Mathematics Tracking Policy and Overlooked “Sinocentrism” in San Francisco

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session
  In Paper Session: Leading for Racial Justice: Navigating Politics, Policy, and Ethics in Education

Abstract

In 2024, San Francisco voters approved Proposition G, requiring 8th grade Algebra 1 for public school students and restores “tracked” course sequences that sort students by their perceived intellectual abilities. Proposition G’s proponents mobilized anti-Asian American racist essentialism, and proximity to whiteness, targeting SF’s large Chinese American electorate. We argue, using Asian Critical Race Theory and critical policy Discourse analysis, that Proposition G proponents’ arguments mobilized covert anti-Asian American essentialism and Sinocentrism to undermine racial justice discourses in educational politics. We consequently propose an analytical framework of “(De)Tracking Sinocentrism,” which disentangles Sinocentrism from Asian American panethnic racialization processes.

Authors

• Kyle Chong, Michigan State University

• Sheila M. Orr, University of Tennessee, Knoxville