Hmong educators make strides toward cultural representation in Wisconsin and US schools

A new charter school in Appleton is set to open next year. The school will focus on Hmong culture and language immersion. 

Hmong American Immersion School Principal MaiKou Heu emphasized to WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” the need for Hmong culture education to be more ubiquitous in American schools.

Heu will also continue serving in her role as principal of Johnston Elementary School in Appleton. 

The first wave of Hmong immigration from Southeast Asia to the U.S. occurred after the Vietnam War. Today, Wisconsin is home to more than 66,000 Hmong Americans, according to the latest census estimates. Hmong students in American schools have to become fluent in English in order to succeed in class, Heu said, which results in communication difficulties within Hmong-speaking families.

“If parents are not able to communicate with their own children, that creates barriers,” Heu said. “It creates a lack of foundation that our children need to have with their parents.”

Several of Heu’s sentiments are shared with other Hmong educators, including Bic Ngo, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota and the author of “Re-membering Culture: Erasure and Renewal in Hmong American Education.” 

Ngo joined “Wisconsin Today” to discuss her book and illustrate some of the challenges faced by Hmong students in Wisconsin and across the country. 

The following was edited for clarity and brevity.

Kate Archer Kent: Next fall, a Hmong American immersion school is opening in Appleton. How might this type of school change circumstances for Hmong students in the region?

Bic Ngo: I don’t know if it will contribute to breaking down stereotypes across white communities and Hmong communities, but what it can do is potentially stem the fragmentation of Hmong culture I saw in my study. Some Hmong students were calling other Hmong people “ghetto,” for example, or calling their Hmong peers who still practice shamanism, “jingle bells,” denigrating Hmong culture and identity.

So, the Hmong immersion school can better allow a cultural renewal, resurgence and respect for Hmong peoples within the Hmong community because of the fragmentation that has been occurring within the larger public school system and society in general.

KAK: You write about how American schools put pressure on people to assimilate with American culture. How do these demands get embedded in the school system?

BN: This is something that we educators have been struggling to answer for many years. Our education system pretends that it is culturally neutral, even though it privileges western knowledge systems including, for example, English language. And by doing so, it enacts deculturalization.

In my work, I suggest that the deculturalization fragments Hmong culture as well as Hmong relationships.

KAK: What are some ways schools might encourage students to conform to a dominant culture? 

BN: One of the major ways is English language dominance in curriculum and instruction. To meet the highest standards, you have to meet high standards of English fluency in speaking as well as in writing. 

American school expects Hmong children to be fluent in English language, where at home with some older generations — and this includes parents as well as grandparents and other elders in the community who do not know English — there’s an expectation to understand and speak Hmong. 

School also has expectations that are a little bit more hidden in terms of how to act, how to dress and how to speak. Even more hidden are expectations of time — what we do outside of the home. School expects children to be involved in extracurricular activities, which are really important for college applications and opportunities. However, many Hmong families expect students to spend time with families and engage in larger Hmong gatherings to learn about Hmong cultural practices and build relationships with larger family groups. 

For the Hmong students in my study, their outside school lives involve caring for younger siblings, long weekends at family gatherings, and ceremonies that take a toll on their time but aren’t acknowledged by schools. They feel like they’re living in two worlds, as people often say, and that there’s this culture clash.

KAK: You write about behaviors that Hmong leader Mai Xiong witnessed of Americans living in Africa. What were these behaviors that she witnessed?

BN: It was an interesting thing. She acknowledged that it was important for Hmong students to learn American culture and English in order to be successful. But at the same time, she said that American people in Africa do this all the time: They do not accept the school system, the language or the culture of Africans. They segregate themselves so that they can be assured their children learn English and American culture. Mai Xiong said, “OK, what Hmong parents want in charter schools isn’t wrong, because Americans do that when they’re abroad.” 

The resistance in the U.S. to ethnic groups such as the Hmong carving out spaces of belonging such as charter schools is really anti-immigrant. “Why don’t you assimilate? If you want to keep your language, then go back to Laos.” In my book, I use excerpts from newspapers and public discourses where they demand Hmong people forget the language: “You need to learn English. You’re in America. Speak English.”

KAK: What should be studied next? What should we be watching for with these charter schools? 

BN: One of the things that I think we should pay attention to in immersion settings or charter school settings is: Are the standards still white, western cultural standards? Is culturally relevant pedagogy a bridge to attaining the standards set by western knowledge systems, or are these opportunities in immersion schools broadening our understanding of what knowledge is valuable?

For the Hmong students in my study, for example, shamanism, the love, dedication and commitment to family was more important than individualism or individual success. So what are we reaching for in immersion settings? Are we reaching for individual attainment and success? Or are we reaching for these other things that are different?