Kuwentos of Radical Asian American Studies Pedagogy In and Beyond the Classroom

• In Event: Asian American Pedagogies as Remedy: Resisting Systemic Erasure

Abstract

Purpose
Asian American Studies (AAS) has always been radical. With roots in anti-Vietnam war activism to the field’s birth in the Ethnic Studies movement led by the Black Student Union and the Third World Liberation Front, AAS, from its onset, was radical (Umemoto, 1989). In Ethnic Studies, collective liberation is contingent on the elimination of racism, intersectional forms of oppression, and dismantling of white supremacy. The fight for collective liberation happens in and beyond the classroom. Through kuwentos (stories) this paper examines Radical Asian American Studies pedagogy (RAASP) to explore how AAS can contribute, resist, disrupt, and shape the cultural ecosystem in Ethnic Studies and educational spaces. Research questions include: 1) How are kuwentos used to implement RAASP as a radical methodology? And 2) What pedagogical examples demonstrate the utility and affordances of RAASP in and beyond the classroom?

Perspective
This paper weaves Ethnic Studies (Tintiangco-Cubales, et al. 2015) and RADical Asian American Studies pedagogy (Sacramento et al., 2023) to guide study design and analysis. RAASP is “committed to deep and rooted Reflection, building meaningful and authentic Relationships, refining our Analysis of systems and causality, which leads to Dreaming of freedom and transformative solidarity, and gives us the courage and capacity to Determine what needs to be done to eradicate racism and intersectional forms of oppression and build new possibilities for collective liberation” (p. 210). Taken together, these framings inform how we might better recognize the utility and application of AAS in education research.

Methods and Data Sources
Kuwentos in Tagalog means stories. According to Jocson (2008), kuwentos can be used in classrooms, especially Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies classrooms as, “a cultural and sociolinguistic practice assisting the learning of curricular material and defining participants’ membership in class” (p. 241). Through the kuwentos of three interdisciplinary scholars, we present research reflective of the potential for education research to be grounded in radical and intersectional approaches. In this paper, we use kuwentos as a way to humanize ourselves, connect to our readers, and to place high value on our experiences as educators.

Findings
This study documents the ways kuwentos and RAASP can be used in education research. Findings revealed how Asian American Studies, and Ethnic Studies more broadly, offer counternarratives that allow students to historicize Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders (AA/NH/PI), and Southwest Asians and North Africans (SWANA) experiences of racialization, oppression, dehumanization, liberation, joy, and decolonization. The RAASP approach challenges us to question how AA/NH/PI and SWANA communities build solidarity and take action with/for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx/e communities.

Significance
This paper contributes to a body of literature on Asian American Studies in education research generally and Asian American and Pacific Islander research specifically. Our study illustrates how RADical Asian American Studies pedagogy can be used beyond the Asian American Studies classroom. Asian American Studies does not solely need to “live” in Ethnic Studies classrooms, rather we see and encourage RAASP to exist across disciplines, classrooms, and community spaces.

Authors

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University

• Edward R. Curammeng, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Jocyl Sacramento, California State University - East Bay