Voices of Second Generation Cambodian-Americans in Long Beach, California: A Participatory Action Research Project

Participatory action research (PAR) is implemented in this project as a methodology aimed at community based consciousness-raising and problem solving among second-generation Cambodian-Americans in Long Beach, California. As a precursor to the project, a literature review was conducted on first and second-generation Cambodian-Americans. A major theme was the existence of a deficit-based dominant discourse about this community. A community dialogue focused on community members' self-reflections, recursive analysis, and potential actions came to life through a small focus group consisting of four second-generation Cambodian-Americans, the group facilitator (researcher), and a Cambodian note-taker. The PAR experience emerged through seven days of reflection and action over a two-month period. In the context of this forum, group members were provided a platform to engage in problem-posing dialogue and critical thinking about their community's needs. Through these dialogues, the most concerning problem for their community emerged: the negative stigma associated with their ethnicity and the impact these negative stereotypes had on their identity and connection to their culture. Through collaboration with additional community members, the group developed an initial intervention of creating an educational video to raise awareness of this issue. Group members reported this process created a deeper awareness into their own experiences of being second-generation children of refugee immigrants.