Unforgetting Histories, Shaping Futures: AAPI Studies in K-12 Classrooms

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies in K-12 schools is an evolving story. This session engages the 2026 conference theme of "futuring for education" by uplifting educators, youth, community organizers, and scholar-activists envisioning the future of K-12 public schools. Through case studies from five states, we illustrate how communities transform educational policy, incorporating AAPI ingenuity and thereby "unforgetting histories" to cultivate equitable futures. AAPI Studies highlights local contexts, histories, and intimacies. Expanding these initiatives compels teachers and leaders to rethink how to organize schooling in socially just ways that foreground community principles of justice and empower non-dominant communities in educational innovation. This session offers insights into how educational practice can embrace collective imagination for more just and representative learning environments.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, Michigan State University

Discussants

• Jennifer Higgs, University of California - Davis

• Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa

Panelists

• Esther June Kim, College of William & Mary

• Michael Brown, University of Michigan

• Virginia Nguyen, Portola High School, Irvine

• Danny Diaz, University of California - Los Angeles