Informing Democracy on the “Margin”: How Does an Asian American History Museum Promote Civic Agency?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 3:35 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Civic Learning and Culturally Responsive Practices (Table 3)

Abstract

Museums have been important sites for civic and democratic education since the 1800s due to their cultural representation power. However, Asian American experiences are mostly ignored in civic education practices in museums and beyond. This case study of Museum of Chinese in America explored how this ethnicity-specific history museum conducted civic education and cultivated the public’s civic agency through its exhibition-related practices. Frame by Cultural Citizenship and Constructivism, this study identified four civic education approaches in MOCA’s exhibitions based on interviews and document analysis. This included counter-storytelling, civic definition expansion, accessible cultural elements, and community involvement. Hopefully, this study may inspire better and more museum civic education practices regarding Asian American experiences and activate all people’s civic agency towards democracy.

Author

• Siyao Lyu, Columbia University