A Different Shade of Brown: Investigating South Asian American Preservice Teacher Identities

• In Event: 44.073 - Beyond Black, Brown, and White: A Critical Symposium of Asian American Teacher Identity

Abstract

Asian Americans are rarely the subjects of educational scholarship, and when featured, they are typically represented with an assortment of pan-Asian ethnicities (Au & Blake, 2003; Goodwin, Genishi, Asher & Woo, 2006). Using postcolonial theory (Chakrabarty, 2000; Said, 1978), border spectacle (De Genova, Kasparek, & Hess, 2014), and narrative inquiry in qualitative case studies (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2014), this investigation provides insights into how South Asian American preservice teachers (n=4) approach teaching and form preservice teacher identities through their preparation program, experiences in the field, and experiences in university life. Here, border spectacle and postcolonial theory taken together illuminate the contours of South Asian American preservice teachers’ identities by focusing on the social relationships between individuals as linked to discursive images, especially in the contemporary moment of migration and security. This instrumental qualitative case study (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2014) focuses on South Asian American preservice teachers (n=4) at a large urban Southwestern university. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted identifying personal interests, engaging aspects of their teacher-preparation program, and how interview dialogues may have impacted participants’ views of teaching and self-conceptualizations of South Asian Americanness. Data analysis indicated participants marginalization/Othered-ness at the borders between White school/university/preservice teacher program culture and their South Asian American identities. Participants were the only South Asian Americans in their cohorts, and indicated how curricula that did not address Asian students as “sad” and indicative of the lack of “Asians” in teaching. Participants spoke of race-based discussions that focused on Black/White, omitting pan-Asians within the U.S.’s racial hierarchy. Participants saw these events as disadvantageous, reinscribing preservice teacher curriculum as predisposing participants to feelings of Otherness or non-inclusion that, when in the field, were not mitigated and potentially solidified through relations with students/cooperating teachers. This study becomes critical in filling an existing gap in educational research, chronicling South Asian American preservice teachers’ identities, their access to education as a career, and how teacher preparation/field experiences further inform aspects of South Asian Americanness and racial/cultural identities particular to Otherness. Through further study, connections can be made to increase South Asian Americans in teaching while also rewriting more inclusive preservice teacher curricula.

Authors

• Venkat Ramaprasad, The College of New Jersey

• Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, Iowa State University