Disorienting race and education: changing paradigms on the schooling of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Abstract

The introduction frames the state of the educational research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) within two contexts—historical and conceptual—in order to develop intellectual and political paradigms that address their specific needs and interests. The historical section illustrates how the varying political status of AAPIs as immigrants, citizens, aliens, colonized nationals, refugees, and racial minority has shaped educational policies and programs. The conceptual section categorizes the multiple ways of researching and teaching race into pan‐ethnic, intersectional, comparative, and transnational frameworks. Situating and analyzing the work of the contributors in the special issue within historical and conceptual contexts demonstrates what the author considers as part and parcel of the overall project of ‘disorienting’. Disorienting is a dynamic and continuous process of negating, interrupting, and contesting dominant and normalized knowledge in order to transform the discourses and structures which impact marginalized individuals and groups.