Bharatanatyam Dance

This article explores an Asian Indian American youth’s Bharatnatyam dance literacy education in a major city in the southwest of the U.S. I draw from sociocultural, multimodal, transmediation, and multiple intelligencies theories to support my claims. Findings reveal the young adult’s dance education contributed to cultural preservation (Iyengar & Smith, 2016). A plethora of research on the contributions of dance education in the physical development of children is available. This study offers understandings of how formal classical dance (Bharatanatyam) is both beneficial physically and psychologically. Dance, especially Bharatanatyam, culturally codified and schematized contributes to literacy learning in school.

Cultural implications of filial obligation and the Asian Indian American family caregiver

Family caregivers in young adulthood from different racial/ethnic groups represent an understudied population. Of this group, Asian Indians are a diverse and fast-growing immigrant population in the US and present unique challenges for health care providers. To illustrate factors influencing a young family caregiver from an under-represented racial/ethnic population, we report on the case of a 33 year-old American from an Asian Indian background who was a caregiver for his father with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). With this case report, we illustrate that medical providers should attend to cultural norms of the family system, including family communication patterns, filial obligation, and decision-making.

How Gifted Indian American Students and Their Families Perceive Factors of Success

<p>There is a sparsity of research focusing on the experiences of Asian-Indian American students. This<br />study describes how gifted Indian American students and their families perceived factors contributing<br />to students’ academic success. Specifically, this study used a qualitative case study design to describe<br />the perceptions of four families. The data collection of open-ended interviews, observations of students<br />during school, and student-selected artifacts were utilized for an in-depth understanding of their<br />perspectives on home, school, culture, and self. Through analysis, the following themes emerged:<br />academic home climate, parents push—in a good way, planning for the future, the gifted label,<br />participants’ schools in the United States, teachers matter, values of Indian culture, challenges of living<br />in the United States, the model minority stereotype, parents’ educational backgrounds, competition,<br />motivation, and mindset: intelligence results from work ethic. Results indicated that participants<br />believed a confluence of these factors contributed to the students’ academic success.</p>

Cultural Literacy in Asian Indian American Students

The cultivation of ‘cultural literacy’ in students from multicultural backgrounds may occur outside schooling practices in the US due to curricular framing and a lack of interest in integrating cultural education at schools. ‘Cultural literacy’ warrants student participation and requires a conducive learning environment where multiethnic students can seek inspiration through exploration. The San Antonio Writing Project organizes literacy project called the Kahani Project, and it fosters creativeness and facilitates authentic expression of cultural funds of knowledge of Indian American students. Performing arts including dance and music engage Indian students and enable them to learn about their culture, heritage, and religion. The Kahani Project is culturally contextualized writing activity, where Asian Indian American students write about their generational practices that may not addressed in schools in the US. This qualitative study explores two narratives written for the Kahani Project. The study utilized Leiblich et al., holistic content analysis to arrive at themes, categories, and meta categories. The findings revealed Indian students’ willingness to preserve their culture through writing about Indian dance and music. The second inference of this study was that Indian students’ heritage is neglected and excluded in US curriculum.