Small Steps, Big Impact Episode 7 – Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander Students
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Our guests today are Dr. Edna Tan, Hooks Distinguished Professor of Teacher Education and Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Dr. Benji Chang, Associate Professor of Equity Education, both members of the Department of Teacher Education & Higher Education here at UNCG. Our conversation today focuses on the importance of understanding the experiences of our Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander students as they navigate Higher Education environments.
Link to full transcript here.
Music, A Short Walk, from Zapsplat.com
Quote from the Episode
The cultural assumptions of Asian students to say that they don’t ask any questions because they’re really smart and it’s their culture not to ask questions. It is certainly not the Chinese culture or the Singaporean culture.
About our Guests
Dr. Edna Tan
Edna Tan is Hooks Distinguished Professor of STEM education at the School of Education. Her community engaged research investigates the design, support and outcomes of equitable and consequential STEM learning for historically minority youth across learning contexts and over time. She works with minoritized and refugee youth, middle school teachers and community members in both formal and informal science education settings. Her collaborative research has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Journal of Research in Science Education, among others. In 2020, Dr. Tan was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She also drinks tea, walks her dog, and plays cello.
Dr. Benji Chang
Benjamin “Benji” Chang is Associate Professor of Equity Education in the School of Education, and Affiliate Faculty in International & Global Studies. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Education University of Hong Kong. Dr. Chang’s work focuses on teacher education, community engagement, and language, literacy and culture, particularly with minority and Asian diasporic communities. He has published in venues like Theory Into Practice and Curriculum Inquiry, currently serves on the Teachers College Record Board, and is Co-Editor of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies (CILS) Journal. Prior to UNCG, Dr. Chang was a public school teacher, hip hop artist, and Postdoctoral Fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Resources from the Episode
Many of the links below require you to log into the UNCG library with your credentials.
- Chang, B. (2013). Voice of the voiceless? Multiethnic student voices in critical approaches to race, pedagogy, literacy and agency. Linguistics and Education, 24(3), 348–360.
- Chang, B. (2017). Asian Americans and education. In G. W. Noblit (Ed.), The Oxford research encyclopedia of education (pp. 1-39). Oxford University.
- Chang, B. (2020). From ‘Illmatic’ to ‘Kung Flu’: Black and Asian solidarity, activism, and pedagogies in the Covid-19 era. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(2), 741–756.
- Chen, E. W.-C., & Omatsu, G. (Eds.). (2006). Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans: Effectiveness activities, strategies, and assignments for classrooms and communities. Rowman & Littlefield.
- Chen, G. A., & Buell, J. Y. (2018). Of models and myths: Asian (Americans) in STEM and the neoliberal racial project. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(5), 607-625
- Coloma, R. S. (2006). Disorienting race and education: Changing paradigms on the schooling of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 9(1), 1-15.
- Hirabayashi, L. (Ed.). (1998). Teaching Asian America: Diversity & the problem of community. Rowman & Littlefield.
- Kiang, P. N.-C. (2004). Linking strategies and interventions in Asian American Studies to K–12 classrooms and teacher preparation. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17(2), 199-225.
- Kinefuchi, E. (2010). Finding home in migration: Montagnard refugees and post-migration identity. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 3(3), 228-248.
- Kolano, L. Q., & Davila, L. T. (2019). Transformative learning of refugee girls within a community youth organization serving Southeast Asians in North Carolina. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 33(1), 119-133.
- Nadal, K. L. (2019). The Brown Asian American Movement: Advocating for South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Filipino American communities. Asian American Policy Review, 29, 2-11.
- Ng, J. C., Lee, S. S., & Pak, Y. K. (2007). Chapter 4 contesting the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes: A critical review of literature on Asian Americans in education. Review of research in education, 31(1), 95-130.
- Ocampo, A. C., & Soodjinda, D. (2016). Invisible Asian Americans: The intersection of sexuality, race, and education among gay Asian Americans. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(3), 480-499.
- Pak, Y. K., Maramba, D. C., & Hernandez, X. J. (2014). Asian Americans in higher education: Charting new realities. ASHE Higher Education Report, 40(1), 1-136.
- Ramkellawan-Arteaga, R. (2020). Just because we look alike doesn’t mean we are the same: Using an examination of Indo-Caribbean identity to inform a third space lens. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 1-16.
- Rong, X. L., & Hilburn, J. (2017). Immigration and education in North Carolina: The challenges and responses in a new gateway state. Sense Publishers.
- Woo, M. (1981). Letter to ma. This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color, 140-47.
