Nurturing Deep Roots: Ppuri as Resistance in a Korean Language School

• In Event: 21.037 - Centering Community Knowledge and Counterstories Across Community and School Spaces

Abstract

Previous research has shown that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth of color (Lee, 2005; Valenzuela, 1999). Despite this, immigrants and other marginalized communities persist in supporting and uplifting their youth, in homes and community spaces (Kwon, 2013; Wong, 2010). This paper highlights the practices and understandings of a weekend Korean language school that I call Hangeul Korean School. Beyond language, the teachers and mothers at Hangeul sought to cultivate youths’ connections to community as well as a positive sense of self—what participants referred to as ppuri, or roots. Expanding on this notion, I introduce the theoretical concept of ppuri as what Tara Yosso (2005) calls resistant capital, “those knowledges and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality” (p. 80). I characterize ppuri as the knowledges of and inclinations towards cultural heritage that can help youth of color navigate a racially oppressive society. To foster deep ppuri, Hangeul shared multiple cultural knowledges such as language, history, and customs while also creating a space characterized by authentic care and cultural comfort. My participants believed that this “ppuri gyoyuk” or, “roots education,” would equip youth with tools they needed to flourish in spite of a racist U.S. society. While this paper largely focuses on adults, I also discuss youths’ diverse responses to “roots education.”

This paper is informed by critical research that positions the cultural knowledges of marginalized communities as assets (e.g., Delgado Bernal, 2001; Yosso, 2005). Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth, which recognizes the cultural practices and knowledges that marginalized communities employ to oppose oppressions, is one powerful example of such work. Nevertheless, scholars have found that the process of schooling often subtracts immigrant youths’ cultural identities from them (Lee, 2005; Olsen, 2008; Valenzuela, 2001). Community-based spaces, then, represent important opportunities for youth to resist subtractive schooling processes, by reaffirming and centering their communities’ knowledges (Du, 2011; Kwon, 2013; Wong, 2010).

The paper draws from a larger multi-sited critical ethnography that examined two Korean American community-based spaces in the Chicago suburbs: Hangeul Korean School and a tutoring academy I call Ascend Tutoring Center (ATC). Between October 2015 and January 2017, I conducted observations in classrooms, informal spaces, and events; conducted semi-structured interviews; and collected archival documents (e.g., flyers, handouts). Data sources include fieldnotes, interview transcripts, demographic questionnaires, census data, and site documents.

The findings demonstrate that community-based spaces of learning offer multiple supports for immigrant youth of color that mainstream schools do not. Specifically, spaces like Hangeul provide cultural knowledge, affirmation, and comfort for racially minoritized youth. The paper also shows that although Asian Americans are often seen as apolitical or passive, they understand the U.S. racialized hierarchy and actively resist their minoritized position through efforts like Korean language schools, helping their youth build up resilience in the face of racism. This paper contributes insight into the possibilities for resistance that community spaces represent, as well as how their capacity for transformative resistance can be constrained by dominant discourses.

Author

• Eujin Park, University of Illinois at Chicago