AAPI Leadership Voices and Reflections on Finding Resilience During a Time of Anti-Asian Violence

• In Event: Cultivating Resilience During Challenging Times: Stories of Underrepresented and Marginalized Leaders

Abstract

This paper centers the perspectives of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) school and district leaders during the recent rise of anti-Asian hate and violence. Asian American and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing demographic group in the United States, yet AAPI educators are the most disproportionately represented group at a rate of two percent (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021). This low representation rate, compounded with the myth of the model minority, can lead AAPI educators to experience a hyper sense of invisibility (Kim & Hsieh, 2021). Subsequently, elucidating AAPI educator experiences may contribute to a better understanding of how they are navigating challenges and finding resilience, especially during times of crisis. The global health crisis and the recent uptick of anti-Asian violence were such crises that tested school leaders. The AAPI leadership voices for this paper are part of a dissertation study understanding how they navigated these dual crises, which provided a context for leadership resilience. Given the interaction between school systems and socio-environmental systems (Labaree, 2008), attention to this racial crisis may be an important consideration for school leaders. Little is known, however, about how AAPI school leaders have cultivated resilience when responding to the recent uptick of anti-Asian violence.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how AAPI school leaders developed resilience when responding to the recent uptick of anti-Asian hate and violence. This study aims to answer the following question: How did AAPI leaders cultivate resilience while responding to the anti-Asian crisis?

Theoretical Background: This paper uses the Dynamic Responsiveness Model of Crisis Management (DRMCM; Liou, 2014) and Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit; Museus & Iftikar, 2014) as theoretical framework. Using this integrated frame helps to conceptualize the racialization of AAPIs and understand where a responsive model for crisis management may be applicable to ameliorating the negative effects of anti-Asian violence. Integrating the DRMCM against the backdrop of AsianCrit helps to conceptualize the dynamic, complex, and growth-generating process of responding to racial crises, with an intentional focus on the lived experiences of AAPI members.

Method: The qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews online and in-person. Thirteen AAPI leaders from CA Bay Area schools and districts who were in leadership positions during the uptick of anti-Asian violence. Data analysis included the deductive process of employing pre-codes based on the theoretical frame and the inductive process of open-coding for emerging themes.

Results: Analysis of the data suggests that AAPI leaders cultivated resilience by committing to racial justice, building coalitions, engaging in racial affinity spaces, and serving as cultural bridges in their school systems.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work: Findings from this single-case qualitative study may have implications for how school systems attend to the unique needs of AAPI leaders, staff, and students, and for the potential to liberate from the Asianized model minority myth. This study also contributes to the research on racial crisis response and the calibration with continuous improvements in educational policies and practices on AAPI-related issues.

Authors

• Mai Xi Lee, Sacramento County Office of Education

• Chunyan Yang, University of Maryland