Despite research that has rebutted the tiger parent stereotype, the perception that Asian immigrant parents enact overly strict and controlling educational practices continues to be widespread and entrenched. Using an intersectional lens, this study interrogates the stereotype of Asian immigrant parents as tiger parents. We examine how one subgroup of Asian American youth—lower income Chinese American adolescents (children of Chinese immigrants)—spoke about their parents’ involvement in their schooling and educational expectations. Our analysis revealed that participants did not experience their parents’ educational involvement as conforming to the tiger parent stereotype. Instead, students were largely self-directed and described their parents as exercising basic monitoring of schoolwork. We introduce a concept that we call “informed distance” as more salient for understanding our participants’ experiences. We argue that educators must interrupt the tiger parent and model minority stereotypes to make room for a fuller and more complex understanding of Asian American students’ experiences and ensure their educational needs are equitably addressed.

This is the introduction to the special issue on the New Civics.

This introduction to the Yearbook focuses on: conceptualizations of engagement, the processes of engagement, portraits of engaging learning environments, and whole-school approaches to education.

This chapter presents findings of a three-year longitudinal study of academic motivation and school engagement among low-income high school students enrolled in a corporate work–study program. Our findings demonstrate ways in which the workplace functioned for students as a conduit of emotional resources, offering instrumental support from caring and competent adults, knowledge about the connection between work and school, and an opportunity to occupy the essential adult role of worker.

A hope of this Yearbook is to illuminate not only what promotes engagement but also how it can be fostered. In this epilogue, first we provide a short history of research on motivation. We then review the contributions of this Yearbook in providing a fuller, multidimensional, contextualized picture of human motivation, one that we believe is relevant and helpful to educational policy and practice. Last, we discuss where this research may head in order to engender conditions in which engagement in schooling becomes more universal.

Drawing on theory in achievement motivation and cultural psychology, the authors examine the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social-historical perspectives of South African adolescents on education, achievement, and opportunity.