Challenging Raciolinguistic Ideologies: Asian-American Students’ Stories of Resistance and Resilience

• In Event: Critical Race Perspectives in Education

Abstract

The study examines how multi-ethnic Asian-American (MAA) children in the U.S. shape their sense of belonging and negotiate their collective identities as they encounter social exclusion and linguistic judgments related to their race and language use. Using raciolinguistic ideologies as a theoretical lens, I document fifth-grade MAA students’ racialized semiotic data (i.e., autobiographical literary artifacts) to analyze their dynamic lived experiences and everyday discursive practices. The findings show that raciolinguistic ideologies and their hierarchical structures played a role in (re)constructing MAA students’ ethno-racial identities and establishing their linguistic practices. The findings provide implications for educators that multilingual/multicultural students’ biographical accounts serve as powerful analytical tools for understanding students’ multifaceted identities through their unique life trajectories when raciolinguistic socialization occurs.

Author

• Chaehyun Lee, Southeastern Oklahoma State University