Term
Summer 2026
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAT
Facilitator(s)
Suzanne Gikas and Julia Reimer
Content Expert
Yer Her
Abstract
The Hmong language is considered a dying language as Hmong youth feel the pressure to assimilate into American culture and language while adapting to economic and survival needs in the United States. The curriculum designed for this project uses the concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy, which provides a theoretical framework for designing an instructional unit focused on Hmong language, history, and cultural identity. The purpose of this capstone was to develop an instructional unit that supports Hmong language and cultural preservation among Hmong students at the secondary grade level. To inform the curriculum’s development, a comparative study was conducted in Wales, UK, examining how the Welsh language is maintained and preserved within educational settings. Observations and interviews were conducted to identify approaches to language and cultural preservation that could inform Hmong language education in the United States. The study found that Welsh is incorporated across content areas rather than being limited to language courses. This finding informed the integration of Hmong language into content-area instruction and the development of the unit design for social studies classes. The project demonstrates how culturally sustaining pedagogy and lessons from comparative language-preservation efforts can inform curriculum development that supports Hmong language and cultural identity.
Project Type
Curriculum
Keywords
Curriculum, Multicultural Education, heritage language
Recommended Citation
Vang, Pa Kou, "Hmong Cultural Literacy Curriculum to Preserve the Hmong Language and Culture" (2026). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 1192.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/1192
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects