Although both Asian students and teachers still face barriers in the world of American education, positive changes in recent years have created hope for the future. I have witnessed some of these changes firsthand as an educator myself. In 2021, for example, I helped run creative writing workshops for Asian American youth aged nine to twelve. Since then, I have continued working with children in afterschool and summer camp settings, observing their increased cultural awareness and pride in their heritage. However, my perspective can be limiting because I am still an undergraduate student. To better understand the trends playing out in classrooms and behind the scenes on college campuses, I spoke with two other Asian educators (and Mochi Magazine staff members).
Joan King, Ph.D., is not only a staff writer for Mochi Mag but also has a wealth of experience within the American education system in K-12 and undergraduate college classrooms. Today, King works at Shoreline Community College, where roughly 18% of the students are Asian American. She is the director of the Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) Program (“Native American,” in this context, refers to Native Hawaiians).
In addition to being the Arts & Culture Editor at Mochi, Yvonne Su teaches multiple subjects to students ranging from kindergarten through the eighth grade. She has worked at several schools where Asian students accounted for, at times, a minority of the student body — 20% at her current school — to the vast majority at 80 to 90%.
The Persistent Barriers of the Model Minority Myth
Like many Asian Americans, King, Su, and I have all encountered the model minority myth. Although both King and Su attended schools with sizable Asian populations, King points out that “schools are built on white supremacy, whether the students are diverse or not, and so we were experiencing things that we didn’t even have the language to talk about” — the model…
Read the full article here
