The current “pathology� of the American educational system can be addressed by introducing indigenous theories and methods of knowledge, involving parents and community in the teaching process, and presenting learning within an historical and cultural context, according to new research included in the UCLA Asian American Studies Center’s Amerasia Journal.
The new issue of the premier scholarly journal in Asian-American studies focuses on pedagogy, social justice and the state of Asian-American studies.
According to Warren Furumoto, professor at California State University, Northridge, and contributing journal editor, education must be connected to social justice, or “equity in the social, cultural, racial and economic realms,� while, at the same time, education must be disconnected “from the reproduction of social inequities.� He draws upon his Hawaiian background to introduce traditional models of Pacific Islander philosophy and education to mainland readers.
Furumoto notes that more than 60 percent of African-American, Latino and American Indian students do not graduate from high school. Furumoto and other researchers suggest new models of learning based on relearning indigenous theories and methods of knowledge, involving parents and community in education, and teaching within an historical and cultural context. At the same time, students should be required to apply what they know and learn to a broader community setting outside school.
A key premise of Furumoto’s approach is that new brain-based cognitive learning techniques can be used to retrain both students and teachers to “disconnect� from old patterns of thinking and to discover new forms of learning.
Furumoto’s research is included in the first section of the book, which consists of nine essays that attempt to reconceptualize the educational process for K-12 students and offer alternative forms of teaching and pedagogy.
Other researchers suggest alternative means to humanize K-12 education and to empower students themselves to become agents of social change within a local community setting.
Students, for example, are encouraged to write letters, develop booklets, gather signatures for petitions and more, within a comprehensive learning context that challenges their cognitive and social skills.
Authors for this section include Glenn K. Omatsu, Alice J. Kawakami, Tony Osumi, Rosa Furumoto, and Manulani Aluli Meyer. Many of the authors use their own classroom experiences in Hawaii and on the U.S. mainland to discuss educational alternatives.
In the second section of the journal, contributing editor and professor Arif Dirlik reexamines the 35-year-old field of Asian-American studies in relation to the changing demographics and needs of the current Asian-American population.
Dirlik suggests that the teaching of Asian-American studies is at a critical juncture. It can either continue within the context of ethnic studies, be absorbed into Asian or American studies departments, move toward diasporic studies or break down Asian-American studies into national fields such as Chinese-American or Filipino-American studies.
Jonathan Okamura, Yen Le Espiritu, David Palumbo-Liu and Moustafa Bayoumi also are authors in this section.
According to Amerasia Journal editor Russell Leong, both sections reveal linkages and boundaries.
“The linkage is that all the essays stress the importance of community beyond the university as key to understanding education today,� Leong said. “The separation is that teachers and ideas from the K-12 curriculum and the college curriculum, including Asian American studies, remained rooted in their separate worlds. The challenge of this volume was to bring these two worlds together for our readership.�
Also included in the journal is an essay by Madeline Y. Hsu on Chinese-American history, and a short story by American Book Award winner Alex Kuo.
This special volume on education can be ordered directly through the center’s Web site at www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc, or by contacting Thao Cha at (310) 825-2968 or thaocha@ucla.edu.