We often use catch-all acronyms and shorthand like “POC,” “BIPOC,” and “Black and brown people” to describe experiences of discrimination and oppression of people in the U.S. who are not white. But within those blanket terms to describe “minorities” are dozens of cultures with unique heritages, ethnicities, and geographic locations. People from those cultures have nuanced histories, perspectives, and experiences in the U.S. and in its schools.
Within these group designations, why does it matter to understand the unique experiences of people of each individual race and ethnicity?
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) contains markers like socioeconomic status, financial security, educational attainment, and life expectancy, all of which tells a story of Asian American progress and achievement. For example, NCES reported that in 2021, Asian students earned 13.6 percent of STEM undergraduate and 17.4 percent of STEM master’s degrees.[i]
Yet research on Asian Americans’ perceptions of belonging tells another story. Excerpts from our interviews with Asian American K-12 teachers shed light on some of these nuances.
What Does Research Tell Us About Asian American Educators’ Experiences?
Jung Kim, Ph.D., and Betina Hsieh, Ph.D., offer succinct conceptual frameworks in their 2022 book: “The Racialized Experiences of Asian American Teachers in the US: Applications of Asian Critical Race Theory to Resist Marginalization.”[ii] Kim and Hsieh describe the following “polarizing binaries of Asian American representation”:
- yellow peril
- perpetual foreigner
- model minority
Erika Lee, Ph.D., describes in her 2015 book “The Making of Asian America: A History”[iii] that the model minority stereotype has roots in World War II and the Cold War, then was proliferated in the 1980s in newspapers and magazines. Asian Americans were often celebrated “for holding the formula for success” (p. 374). Lee describes the utility of the stereotype as a method to disconnect Asian Americans from other people of color, namely Black folks. Lee cautions, “African American poverty has been increasingly explained as the by-product of a dysfunctional culture and delinquent family values” (p. 375). Claire Jean Kim, Ph.D., explains that “racial triangulation” is a tool that has embedded assumptions that Asian Americans are “inferior to Whites and superior to Blacks (in between Black and White) and as permanently foreign and unassimilable (apart from Black and White)” (Kim, 2000, p. 16).[iv] Candace J. Chow, Ph.D.’s, research [v] offers nuanced insights in her examination of how racial identity construction processes impact Asian American teachers’ classroom strategies. Chow imparts that some Asian American teachers may call on multiple approaches, like downplaying their identities, acting as cultural role models, or resisting stereotypes.
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