Community Knowledge-Sharing: Navigating the Landscape of Asian American Studies Within White Hegemonic Power Structures

• In Event: "Invisibility Is Not a Natural State for Anyone!" The Fight for Asian American Curricular Inclusion

Abstract

Texas is frequently in the national spotlight for the passage of educational policy that impacts the well-being of children and youth from marginalized backgrounds (Valenzuela, 2019). In the past year, either legislation or executive orders passed in Texas curtail transgender youth’s access to hormone therapy and the mention of race and gender in the classroom. But in this restrictive political environment, a coalition of non-profit agencies, advocates, and activists have been successful in advancing two important efforts for the inclusion of Asian Americans in the state social studies curriculum: a high school elective Asian American Studies course and the insertion of Asian American history, events and figures in the United States history curriculum. A state-level ethnic studies coalition was formed in 2020 to build a coherent and unified platform for multiple ethnic studies courses and the advancement of Asian American studies is due through the navigational capital (Yosso, 2005) of Black and Mexican American community leaders and activists.
Using interviews with coalition leaders, alongside artifacts, memos, curriculum drafts and other documents, the presenter analyzes the complexities of knowledge sharing between coalitional groups. The presenter uses the conceptual framework of whiteness as property (Harris, 1993) to demonstrate how the sharing of intellectual property between groups is an intentional act of solidarity against white hegemonic power structures, but not without challenges given the status of Asian Americans as a racial wedge between racialized groups. The results of this qualitative case study have implications for other Asian American educational policy efforts at the district and state level, particularly in dismantling the historic imbalances of power between Asian Americans and other marginalized groups.

Author

• Mohit Mehta, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author