consequences that marginalized students who really needed help, e.g., colleges did not provide academic support because of the notion that all Asians were doing well. The study’s recommendations include a call for the community college to take a closer look at the students’ motivational traits, such as the attributes of self-efficacy, emotional awareness, and grit, as tools to empower students to reach their infinite potentials as well as call for higher visibility of Asian American students in campus through recognition, culturally relevant pedagogy (more Asian-centered classes), and academic support or student support services that cater to Asian American students’ needs.