“Flattening” Asian American Studies in Secondary Education: Strategies and Recommendations for Conceptualizing the Field in Public Schools
by James O. Fabionar and Jesse Mills
ABSTRACT: In recent years, political pressure to address systemic racism, police brutality, and racialized violence in California has resulted in the passage of laws and policies that mandate public schools, colleges, and universities to require Ethnic Studies courses. Amidst this expansion, an array of policies and practices are emerging within and across systems that reflect what is believed to be core knowledge in Ethnic Studies and subfields like Asian American Studies. This article distills observations from one site among these different systems—secondary schools—and describes a “flattening,” or watering down, of Asian American Studies in emerging curricula and instructional practices. It discusses four forms of flattening—subsuming, reducing, decontextualizing, and omitting—and offers recommendations for responding to these tendencies.
Article Citation: James O. Fabionar and Jesse Mills (2024) “Flattening” Asian American Studies in Secondary Education: Strategies and Recommendations for Conceptualizing the Field in Public Schools. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community: 2024, Vol. 21, No. 1 & 2.