The wisdom in our stories: Asian American motherscholar voices

Abstract

This article centers the counternarratives of four Asian American motherscholar teacher educators presented as letters to our children in which we apply tenets of AsianCrit to parenting and education, with racial realism at the forefront. Using Asian Critical Theory and motherscholar research to frame our analysis, themes within and across the data include pressures of cultural assimilation and identity loss, intersectional identities, compliance and resistance to Asianization, and learning from our children. Our Asian American motherscholar stories serve as examples of motherhood as an asset to critical scholarship and praxis.

Keywords:

• MotherScholar
• AsianCrit
• social justice
• education
• collaborative autoethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cathery Yeh

Cathery Yeh (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of ST EM Education and Asian American Studies Core Faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. Her work centers on critical mathematics education, humanizing practices, ethnic studies, and disability justice. Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco and faculty coordinator of the South Bay Masters of Arts and Teaching Credential program. Her research focuses on critical literacy, social studies, ethnic studies, and social justice learning and teaching in the elementary classroom.

Betina Hsieh

Dr. Betina Hsieh is an associate professor of teacher education at California State University, Long Beach. Current research interests include Asian American teachers, identity-informed mentoring in teacher education, teacher and teacher educator identity, cross-content literacy practices and the 21st century literacy practices in schools and universities.

Judy Yu

Dr. Judy Yu is a faculty member at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) and a Commission Member at CUNY's Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Initiative. She utilizes critical multicultural education and theory to conduct research and practice on the challenges of curriculum and instruction with students and community stakeholders in PreK-16 schools to create educational change.