Tadayuki Suzuki

Fifth Graders' Interpretations of Stories from Two Asian Cultures: Examining Cultural Understandings Tadayuki Suzuki

Although each Asian culture is unique, many Americans tend to generalize and see ¿Asian¿ as one vaguely defined culture. This case study assessed whether nineteen fifth graders in a public elementary school in the Southeast raised their awareness of similarities and differences between two Asian cultures after reading Yoshiko Uchida¿s Journey to Topaz (1985) and Laurence Yep¿s Dragon¿s Gate (1993). Children read two stories from different Asian cultures with their reading teachers. Multiple data were collected in the form of open-ended questionnaires, response journals, and observation field notes. I conducted individual interviews with nine of the participants who either volunteered or were selected by me. Based on the quality of their responses, I chose five out of the nine interviewees, within-analyzed their interview data, and then reported the findings based on the five emergent themes. Finally, the findings from these interviewees were further cross-analyzed.