Culturally Responsive Caring for Chinese American Students Post-Pandemic

• In Event: Unforgetting Deficit Depictions: Disrupting Education Systems of Injustice to Unlock the Hidden Geniuses

Abstract

Chinese Americans embody a history of enduring yet resisting systemic discrimination in the United States over two centuries (Yung et al., 2006). What is concerning is whether most teachers are well-equipped to teach this content to all students, given the liminal portrayals of Chinese Americans in U.S. K–12 history curricula (An, 2022). Moreover, the COVID-19-related violence toward Chinese Americans was often met with solidarity statements from fauxgressive universities and racist normalization from conservative politicians. These persisting issues demand that U.S. K–12 educators rethink caring for Chinese American students. By connecting the fraught experiences of Chinese Americans to the 2026 theme, it becomes clear that reimagining U.S. education must involve making visible these “unforgotten” histories, critically reflecting on exclusion within curricula, and courageously planning for futures where all students—especially those harmed by erasure and racism—are genuinely cared for and empowered. This calls on teachers, scholars, and institutions to move beyond superficial gestures and instead enact sustained, collective efforts to integrate the histories and lived realities of Chinese Americans at the heart of educational practice and policy, aligning perfectly with the conference’s vision for consequential, future-oriented change.

Author

• Lin Wu, Western Oregon University