Asians in the Ivory Tower: Dilemmas of Racial Inequality in American Higher Education (review)

On a recent visit to a prestigious university, I found myself in a lunch conversation with a professor from my field insisting that the model minority stereotyping of Asian American students was rooted, in fact. For more than an hour, I stated and restated a number of points that countered his claims and attempted to explain the wide range of experiences and variance in demographics (ethnically, geographically, and economically) for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. If only I'd had in my possession Robert Teranishi's (2010) book, Asians in the Ivory Tower, I would have just handed it to this fellow sociologist and suggest that he brush up on his reading. Unfortunately, even among social science scholars, the stereotypical images and constructions of AAPI students persist. Teranishi skillfully provides evidence that the assumptions about AAPI students as largely high-achieving model minorities are inaccurate and that there are a number of factors that complicate generalizations about this population. Teranishi challenges the mythologies surrounding this student population by asserting, "AAPIs are treated as though one percent of their enrollment can tell the story for the rest of the 99% of the college-going population" (p. 105).

This fellow sociologist insisted that his assumptions must be true and that all of these students are being raised by the "Tiger Mothers" made famous by Amy Chua. However, the home lives of these students are far from homogenous. Teranishi makes an important contribution with illuminating data that challenge simplified generalizations about AAPI students and show the complexity of individuals and subgroups of the population. He links the inequality in higher education directly to structural inequalities related to race and class.

Teranishi sets out to address these unanswered research questions: How are AAPIs positioned within the broad debates about access to and equity in U.S. higher education, and how, if at all, is this a factor in what we know and don't know about their educational mobility? What are the demographic characteristics of and social conditions among AAPIs, and in what way, if at all, do these factors have implications for their educational and social mobility in American society? Among AAPIs who go to college, are there particular characteristics of AAPI students that correlate with attending certain sectors of higher education? Do AAPIs have similar or different college outcomes with regard to mobility beyond the baccalaureate, including their occupational trajectories? His chapters focus on students, families, and the pursuit of college; community contexts; secondary schools and postsecondary opportunities; predictors of college participation; and AAPI degree attainment and field representation. He concludes with suggestions for educational practice and policy.

Teranishi raises questions about AAPI issues related to culture, types of immigration, class, college preparation, teacher expectations, resources, and classroom and administrative role models. AAPI students are overrepresented in higher education, but there is a dearth of AAPI tenure-track faculty. Although overrepresented in graduate school and degree achievement, they are lacking in opportunities as faculty. The qualitative data utilized in the book from individual and group interviews highlight both the varied experiences of AAPIs and the persistent racialized stereotyping that affects them daily.

While there have been definitive gains in educational research on the AAPI population, great gaps in the literature still exist. Teranishi effectively works to fill them. His Asians in the Ivory Tower is a noteworthy contribution to Asian American scholarship. He is thorough and diligent, and his extensive quantitative and qualitative data convincingly make the case that the AAPI experience is far from that of being a mythologized "model minority." His use of critical race theory provides evidence of the structural, foundational, systemic racism that has existed within the educational system. Teranishi critiques what he considers the "blatant exclusion in some instances and ambiguous positioning in other instances" (p. 14) of AAPIs within educational equity debates, and he insists that we move beyond a...