ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the situation of Asian Pacific Americans (APA) in higher education and to consider their progress since the 1980s in the contested spaces of academe. The general trends in higher education since the 1980s suggest a mixed outcome for women and men of color and White women as students and faculty. Using both quantitative data and qualitative studies, the chapter considers how the participation, persistence, and challenges of APA women and men are similar to or different from one another and how APAs compare with other racial and ethnic groups. Qualitative studies reveal in greater detail the challenges that APA faculty and administrators experience in the Eurocentric culture of academe. Moreover, the status and progress of specific APA groups are not discernible and differences by gender and by class between and within APA groups are obscured. APA women did not reach parity in undergraduate attainment with APA males until the mid-1990s.
