Some Asian Americans attempt to validate the “model minority” myth by
working hard and acting White (Lee, 1996) but these attempts are not always successful
since there is a cultural dimension of being Asian American that is not easily ignored.
Nonetheless, these images may have helped Asian Americans to enter the teaching
profession. Although the civil rights movement triggered an interest in increasing the
diverse teaching population, it seems like Asian Americans may have been favored over
other ethnic minority groups.
C. Contribution, Relevance, and implication for Action:
We hope to record the oral histories of retired Asian American women teachers so
that we may share their experiences as minority women teachers and learn from their life
experiences. By interviewing retired Asian American women teachers, we hope to:
1. Identify the motivating factors that contributed to their decision to enter the
teaching profession. We will use the findings to motivate future Asian American
students to choose teaching as a career.
2. Discover what kind of professional development opportunities were valued by
Asian American teachers. We will use the findings to modify our current
professional development programs, such as the support programs for NBPTS, to
meet the needs of our diverse teaching populations.
3. Understand the histories of Asian American that have shaped or influenced their
educational careers. We will use the findings to evaluate how experiences of
teachers shape or influence the experiences of our students.
Section II: Outcomes and Methods
A. Learner/participant outcomes:
Currently in social sciences and in humanities literature, there is an outgrowth
of homogeneous descriptions of people of color and the assumption that people of
color have no differential identities (Stanfield, 1993). According to Andersen (1993),
“Sociological studies of race have often been distorted by having been centered in the
perspectives and experiences of dominant group members” (p. 39).
Participants in this session will explore the term coined by a dominant group
member, “model minority”, and what is means to the minority group members
through the oral histories of Asian American women teachers.
B. Methods:
Oral history methodology allows a researcher to capture the life stories of
individuals through interviews, which permit the narrators to speak in their own words.
By sharing the experiences of Asian American women teachers, they relay instances of
racial discrimination they had experienced as well as the need for increased awareness for
diversity. Through oral history interviews and artifacts, participants will gain an
understanding to fill in some of the gaps that exist in literature. Oral histories of Asian
American women teachers will present a fuller, more complete rendering of history and
shed light on sensitive and sometimes overlooked topics, such as their experiences during
World War II and the civil rights movement. These stories may help educational
stakeholders to recruit and retain Asian American teachers so that they may reflect their
student population.
Convention