In summer 2022, as part of the Voices of Change project, EdSurge Research convened 80 Asian American K-12 educators in a series of virtual learning circles to hear their stories. Our conversations spanned a wide range of topics that are top of mind for educators in every corner of the U.S. these days, including the fallout from COVID-19 and the ongoing racial reckoning in America; teacher burnout, low salaries, and systemic teacher shortages; and how best to use new technologies and curricula with increasing demands and shrinking professional resources. Overwhelmingly, however, these meetings served as a safe space for Asian American educators to connect with each other about the many subtle and sometimes overt instances of racial oppression they have experienced while working in schools.
For many participants, these small group conversations were the first opportunity they had to meet with other educators like themselves to bear witness to and process the painful and isolating racism they have endured, as well as the joys and successes they have had in bringing to work fully and to model powerful changes for their students and other teachers. We are grateful that you have trusted us and each other with your stories.
Here we offer two key findings that emerged from these conversations about how K-12 schools can support the well-being and professional development of Asian American educators: 1) Provide ongoing opportunities to participate in identity-affirming professional learning communities, and 2) systematically incorporate diverse Asian American perspectives into curriculum, professional development, and school policies.
Identity-affirming professional learning networks
Overwhelmingly, the 80 Asian American K-12 educators we spoke with described the critical role that the supportive and identity-affirming professional community played in their lives. Often alone, they sought and fostered ongoing and invaluable professional relationships with colleagues and mentors who understood the nuanced intersection of their everyday racialized experiences and the realities of their profession as an educator.
These affirming and supportive relationships took many forms, from ad hoc check-ins throughout the school year with two or three trusted colleagues to large-scale organized gatherings with hundreds or thousands of people at annual educators' conferences or in local or affinity networks. national (e.g., Asian/Asian American Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English; Massachusetts Association of Asian American Educators; Teaching for Justice conference at the University of California, Irvine).
Many also found a community online, following Asian American educators who publicly shared their learnings and resources (e.g. Karalee Wong Nakatsuka; Noreen Naseem Rodriguez; Hsieh Woman; @ericaintheclass; Whitney Leadership; Virginia Nguyen, michael ida); talk to each other through listservs or social networks; o participate in digital conversations and programming (e.g. #miseducasian Twitter/X Chats, ongoing digital conversations with a network of justice-oriented Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) educators catalyzing liberating educational change by countering miseducation that silences and obscures Asian American stories and stories ).
In these protective spaces, Asian American educators described being able to safely explore and unpack their own ongoing racial identity development while also discussing how to help their students and school communities do the same. They could be playful and happy; incarnate; vulnerable; freely celebrate big and small successes together; work through intragroup and intergroup tensions; and they readily turn to each other for support and guidance when facing racism, gun violence, mental health crises, and other challenging incidents in their schools and communities.
They also talked about the difference supportive leadership made. How having dedicated time and resources to participate in these communities helped them prioritize their own continued development as educators of color and served to further establish them in the profession. This type of tangible support from school leaders directly reinforced their well-being and resilience in the face of a tumultuous social climate, the devaluation of their skills and work, and the looming burnout, stress, and demoralization that so many educators in this country face.
Diverse Asian American Perspectives in Curriculum, Professional Development, and School Decisions
The Asian American educators we spoke to were acutely aware that their mere presence in their school communities already made a profound representational difference in the lives of their students, and they all took the pressures of that responsibility seriously. However, many also reported feeling overwhelmed and ill-prepared to protect students from the racialized teasing, microaggressions, and trauma that they and their students endured on a regular basis, even before it reached its peak. fever point in the wake of rising waves of anti-Asian hate speech and targeted acts of violence across the United States following COVID-19. They recognized that virulent, racialized scapegoating is a pattern in this country, such as when the federal government forced Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II or when post-9/11 Islamophobia targeted to anyone perceived as Muslim, including Arab and South Asian Americans. It's a pattern that will likely resurface in the future, for themselves or other marginalized groups, whenever the country experiences its next significant stressor.
They said it would help to have specific curricular resources, thoughtful school policies, and ongoing professional learning opportunities so that educators of all backgrounds can understand how historical tropes and racialized positioning of Asian Americans in the U.S. impact the daily life of students and educators.
Asian American educators need to be able to rely on school systems to proactively put structures in place to integrate diverse Asian American perspectives into curriculum, professional development, and school policies, so they don't feel like they're doing it piecemeal. , on your own. In our study, countless respondents said they felt like the only “parrot” in their schools, constantly the only voice advocating for otherwise forgotten Asian American students; scour the web for hours of your time searching for scarce curricular resources; or being the only one to recognize and point out blatantly harmful stereotypes in the school's curriculum and policies for its diverse students.
Many also described how it is often more painful and frustrating when the invisibility and the marginalization of Asian Americans occurs during professional meetings with colleagues, and especially in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) conversations, which they hope will be more mindful and inclusive but actually end up causing more erasure and harm by excluding, overlooking, dismissing or further marginalizing their voices and experiences. That's why it's important that all educators, not just Asian Americans, have access to ongoing professional learning and quality resources that humanize and put into perspective diverse Asian American experiences and stories.
If the responsibility of educators is to help students make sense of the world and their place in it, they need to be systematically and consistently supported to do the same. They can only do this if they have the space to do it themselves as well, at all stages of their journey as educators. This ranges from before they enter a classroom or school building as an educator, to how they are supported once they get there.
In a time of teacher, principal, and school counselor shortages, and when recruitment and retention of these professionals is declining at an alarming rate, it is imperative to intentionally create a work environment that views and honors educators as themselves.
