Navigating East Asian subjectivities: Critical self-reflection of Korean and Japanese doctoral students on decolonization in education in the US

• In Event: An International Student Perspective: Criticality, Self-reflction & Experiences of International Students and Educators

Proposal

Introduction
Scholars, educators, and practitioners have been grappling with the complexities and tensions of decolonizing education in postcolonial contexts (Lin, 2012; Takayama, Sriprakash, & Connell, 2016; Vickers, 2020). As East Asian doctoral students in the US, we encounter tensions and contradictions in studying postcolonialism mostly from Western countries and their colonies. We are urged to take into account our own geo-political and sociocultural contexts. Therefore, this paper aims to examine Korean and Japanese doctoral students’ critical onto-epistemological exploration along with studying postcolonialism, decolonization, and education in a transnational context in the US. This study poses two questions: 1) How are we navigating postcolonial studies in education as East Asian doctoral students in the US? 2) In doing so, how are we engaging with our subjectivity?

Theoretical framework
To address the research questions, we apply Chen’s (2010) Asia as method, which is to assert the following three movements simultaneously in light of Asian geocolonial modern history: decolonization, deimperialization, and de-Cold War. It is to pluralize frames of reference, which is “inter-referencing,” by turning our eyes towards Asia as an “imaginary anchor point” (Chen, 2010, p. 212). Being interlinked with other structures is needed to go beyond the boundaries of structures constructed by (neo-)colonial powers. A system of multiple reference points can be generated by “critical syncretism”, which is “a cultural strategy of identification for subaltern subject groups” (Chen, 2010, p.99). Asia as method can bring new possibilities to the current postcolonial studies, especially applying to East Asia.

Mode of inquiry
This study uses collaborative autoethnography (CAE) as its methodology to critically reflect on ourselves personally and collaboratively. Autoethnography focuses on researchers’ personal experiences and reflections, including “emotion, action, introspection, self-consciousness, and the body itself” (Martinez & Andreatta, 2015, p.228). The researchers reveal and critique their beliefs and values, and propose new stories and ways of making sense of themselves, others, and the world (Adams et al., 2022; Hernandez, Chang, & Ngunjiri, 2017)). Autoethnography allows us to explore our dilemmas and tensions as well as their causes by investigating our experiences. Furthermore, we chose to do this critical self-reflection collaboratively. Our shared backgrounds as East Asian doctoral students in the US studying postcolonialism, decolonization, and education in a transnational context provoked an intentional discussion on this topic. CAE enables us to examine shared stories, and to balance personal narratives with the larger collective experiences (Blalock & Akehi, 2018).
Our primary data are from our class assignments on postcolonialism, decolonization, and education which are our reflection papers and weekly posts on our course learning. In the reflection paper, we situated ourselves in relation to decolonization in education and educational research in the transnational context. The posts on course learning were to reflect on and respond to our own thinking on decolonization in education while reading assigned books. We read the data personally and collectively. After coding the data, we discussed and identified common themes. Then, we revisited the data again according to the common themes to analyze further. We also wrote an additional reflection paper based on our conversations and data analysis after reading Chen’s (2010) Asia as method to process our thoughts.

Findings
Our data show that we have been trapped in the West, but at the same time, multiplying reference points and transforming our subjectivity.
Being Trapped in the West: Although we have been encouraged to confront the complexity of postcolonialism, it is difficult to discuss issues of postcolonialism in education without the West in mind and without arguing in a dichotomous way. We observed our discussions in the posts hold dichotomies such as the West and the rest, and the colonizer and the colonized.
Multiplying our reference points: Even though we are in the US context, we have engaged more with diverse decolonial approaches discussed from the non-Western or Indigenous epistemologies. Besides, we agreed that being racialized in the US shaped and sharpened our view toward subaltern themes such as race, ethnicity, sex, and gender and their intersectionality.
Onto-epistemological tensions and contradiction: Our class learnings and this research reflection developed our reflection sharper through engaging with and being aware of issues as complex, messy, and complicated. Yet, we are still trapped in binary oppositions between the West and the rest. The presence of the US in our subjectivity is quite deep (Chen, 2010). We continue reflection to break down the West, part of our subjectivity and ourselves.

Discussion
We drew some implications for navigating postcolonial studies and engaging with our subjectivity from our findings.
Inter-referencing within and beyond Asia: The imperial cultural imaginary which was created in colonial times and has shaped dichotomous categories remains active. Asia as method, using Asia as an "imaginary anchor point" (Chen, 2010, p. 212), is encouraged to be extended to any themes: Reference points can be subaltern themes, positions, groups, and regions.
Critical alliances in a transnational context: As we collaborated in this project, critical alliances among multiple subaltern groups against colonial relations in a transnational context are invited to be formed. Through referencing multiple points, we activate the discussions and overcome the "self-reproducing neocolonial framework that structures the trajectories and flow of desire" (Chen, 2010, p. 101).
Ongoing formation of self-reflexive subjectivity: Based on our collaborative work, the more we reflect, the more intellectual agency we can achieve. Continuing to explore who we are, where we position ourselves, and which framework to use will help navigate the complicated, negotiable postcolonial contexts.

Conclusion
This collaborative self-reflexive approach opens up possibilities for other Asian doctoral students to reflect upon themselves and their subjectivities in more nuanced and contextualized ways in postcolonial contexts by taking into account their historical and sociocultural factors. This collaboration showed the ideas of how we can create multiple alliances across oppressive structures at the level of onto-epistemology. Therefore, our study can contribute to expanding decolonial discussions in both educational research and Asian student mobility in the US, especially as an alternative way of protest to the prevailing structures, which relates to the CIES 2024 conference theme, the power of protest.

Authors

• Satomi Mitani, University of Minnesota

• Dugyum Kim, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities