Co-Constructing Counternarratives with Asian and Asian American Youth and Communities

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Asians and Asian Americans are the racial group in the United States seeing the most robust growth. Over a span of twenty years, the Asian and Asian American population had an almost twofold increase, rising from 11.9 million in 2000 to 22.4 million in 2019. Currently, Asians and Asian Americans constitute about 7% of the total population of the nation. It is projected that by the year 2060, their population would rise to 46 million (Pew Research Center, 2021). The K–12 education system in the United States is not exempt from the increasing number of Asians and Asian Americans. In 2021, the proportion of Asian and Asian American students in public preK–12 schools in the United States is at about 6%, and this number is consistently rising (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023).
The growth of Asian communities in recent decades has prompted researchers and academics to focus on the lived and educational experiences of these student groups. Numerous scholarly works have extensively documented the phenomenon of stereotyping and prejudice experienced by many Asian and Asian American students in K-12 education. This includes being categorized as a "model minority" who is uniformly diligent, high-achieving, and successful. This stereotypes results in the exclusion of these students from essential resources, support, and assistance, neglecting their struggles and discrimination in their daily lives (Author1; Lee, 2015; Lee et al., 2017; Ngo & Lee, 2007; Wing, 2007; Yu, 2006; Zhou & Bankston, 2020). Moreover, research has also shown that the prevalent preconceptions of "perpetual foreigners" (Wu, 2002, p. 81) or "forever foreigners" (Tuan, 1998) are often experienced by Asian and Asian American students. Irrespective of their duration of residency in the United States and their immigrant and generational background, Asian and Asian American students are often seen as foreigners, outsiders, and "strangers from a different shore" (Takaki, 1989, pp. 12–13). The presence of these stereotypical narratives often leads to Asian American students experiencing experiences and feelings of inferiority and illegitimacy (Author1; Huynh et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2017; Yeo et al., 2019).
This field of research is very significant and vital as it exposes the many ways in which racism exists in the experiences of Asian and Asian American students in the United States. Nevertheless, educational research has often overlooked the ways Asian and Asian American students construct their own racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural identities despite being in racist schooling and societal environment. Indeed, Asian and Asian American children and youth have extensive historical, linguistic, socio-cultural, and geographical information acquired from their own homes, communities, and transnational networks, all of which can serve as assets and strengths in education, rather than weaknesses or deficits, in education.
This symposium aims to present our scholarship with Asian and Asian American youths by using asset-based theoretical frameworks to center the perspectives and lived experiences of these adolescents. Specifically, three studies that focus on Asian and Asian American youths will be discussed, highlighting their experiences of racism, as well as the ways in which educational researchers can create spaces that center their own funds of knowledge and transnational identities. By uplifting voices and lived experiences of Asian and Asian American youth, this symposium will invite scholars and practitioners to center and harness the youth’s rich and multifaceted experiences in educational settings. The symposium will also provide insights on how to move towards establishing a more inclusive and equitable schooling for Asian and Asian American youth in the face of white-centric and assimilationist educational practices in the United States.

Sub Unit

• East Asia SIG

Organizer

• Yeji Kim, University of Missouri - Columbia

Chair

• Ran Liu, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Individual Presentations

• Exploration of Learning, Healing, and Belonging Journeys of Asian American and Migrant Youth - Yeji Kim, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Asian American Youth and Families Co-Designing Workshops for Bilingual Families: A Community-based Participatory Research Study - Jungmin Kwon, Michigan State University; Chenlu Jin, Michigan State University; Min Yu, Wayne State University; Seungwoo Hwang, Michigan State University; Pyeongeun Kim, Michigan State University

• Silenced Stories: Asian American Youth Narratives on Parental Ethnic-Racial Socialization - Danbi Choe, Louisiana State University; Kai Zhuang Shum; Courteney Johnson, Fordham University