First published in 1990. The Hmong people, with a total population of about 5 million, have a long history of statelessness and migration. During the last century, groups of Hmong moved from southern China into Indochina and, as war refugees, about 90,000 have come to America in the last thirteen years. This book examines the alienation and cultural conflicts faced at school by the children of a small group of Hmong who have settled in La Playa, California. The education process for these children is an example of cultural conflict and adjustment patterns which may be found in many other populations in the world. The implications for educators of immigrant populations, who face and resolve cultural conflict as they learn to respect and appreciate their culture, is far-reaching and an important contribution in a highly mobile world.

Henry T. Trueba is currently Associate Dean of the College of Letters and Science and the Director of the Division of Education at the University of California, Davis. Lila Jacobs is Assistant Professor of Education at Sonoma State University. She has also served as Research Ethnographer and Adjunct Lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara. Elizabeth S. Kirton is currently Associate Director of the Lao Family Community of Fresno. She previously served as researcher in the Social Process Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Chapter One Culture Conflict and the American Dream; Chapter two Ethnohistory of the Hmong People; Chapter three The Hmong at La Playa; Chapter four Becoming American through Schooling; Chapter five Seven 'Learning Disabled' Indochinese: Institutional Approach to Children Facing Culture Conflict; Chapter six Culture and Minority Achievement: Implications for Research and Instructional Practice;