"A Place Where You Can Be Free": Social Perceptions of Indian American High School Youth Within Home, School, and Community Spaces

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Asian American Youth Activism and Cultural Empowerment

Abstract

This article examines social perceptions of Indian American youth and the ways these spaces and perceptions influence their schooling experiences. This article is qualitative, drawing on interview data from 7 Indian American youth who attended high schools in a single district located in the mid-Atlantic, United States and their photographs of significant places in home, school, and community. To make sense of the study data and findings, I used a conceptual framework composed of key concepts from intersectionality, structural racism, and spatiality. Two key conclusions emerged from the present study: 1) perceptions influenced cultural implacement and displacement for students and 2) participants’ assigned importance to social aspects of school as much as and at times perhaps more than academic aspects.

Author

• Caroline Titan, Bellevue School District/Seattle University