Asian American Womanist Perspectives on Curriculum

• In Event: Womanist Curriculum Perspectives and Possibilities

Abstract

As a Chinese Canadian woman faculty member moving between constantly changing Eastern and Western theoretical traditions, ethnical dimensions, languages, cultures, identities, and places, Ming Fang He explores Asian American womanist perspectives on curriculum studies drawing upon a wide array of works on womanism from multiethnic scholars such as Alice Walker (In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, 1983), Patricia Hill Collins (Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, 1991), bell hooks (Talking Back, Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, 1989, also 1981, 1984), Layli Phillips (The Womanist Reader, 2006), Layli Maparyan (The Womanist Idea, 2012), Chandra Talpade Mohanty (Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, 2003/2005), Uma Narayan (Dislocating cultures: Identities, traditions, and third world feminism, 1997), Gloria Anzalduá (Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 1987; also 1990), Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa (This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, 1981), Adrien Kathering Wing (Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader, 2000, also 2003), Chela Sandoval (Methodology of the Oppressed, 2000), Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 1999/2012), Jo-ann Archibald (Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit, 2008), Eve Tuck (Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities, 2009), Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe (Borderland Feminisms: Toward Transgression of Unitary Transnational Feminisms, 1998), and Cinthya M. Saavedra and Ellen D. Nymark (Borderland-Mestizaje Feminism: The New Tribalism, 2008).

Ming Fang explores how womanist perspectives help her inquiry into teaching, learning, and researching in-between (1998, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2010) and her most recent work on exile pedagogy and exile curriculum (2010, in press), particularly the notion of voluntary exile in-between by making connections between womanism, embodied humanism (Tu, 2010), and curriculum theorizing from Easter thoughts such as Confucianism (Confucius), Daoism (Laozi; Zhuangzi), and Buddhism. These connections are reflected in Confucius’s idea of considering “ren (benevolence, humanity, or righteousness) as the center of the cosmos, harmoniously interconnected... To be ren is to become humane. To become humane, one needs to be educated. To become educated, one needs to cultivate the self to achieve integrity, ritual propriety, wisdom, loyalty, filial piety, and trust within the family, community, and state to realize the grand unity of the world, where peace prevails, order abounds, harmony sustains, and the individual thrives in communions” (He, 2013, p. 62). These connections are also illuminated in Daoism propriety and ethics which emphasize wu-wei (action through non-action), "naturalness" of evolving yin-yang, simplicity, spontaneity, compassion, moderation, and humility, and in Buddhism that by destroying greed, hatred, and delusion, which are the causes of all suffering, humans can attain perfect enlightenment. Ming Fang calls the connections between womanism and embodied humanism the epistemological convergence of womanist humanism which she considers as “the common heritage of humanity” (UNESCO, 2009) that should become the epistemological foundation for curriculum theorizing that addresses pressing issues and contemporary concerns and makes impact on practice, policy, and historical, social, political, economic, geographical, cultural, linguistic, and ecological contexts.

Author

• Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University