“I’m More Than a Teacher”: Lessons From an Asian American Teacher on the Politics of Belonging and Anti-Blackness

Background or Context: Belonging has proved to be important for youth and adults in schools. However, anti-Black racism in U.S. schooling has led to harmful psychological and physiological effects that teachers of Color face in combating racism. As such, teachers of Color continue to face a “double bind” when it comes to teaching: working to advocate for anti-racist pedagogies, curricula, and school policies, while also having to navigate and protect themselves from the normalcy of racism in individual, ideological, and institutional forms. Hence, it is worth understanding how teachers of Color navigate the politics of belonging in the current contexts of their schools and seeing what lessons there are still to learn about how belonging takes shape in the context of anti-Blackness. Additionally, this piece contributes to the growing body of literature on Asian American teacher experiences by explicitly attending to the relationship of Asian American educators' efforts to combat anti-Blackness in school contexts. Purpose/Research Question: This study explores how an Asian American teacher works to cultivate belonging in the context of an anti-Black school. Hence, this study poses the following question: How does an Asian American teacher enact their own politics of belonging to contest the hegemonic presence of anti-Blackness for themselves and with youth? Subsequent supporting questions are: How does an Asian American educator foster senses of belonging in our educational communities when automatically positioned as an authority figure who represents and carries out anti-Black practices that have endured the modern schooling history? What actions and beliefs do teachers rely on to intellectually and materially foster senses of belonging with youth? Research Design: This project employed the critical ethnographic methodology of portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) of an Asian American teacher, Thuy, with an explicitly named commitment to Black solidarity. The study took place in Racial Justice Community School during a two-year period (2019–2021). Data collected consisted of formal interviews, extensive informal interviews, field notes, participant observation, lesson plans, and student assignments. Conclusion/Recommendations: Thuy’s portrait illustrates the tension between the potential for classrooms to be sites of racial justice and the hegemonic force of anti-Blackness in schools that she constantly had to strategically navigate. Drawing on these lessons, the conclusion explores what it might mean for schools to support educators like Thuy, with specific attention to the ways that teacher education, school leadership, and policymakers need to divest from anti-Black logics that undergird current formulations of being a teacher.