Centering Critical Narratives of Asian American and Pacific Islander Doctoral Students

• In Event: What Does Decolonizing Education Look Like in Asian American Spaces?

Abstract

For decades, education and educational approaches were centered around whiteness and the positionality of whiteness. Critical scholars emerged to provide counter-stories to whiteness and the dominant narrative. More recently, scholars have been focused on the act and process of decolonizing methodologies, approaches, and practices as a way to not only de-center whiteness but also disrupt the oppression brought upon through colonization. Critical narrative was used as a methodological approach concerned with power and language in society where individuals can concretely question their own realities and identify the socio-ideological influence of systems on their practices and beliefs (Souto-Manning, 2012). However, critical scholars have practiced moving from counter-narrative to centering the narratives that were marginalized. In this paper, rather than use terminology of counter-narrative, which positions a narrative as counter to an existing dominant narrative, the use of critical narrative is highlighted as a way to position the stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as their own central story.

Author

• Liza A. Talusan, University of Massachusetts - Boston