"I Have the Advantage": Tracing Literate Girlhoods in an Urban Asian American Civic Education Collective

• In Event: Learning From Transnational Immigrant Literacies

Abstract

Education scholars increasingly suggest that critical approaches to civic education — that is, pedagogical and curricular invitations enabling historically minoritized youth to analyze sociopolitical inequities by centering their literacies and lived experiences — might support their sociopolitical efficacy and inclusion. Yet, little scholarship has explored the critical civic learning of youth from a prominent national group: girls from urban Asian American communities. These youth confront unique intersectional barriers to participation in American civic life. This paper draws on a practitioner research study that addressed this gap by tracing how eight Indonesian American girls based in a large northeast city participated in a digital critical civic education community. Foregrounding two findings, the paper traces the significance of this topic for the education field.

Author

• Ankhi Guha Thakurta, Boston College