How Asian American Women Perceive and Move Toward Leadership Roles in Community Colleges: A Study of Insider Accounts

• In Event: Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: Learning in Schools: From Racial Literacy to Cultural Capital to Women’s Leadership

Abstract

Asian Americans are often viewed as the model minority, but when it comes to discussions on equality, Asian Americans quickly become invisible and continue to face systemic discrimination and institutional racism. This qualitative study explored Asian American women faculty members’ perceptions of the leadership on community college campuses framed by Critical Race Feminism (CRF). Two primary themes emerged from the data. First, for these Asian American women faculty, leadership is a shared concept, and little emphasis placed on with the prestige of institutional recognition of leadership responsibilities. Second, because these Asian American women were often perceived as “other,” and “invisible,” by their colleagues, they had to choose their mentors intentionally in order to survive and succeed as faculty.

Author

• Sayumi Irey, University of Washington