This course uses the educational experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to explore broader social processes of racialization and contestation. In addition to analyzing access to education and curricular marginalization, we will touch upon bilingual education, Asian American feminist and critical pedagogies, education as a workplace, and racialized glass ceilings. In doing so, we will examine not only external barriers but also individual and community mobilizations around education. This course uses Freirian, problem-posing, and participatory pedagogies.
We begin by discussing several key moments in U.S. history and the Asian American educational experience such as the Third World Strike, Tape v. Hurley, and Lau v. Nichols. Then we explore contemporary Asian American educational issues such as access to education for Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander communities, college admissions, and the struggle for Asian American Studies. We will explore the politics of Asian American teachers and feminist/critical pedagogies.
The course will also cover racialized glass ceilings and education as a workplace. Using 2000 Census data, we will examine Asian American educational achievement along with the model minority myth. We will see if educational attainment increases or decreases the discrimination faced in the workplace. And we will see if the economic status of Asian Americans is commensurate with their educational achievement.
At the end of the semester students will apply what they learned in the course by conducting oral history interviews with Asian American educators or writing a research paper on a topic of their choice.
The requirements for the course include reading memos (20%), two midterm exams (20% each), a project/paper (20%), and student facilitation (20%). Attendance is also required. The prerequisite for the class is one course in Asian American Studies.
If any material is ever unclear, or even if everything is perfectly clear, please come chat with us about Asian American Studies, Sociology, Economics, or anything for that matter. We can be reached at the following:
|
Kathy Yep |
Linus Yamane |
Office |
Bernard 217 |
Fletcher 216 |
Office Hours |
Mon 4:30-5:30; Tues 9:30-11 |
Mon 3:30-5:00; Wed 8:30-10 |
Phone |
607-2645 |
607-3769 |
kyep@pitzer.edu |
lyamane@pitzer.edu |
You can leave voicemail at the office or send email to us 24 hours a day.
I. To strengthen the analytical tools essential to Asian American Studies (e.g. ICE, 3 levels, contestation, intersections, PAR)
II. To discuess key moments in Asian American history
III. To analyze issues facing Asian Americans in education
IV. To deepen written and oral analytical skills (expository, argumentative, and expressive)
V. To strengthen teaching and research experience
9/4 Thu
Umemoto, Karen. “On Strike: San Francisco State College Strike, 1968-1969, “The Role of Asian American Students” in Contemporary Asian America
Video: On Strike: Ethnic Studies 1969 – 1999, (37 m)
9/9 Tue
hooks, bell. Engaged Pedagogy, in Teaching to Transgress, 13- 22
hooks, bell. Paulo Freire, in Teaching to Transgress, 45-58
Omatsu, Glenn “The ‘Four Prisons’ and the movements of Liberation” in State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990s
“Concept of Asian American Studies” in Roots (1971), p. 264
9/11 Thu
ASAM101 web site
http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~kyep/classes/asam101/asam101s2005/webproject/index.htm
Osajima, Keith. “Breaking the silence: race and the educational experiences of Asian-American college students” in Readings on Equal Education
9/16 Tue
“The American Community – Asians: 2004”, American Community Survey Reports, U.S. Census Bureau, February 2007.
“The Asian Population: 2000,” Census 2000 Brief, U.S. Census Bureau, February 2002.
“We the Americans: Asians,” Bureau of the Census, September 1993.
9/18 Thu
Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies, http://www.idaas.org
9/23 Tue
“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight,” The College Board, 2008.
9/25 Thu
Lost in the Shuffle: Pacific Islanders in Pursuit of Higher Education http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc/classweb/fall97/M163/kuk3.html
Pacific Islanders Lagging Behind in Higher Educational Attainment (2006) http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/archives/PIEducationAttainBrief.pdf
Yang, (2003) Southeast Asian Americans and Higher Education http://www.searac.org/sea-he-tst6-17-03.pdf
9/30 Tue
Um, Khatharya. 2003. A Dream Denied: Educational Experiences of Southeast Asian American Youth: Issues and Recommendations. Washington, D.C., Southeast Asia Resource Action Center http://www.searac.org/ydfinal-2_03.pdf
National Pacific Islander Educator Network http://npien.com/aboutus/index.htm
Pacific Islander Access Project (web site) http://piaproject.blogspot.com/
Panel Discussion:
10/2 Thu: Social Causes in Historical Moments
Low, Victor, The Unimpressible Race: A Century of Educational Struggle by the Chinese in San Francisco, 1 – 111
McClain, Charles, In Search Of Equality, 133-144
Video: Mamie Tape and the Fight for Equality in Education (21 m)
Proposals Due
10/7 Tue
Pak, Yoon K., "Citizenship Education in the Seattle Schools on the Eve of the Japanese American Incarceration," Theory and Research in Social Education, 28 (no. 3, 2000), pp. 339-358.
Wang, L. Lau v. Nichols: History of a Struggle for Equal and Quality Education
10/9 Thu
Minami, Dale. (1990). “Guerrilla war at UCLA: Political and legal dimensions of the tenure battle.” Amerasia 16(1), 81- 107.
Don Nakanishi, “A Quota on Excellence? The Asian American Admissions Debate” in The Asian American Educational Experience
L. Wang, “Meritocracy and Diversity in Higher Education: Discrimination Against Asian Americans in the Post-Bakke Era,” The Urban Review, 1988, 189-209.
Week 7: Midterm
10/14 Tue: Exam Review
10/16 Thu: Midterm Exam I
10/21 Tue: Fall Break
10/23 Thu: Projects
11/11 Tue
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, The Economic Status of Americans of Asian Decent: An Exploratory Investigation, U.S. GPO, Washington, D.C., 1988.
11/13 Thu
Mar, Don, “Four Decades of Asian American Women’s Earnings: Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino American Women’s Earnings 1960-1990,” Contemporary Economic Policy 18 (2000), 228-237.
11/18 Tue
Yamane, Linus, “Asian Americans, Glass Ceilings, and PhDs,” mimeo, March 2007.
11/20 Thu
Woo, Deborah, Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans, AltaMira Press, 2000.
11/25 Tue: Midterm Exam II
11/27 Thu: Thanksgiving
12/2 Tue
12/4 Thu
12/9 Tue: Workshop projects/papers; pass out take-home final
12/11 Thu: Project/Paper due, Evaluations