| Description |
Existing research on Asian American educators is typically limited to a few select areas of inquiry including the absence of Asian American educators, Asian Americans as honorary “Whites†and model minorities, and racial microaggressions experienced by Asian American teachers and faculty. In the last decade, Asian American educational research has begun emerging and expanding into different areas of inquiry including the potential and proficiency of Asian American teachers and educational leaders. While this is notable and exciting, there is still very little research that richly documents the practices (and ultimately, the potential and proficiency) of Asian American women educators. Moved by the urgency to expand and deepen research on Asian American women educators, this study centers four Asian American women educators who practice hip-hop pedagogy because they are a present, active, and dynamic part of transformative education and hip-hop culture. As a pedagogical, theoretical, and methodological tool, hip-hop pedagogy is a practice of opposition that disrupts traditional schooling methods of assessment and discipline while reflecting the cultural values and needs of learners. As such, the participants in this study either identified themselves as hip-hop pedagogues, have been identified by others as hip-hop pedagogues, and/or have embraced the interpretation of their pedagogies as hip-hop. This study employs portraiture as methodology to trace the participants’ hip-hop origin stories and the influence that hip-hop has had on their pedagogical practices. Data drawn from in-depth interviews and observations present detailed, artful illustrations of who these educators are, how they teach, why they teach, and the benefits of their hip-hop pedagogical practices. Careful examination of the educators’ individual and collective stories calls attention to the value of hip-hop pedagogy as employed by Asian American women and the possibilities of an emerging thread of hip-hop pedagogy: Asian American womanist hip-hop pedagogy. |
