Asian American Epistemologies and Ethnic Studies Teacher Development

• In Event: The Impact of Ethnic Studies on Asian American and Pacific Islander Teacher Development

Abstract

This paper bridges Ethnic Studies curriculum and teacher professional development. The study focuses on the experiences of high school Ethnic Studies teachers who were part of a critical teaching community advancing the development and implementation of Ethnic Studies curriculum across a school district in California. I highlight the roles of Asian American educators in the movement for K-12 Ethnic Studies courses; specifically, how teachers collaborated with community organizations, university partners, and stakeholders to engage in Ethnic Studies praxis and teacher development.

Research questions include:
How has teaching and learning K-12 Ethnic Studies informed Asian American teachers critical consciousness development?
How have Asian American educators informed the teaching and learning of Ethnic Studies?

This study builds on Coloniality of Power frameworks (Maldonado-Torres, 2007; Lugones, 2007; Grosfoguel, 2012), Critical Professional Development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015), and conscientization (Freire, 1970). K-12 Ethnic Studies curriculum is an antiracist, anticolonial, and/or anti imperialist knowledge project that encourages students and teachers to challenge white, colonial perspectives ingrained within U.S. schools. In this paper, I uncover Ethnic Studies teachers’ processes of writing and teaching curricula to recover and legitimize subaltern knowledge systems. I discuss how teachers utilized Asian American epistemologies as a tool for humanization and critical consciousness development in their own and their students’ lives.

Critical ethnographic methods informed the design of this study (Carspecken, 1996). Through the analysis of semi-structured interviews with high school Ethnic Studies teachers, over 200 hours of observations of high school Ethnic Studies teacher professional development, and observations in three Ethnic Studies classrooms, I examine how Ethnic Studies informed Asian American teachers’ conscientization. Data documented challenges and approaches to Ethnic Studies teacher preparation and educators’ reflections on becoming Ethnic Studies teachers. Field notes and interview transcripts were organized in qualitative data analysis software and data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014). Analysis included line-by-line, open-coping of interview transcripts to reveal prevalent themes (Saldaña, 2009). Themes generated from interviews were triangulated with observation data.

This research reveals the role that Asian American teachers have played in the movement for K-12 Ethnic Studies. Additionally, data showcases how teaching and learning Ethnic Studies has informed Asian American teachers critical consciousness development. I found that (1) Asian American teachers played key roles in the institutionalization of high school Ethnic Studies in one school district, particularly teachers’ professional development; (2) Asian American community educators and university faculty in the fields of education and Asian American Studies were instrumental in the conscientization processes for high school Ethnic Studies teachers of all races/ethnicities; and (3) Asian American epistemologies informed the ancestral and community knowledge systems produced within high school Ethnic Studies classrooms. This paper holds significant implications for teacher education and professional development as schools, districts, and states increase Ethnic Studies course offerings.

Author

• Jocyl Sacramento, California State University - East Bay