The Centrality of Critical Agency: How Asian American College Students Develop Commitments to Social Justice

Abstract

Context Systemic oppression is one of the most pressing problems in U.S. society. However, relatively little is known about the process by which college students become committed to social justice agendas. In addition, systematic empirical inquiries that examine how Asian American students, in particular, develop such commitments are difficult to find. Purpose/Research Question This inquiry was focused on understanding the process by which Asian American college students develop commitments to social justice. The following overarching research question guided the inquiry: How do Asian American college students cultivate a commitment to social justice? Research Design Using a qualitative approach grounded in a critical paradigm, individual interviews were conducted with Asian American college students involved in social justice activism and advocacy. Data Collection and Analysis A single, semistructured 60-minute face-to-face individual interview was conducted with each participant. The data were analyzed in three phases, using line-by-line, focused, and axial coding. Memos were also used throughout the data analysis process to capture thoughts, make comparisons, and clarify connections across data points. Findings The analysis shows how environmental threats that create a sense of urgency, sources of knowledge that foster collective critical consciousness, and models of critical agency contribute to students developing their own critical agency, which ultimately leads to social justice commitments. Conclusions/Recommendations The current study extends prior knowledge by demonstrating that critical agency is salient in Asian American students developing commitments to engage in social justice agendas. The findings also contribute to existing research by offering some evidence that ongoing opportunities to cultivate critical consciousness and connections to agents who model social justice interact and converge with key environmental threats to shape critical agency. The study also provides some initial evidence that Asian American parents can catalyze students’ critical agency and social justice commitments through serving as sources of knowledge that increase students’ awareness about social injustices and modeling how to contribute to a more just world, while college curricula across diverse disciplines and peer networks that center social injustices also help foster critical consciousness that leads to social justice commitments among some Asian American students.

“We Really Have to Come Together”: Understanding the Role of Solidarity in Asian American College Students’ Social Justice Activism and Advocacy

“…While existing stereotypes of Asian Americans suggest that they are uniformly assimilationist and apolitical [25], Asian American Studies literature documents a long history of Asian American activism in U.S. society broadly and on college campuses specifically [26,36]. Yet, only a handful of higher education scholars have examined Asian American students' engagement in social justice efforts in higher education [10,[49][50][51][52][53]. This research provides some initial evidence regarding the factors that catalyze Asian American students' engagement in social justice agendas, as well as how these efforts lead to outcomes, such as stronger identity development, critical agency, and capacities to give back to their communities and society [10,[49][50][51][52][53].…”

“…Yet, only a handful of higher education scholars have examined Asian American students' engagement in social justice efforts in higher education [10,[49][50][51][52][53]. This research provides some initial evidence regarding the factors that catalyze Asian American students' engagement in social justice agendas, as well as how these efforts lead to outcomes, such as stronger identity development, critical agency, and capacities to give back to their communities and society [10,[49][50][51][52][53]. The current inquiry extends this literature as one of the first empirical inquiries into the nature of their experiences engaged in social justice efforts, and likely the first empirical analysis of the role of solidarity in their activism and advocacy.…”

“…The current inquiry aims to address these gaps in knowledge by examining the role of solidarity in social justice activism and advocacy among Asian American undergraduates. We define social justice as efforts to disrupt and challenge existing intersecting structures of oppression to create transformative change [10,11]. This definition was also based on our participants' understanding of social justice.…”

Familial critical consciousness socialization: How key family theories can expand racial‐ethnic socialization research among Asian American families

“…Studies on critical agency among Asian Americans and racial‐ethnic socialization in Asian American and Black American families suggest that these questions may be worth examining. Museus (2021) found that, among Asian American college students, parents' and siblings' critical action for social justice causes was highly influential for students' development of critical agency. Among Asian Americans, Juang et al (2018) found that some second‐generation Asian American parents felt empowered to engage in racial‐ethnic socialization, specifically because their parents did not talk to them about race.…”

The double pandemic: Examining cultural stress among Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…Previous research has examined how race-related stress influences ethnic–racial identity (ERI; Iwamoto & Liu, 2010), the role of ERI in ethnic–racial discrimination (ERD; Yip et al, 2022), temporal sequencing of ERI and ERD (Gonzales-Backen et al, 2018), and ERI’s mediating role in ERD (Brittian et al, 2015; see Yip et al, 2019, for review). Previous research has also shown that ERI and discrimination may mobilize Asian Americans’ civic engagement (Museus, 2021; Phoenix & Arora, 2018). Vulnerability to cultural stress may increase awareness of inequality, ultimately predicting greater civic engagement (Moore et al, 2016; Plummer et al, 2022).…”