Holding Up the Mirror: The Complexity of Seeing Your Ethnic Self in History

Abstract

With the growing inclusion of multicultural curriculum in social studies, educators must understand the issues students of color face when learning about their ethnic history and culture. Using personal document analysis and phenomenological interviewing, this study explored six Filipino American college students' experiences with Pinoy Teach, a transformative multicultural curriculum focused on Philippine and Filipino American history and culture. Six themes emerged revealing the complex interplay among prior knowledge, ethnic identity, and a curriculum about one's self. Students experienced connections, collisions, decolonization, and empowerment from Pinoy Teach. Connections resulted when Pinoy Teach filled gaps in participants' prior knowledge; however, collisions occurred when their prior knowledge of a colonized history clashed with Pinoy Teach's transformative narrative. Pinoy Teach also problematized students' conceptions of ethnic identity and relationships with other Filipinos. Finally, participants were empowered from teaching their history, which showed the power of linking learning to social action. The author shares several lessons for educators when implementing multicultural curriculum in social studies.

Fostering Critical Dialogue Across Cultural Differences: A Study of Immigrant Teachers' Interventions in Diverse Schools

“…When teaching about differences, as Kumashiro (2000) suggested, teachers need to go beyond "advocating strategies that are always supposed Downloaded by [University of Florida] at 15:55 10 June 2016 to bring about the desired effect" (p. 45). Halagao (2004) pointed out how notions of "neutral" or "objective" perspectives need to be problematized in classroom discussions, including "having students walk away from the classroom believing all viewpoints are morally neutral" (p. 475). The increased movement of people and the crossfertilization of knowledge across societies have made teaching about differences more complicated, revealing the messy ways cultures have interacted over time (see Merryfield, 2001).…”

“…In general, it necessitates teachers learning how to carry out constructive discussions on social issues with and between students instead of maintaining the silence that in turn maintains inequitable school experiences for ethnically diverse students. This article attempts to contribute towards a growing body of research on the practices of teachers of diverse identities who bring a complex understanding of difference/diversity in social studies classrooms (Halagao, 2004;Salinas & Sullivan, 2007); it similarly attempts to contribute towards research that values the need to dialogue on discourses considered controversial in U.S. society (Hahn, 1991;Hess, 2002).…”

U.S. Empire and an Immigrant’s Counternarrative: Conceptualizing Imperial Privilege

“…To prepare teachers for critical curricula, teacher education programs should change program policies and design to support these lessons. For example, programs could require prospective candidates to take an ethnic studies course prior to program enrollment, and/or educators can look to designing programs like those described by Halagao (2004Halagao ( , 2010 to provide institutional support for having discussions about U.S. empire.…”

Am I Really Filipino?: The Unintended Consequences of Filipino Language and Culture Courses in Hawai'i

“…Instead, Halagao (2004) argues for an educational model where students can actively reflect on what being Filipino means to them and does not simply replace one master narrative with another. Engaging students in the process of decolonizing the mind must include processes of naming, reflection, and action (Strobel, 2001).…”