Learning From the Outliers Within: Ethnic Studies and Filipina/o American Teachers' Praxis

• In Event: "With Conscious Purposes and Plans": Possibilities and Promises of Ethnic Studies and Education

Abstract

Objectives and Research Questions

This paper advances a critical analysis located at the nexus of Ethnic Studies and Education. The study focuses on the pedagogies, practices, utility and value of an Ethnic Studies background for teachers of color. I pay particular attention to the experiences of Filipina/o American K-12 public school teachers working in communities in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This paper describes ways Filipina/o American teachers employ critical frameworks first learned in college as students of Ethnic Studies then taught to their own students.

Research questions include:

1) How does Ethnic Studies shape Filipina/o American teachers’ pedagogies and practices?
2) What practices do Filipina/o American teachers engage in their classrooms, schools, and communities?
3) What are the possibilities for imagining Ethnic Studies as teacher education?

Theory:
Anti-imperialist critiques (Bascara, 2006; San Juan, 1998), critical race theory in education (Brown, 2014; Kohli, 2009; Solórzano, 1997), and Ethnic Studies frameworks (Lowe, 1996; Rodriguez, 2010) were used to guide study design and analyses. For Filipina/o Americans, Ethnic Studies illuminates complexities surrounding questions of race and racialization shaped by legacies of war (Baldoz, 2011; Shaw & Francia, 2002); im/migration (Buenavista & Gonzalez, 2010; Rodriguez, 2010), and tensions associated when categorized as Asian American (Lott, 2006). Similarly, Critical race theory’s challenge against ahistoricism (Buenavista, 2010; Solórzano, 1997) accounts for how experiences of Filipina/o Americans can be understood against complex systems and racialized histories. Together, these frameworks encourage thinking across disciplines, informing how we might better comprehend and recognize as Ethnic Studies’ role in education.

Methods/Data Sources:
Data were collected through survey research (Babbie, 1990), semi-structured interviews (Merriam, 2014) and focus groups. Additional data included teachers’ written reflections, artifacts reflective of teachers’ relationship to Ethnic Studies, and student work. Guided by network sampling, participants were recruited based on their knowledge of Filipina/o American history and community issues, background in Ethnic Studies (learned in college or other spaces like community organizing), and experience working with students from marginalized and vulnerable communities. Eight K-12 public school teachers were selected (four K-8 and four high school).

Results and Significance:
This study highlights characteristics of what an effective teacher with an Ethnic Studies background looks like and asserts the need to consider how Ethnic Studies can be a site for preparing and supporting teachers of color. Findings from this study contributes new insights towards: 1) ways teacher educators can better support teachers that already possess an Ethnic Studies background and 2) approaches for bridging Ethnic Studies approaches to mainstream content. The curricular and spatial interventions found in these teachers’ praxis are at once critical and at best responsive, relevant, and trenchant. The timeliness of this study for both Ethnic Studies and Filipina/o Americans is especially significant. Considering Ethnic Studies as teacher education is indicative of areas of inquiry education researchers, policy makers, and teacher educators must engage. For Filipina/o Americans findings suggest ways resistance and knowledge production stems from the very legacies of survival learned through Ethnic Studies.

Author

• Edward Ryan Curammeng, University of California - Los Angeles