Constructing Desirable Asian Americanness in the Educational Market: School Branding and Intra‐Asian Boundary Making

This ethnographic study examines how market pressures shape institutional life within an Asian American charter school. The analysis shows two interrelated processes: school branding in pursuit of market desirability and intra‐Asian boundary making that this pursuit generates. The result is the reproduction of model minority representations that privilege Asian immigrant groups over Karen refugee students in their access to curricular opportunities and the school's future. The findings demonstrate how school marketization intensifies pre‐existing stratification at the intersection of race, class, ethnicity, and immigrant status.