“What To Do With The Weight Of The World?”: A Hmong American Preservice-Teacher’s Visual Narrative

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Voices Across Borders: Identity, Displacement, and the Edge of Belonging

Abstract

Southeast Asian Americans are underrepresented in teacher education spaces. Their stories and voices remain marginalized in comparison to other teachers of color. This single case study of one Hmong preservice teacher used visual methodologies and narrative analysis to scrutinize their master portfolio, which was collected as part of the program’s archival data. The portfolio contains visual products and course writing assignments. Analyzed through an AsianCrit lens, visual narratives of the portfolio showed that the participant used their artisanal skills to balance between the positive and negative of the teacher-self. To produce power, the participant desired silence in their visual narratives by uprooting vulnerability, emotionality, and reflexivity; reconstructing student learning, school culture, and individual identity.

Authors

• Sharon Chang, Teachers College, Columbia University

• A. Lin Goodwin, Boston College