Being and Belonging in America: Second-Generation Asian American Teachers' Stories of Negotiating Identity and Culture

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Strength of Voice: Narratives of Persons of Color in Education (Table 20)

Abstract

The U.S. is in the midst of its greatest immigration wave since the turn of the 19th century. Unlike migrations of the past, this one has brought Brown and Black folks from across the Global South to the U.S.. This paper explores the impacts of this demographic transformation on schools and the lives of the teachers and students who labor and learn within them. This critical narrative study explores four Second-Generation Asian American elementary school teachers’ experiences of growing up, going to school, and teaching in the U.S.. This paper shares narratives revealing their fraught negotiation of identity and culture and the ways in which they mobilize their Second-Generation Asian American identity in service of their students.

Author

• Meghan Phadke, Miami University (OH)