HERE Center

Critical Race Theory Resources

Asian American and Pacific Islander

Articles in this section may concurrently be sorted into other fields of study (e.g., Higher Education, Social Sciences). Population tabs were created for this project to highlight the impact of racial discrimination on particular racial/ethnic groups. Sentences that come directly from the article are in quotation marks. CSUN students, faculty, and staff can access most articles through the University Library using CSUN credentials. Please use the library’s interlibrary loan services if an article of interest is not available.

 

An, S. (2017). AsianCrit perspective on social studies. Journal of Social Studies Research, 41(2), 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2016.06.002

  • This article introduces Asian critical race theory (AsianCrit) as relevant to curriculum studies, and explicates how AsianCrit can be a theoretical, methodological framework to research and transform curricular treatment of Asian Americans. This article seeks to address the lack of curriculum research on Asian Americans as well as the limited curricular inclusion of Asian Americans and their experiences.

 

Buenavista, T. L., Jayakumar, U. M., & Misa‐Escalante, K. (2009). Contextualizing Asian American education through critical race theory: An example of U.S. Pilipino college student experiences. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2009(142), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.297

  • Using Pilipino college students’ experiences as an example, the authors consider how CRT can be used to challenge notions of a monolithic Asian American educational experience through an examination of differences among Asian American subpopulations.

 

DePouw, C. (2018). Critical race theory and Hmong American education. Hmong Studies Journal, 19(1), 1–40.

  • CRT in education “centers race and racism in relation to other axes of oppression, thereby locating educational inequities that Hmong American youth experience within appropriate historical, social, and institutional contexts.” The analyses “provide Hmong American students with the concepts needed to name and validate their experiences as part of the development of critical race consciousness.”

 

DePouw, C. (2020). The need for critical race consciousness in critical Hmong studies. Hmong Studies Journal, 21, 1–30.

  • This paper draws upon CRT in education and Whiteness as property “to reflect on the need for critical Hmong studies to include the development of critical race consciousness as an important goal of the field.” It “focuses on the racism within community and campus contexts in Wisconsin and how critical Hmong studies could empower students to successfully navigate race and power within their personal and professional lives.”

 

Iftikar, J. S., & Museus, S. D. (2018). On the utility of Asian critical (AsianCrit) theory in the field of education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(10), 935–949. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2018.1522008

  • The authors “review an AsianCrit framework and examine Asian American issues in education through seven AsianCrit tenets to demonstrate their utility in the analysis of and advocacy for Asian Americans in U.S. education.”

 

Jang, S. T. (2018). The implications of intersectionality on Southeast Asian female students’ educational outcomes in the United States: A critical quantitative intersectionality analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 55(6), 1268–1306. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218777225

  • Based on the framework of critical quantitative intersectionality, this study examines “the multifaceted impacts of Southeast Asian female students’ race or ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status on math achievement score and intention to enter higher education.”

 

Kim, H. A. (2020). Understanding “Koreanness”: Racial stratification and colorism in Korea and implications for Korean multicultural education. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 22(1), 76–97. https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v22i1.1834

  • This paper explores the social construct of Koreanness and suggests that Koreanness shows many similarities to Whiteness in the U.S. It examines “how racism and colorism permeate Korean society and culture, with special attention to education.” The author concludes that Koreanness should be addressed in multicultural education in Korea.

 

Kodama, C. M., Poon, O. A., Manzano, L. J., & Sihite, E. U. (2017). Geographic constructions of race: The Midwest Asian American Students Union. Journal of College Student Development, 58(6), 872–890. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2017.0069

  • This article explores “the establishment of the Midwest Asian American Students Union (MAASU) as a racial project reflecting students' articulations of a regional, panethnic identity in response to racism.” A CRT lens was used to analyze interviews with 13 MAASU founders.

 

Moses, M. S., Maeda, D. J., & Paguyo, C. H. (2019). Racial politics, resentment, and affirmative action: Asian Americans as "model" college applicants. The Journal of Higher Education, 90(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2018.1441110

  • This article “uses philosophical analysis to clarify the arguments and claims about racial discrimination brought forward in the recent legal challenges to affirmative action in higher education admissions.” Affirmative action opponents have argued that “elite institutions of higher education are using negative action against Asian American applicants, so they can admit other students of color instead by using race-conscious affirmative action.” The authors examine the surrounding controversy, while positing that “the portrayal of Asian Americans as a model minority in this debate foments a politics of resentment that divides racial groups.”

 

Ng, J. C., Lee, S. S., & Pak, Y. K. (2007). 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. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X07300046095

  • The authors consider the limited representations of Asian Americans as model minorities and cultural foreigners in educational research, and the deleterious impact they have on Asian American students and faculty/teachers. They also discuss the complexity of Asian American identities and experiences by showing how the myriad factors of ethnicity, language, gender, culture, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and the like affect Asian American experiences.

 

Nguyen, B. M. D., Noguera, P., Adkins, N., & Teranishi, R. T. (2019). Ethnic discipline gap: Unseen dimensions of racial disproportionality in school discipline. American Educational Research Journal, 56(5), 1973–2003. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219833919

  • This article uses “risk ratios to descriptively establish if ethnic disproportionality in school discipline is present among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) subgroups.” The authors find that “when AAPI data are disaggregated...Pacific Islanders are nearly twice as likely as their White peers to be disciplined when separated from Asian Americans, and all Pacific Islander subgroups are at equal or higher risk for discipline.”

 

Shih, K. Y., Chang, T.‐F., & Chen, S.‐Y. (2019). Impacts of the model minority myth on Asian American individuals and families: Social justice and critical race feminist perspectives. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 11(3), 412–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12342

  • Utilizing the social justice framework and critical race feminist theory, the authors interrogate and problematize the model minority stereotype and its impacts. The authors focus on “the roles of family and community contexts and acculturation status on Asian Americans' educational achievement, gender, and psychological adjustment and mental health issues.” The paper illustrates “the diversity and nuance in Asian Americans' educational, psychological, social, and economic outcomes.”

 

Teranishi, R. T., Behringer, L. B., Grey, E. A., & Parker, T. L. (2009). Critical race theory and research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in higher education. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2009(142), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.296

  • The authors discuss their experiences as current and past members of the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education research team at New York University. Guided by CRT, they focus on issues related to college access and admissions, the AAPI college student experience, and AAPI administrators and higher education leadership.

 

Yi, V., Mac, J., Na, V. S., Venturanza, R. J., Museus, S. D., Buenavista, T. L., & Pendakur, S. L. (2020). Toward an anti-imperialistic critical race analysis of the model minority myth. Review of Educational Research, 90(4), 542–579. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320933532

  • The current analysis “reveals little evidence that research on the myth reinforced hegemonic deficit thinking. Instead, authors find that scholars largely utilized complex and multifaceted antideficit approaches, challenged dominant essentialist model minority frames, engaged in strategic (anti-)essentialism to navigate complex pan-racial contexts, and reframed the myth to achieve diverse purposes that speak to different audiences.”