Kasamaka: Cultivating a Chosen Learning Space Through Critical Asian Hospitality

• In Event: Pursuing Truths and Enacting Change: Educational Research in Chosen Spaces

Abstract

Objectives
Colonial schooling continues to be a tool used to perpetuate damage-centered (Tuck, 2009) narratives and the invisibility of Asian stories. Yet, US-based Asian communities continue to resist oppressive forces and refuse inclusion into white supremacist and settler colonial school structures by passing down sociopolitical wisdom and experiential knowledge in community learning spaces. Recognizing this lack of Asian truths, histories, and narratives in the classroom, the goal of this research seeks to address the questions: 1) How can educators enact AsianCrit to cultivate culturally sustaining community chosen spaces for Asian learners? 2) How do the experiences, perspectives, and values of Asian women and non-binary community educators, artists, and organizers inform their practice and the ways they cultivate learning spaces with Asian communities?

Perspective(s) and theoretical framework
In this paper, we utilize Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Paris, 2012; CAST, 2011; Waitoller & King Thorius, 2016) to cultivate an accessible chosen space for Asian women and non-binary organizers, community educators, and artists. Further, we use Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) in education (Museus & Iftikar, 2014; Curammeng, Buenavista, & Cariaga, 2017) to analyze our participants’ narratives.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Utilizing a qualitative narrative analysis approach, we learned from the first person stories of Asian community educators, artists, and organizers. We come to this research from an interpretive/constructivist epistemological perspective (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p.12). Therefore, this research recognizes that “there are multiple realities, of interpretations, of a single event” (p.11), allowing for the disaggregation of Asian diasporic truths. We utilized arts based research approaches including, storytelling, relationship constellations, love letters, photovoice, memory lane (geographical mapping), food, and altars. Bailey and Van Harken (2014) emphasize the ways multi-modal forms of expression facilitate learning and deep reflection that words alone may not be able to fully express. We used this method particularly to generate data for document analysis.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
This paper analyzes one-on-one semi-structured introductory interviews, five focus group discussions, one-on-one semi-structured outro reflection interviews, and document analysis.

Results substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
From the cultivation of our shared chosen space, we drew from the community collaborators’ stories and reflections to identify multi-thematic pedagogical truths of passing down critical justice knowledges. These themes include 1) being guided by a global anti-imperialist lens, 2) allowing learners to feel uncomfortable while safe, and 3) building communities/connections centered on collective care.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This research is critical in addressing the importance of the combination of CSP, UDL, and AsianCrit used outside of school spaces and instead to create a chosen space for Asian women and non-binary organizers, community educators, and artists who cultivate chosen spaces for Asian youth. This highly curated space, alongside the curated spaces in each of the community collaborators’ respective community organizations, offers educators across learning settings a model of pedagogical practices that may often be limited by colonial school parameters.

Authors

• Kayla Mendoza Chui, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Camille Ungco, University of Washington
  Presenting Author