“I’m more than a teacher”: How an Asian American teacher navigates anti-Black politics of belonging

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Sessions
  In Paper Session: Navigating Raced Discourse and Policies in School

Abstract

Belonging has proven important for youth and adults in schools. However, anti-Black racism in U.S. schooling has led to harmful psychological and physiological effects that teachers of Color face in combating racism. Thus, this qualitative two-year critical ethnographic study examines how one Asian American teacher navigated the politics of anti-Black racism in schools to enact their own politic of belonging. The narrative portrait crafted explores the nuances of enacting anti-oppressive politics of belonging that carve out spaces for racial reprieve for both students of Color and teachers of Color, but that this labor remains contested by the sense that being a teacher is an investment in anti-Blackness and by the school’s demands to fit into the culture of anti-Black teaching. Importantly, I conclude with what it means to encourage teaching as a profession for people of Color committed to racial justice given the hegemonic presence of anti-Blackness.

Author

• Ryan Oto, University of Minnesota