Narratives of Asian American Female Educators: Resistance, Retention, and Rhetoric

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans Poster Session

Abstract

Asian Americans represent 1.2% of United States’ teachers, with less representation in Midwestern/Southern states (Ramanathan, 2006). In contrast, the 2010 US Census shows that Asians within this Midwestern state increased by 75% and are predominantly school-aged, refugees living in poverty. Of the few Asian educators within the study site, many are working in contexts of poverty with marginalized racial, cultural and linguistic groups. Most educational leaders and teachers in this context are not Asian and seldom have deep understanding of marginalized people.

Girded by critical theory and feminism, this study extrapolates race as a sociocultural construct to illuminate how Asian educators are situated in educational contexts and how it impacts their efficacy, praxis and retention within the field.

Authors

• Michelle C.S. Greene, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Trish Morita Mullaney, Purdue University