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

Autor/in	Museus, Samuel D.
Titel	The Centrality of Critical Agency: How Asian American College Students Develop Commitments to Social Justice
Quelle	In: Teachers College Record, 123 (2021) 1, (38 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0161-4681
Schlagwörter	Asian American Students; College Students; Racial Bias; Social Justice; Parent Influence; Curriculum; Peer Influence; Empowerment; Persistence; Student Behavior; Activism; Advocacy + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Asian immigrant; United States; Student; Students; Asiatischer Einwanderer; USA; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Collegestudent; Racial discrimination; Rassismus; Soziale Gerechtigkeit; Curricula; Lehrplan; Rahmenplan; Ausdauer; Student behaviour; Schülerverhalten; Aktivismus; Politischer Protest; Sozialanwaltschaft
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. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Teachers College, Columbia University. P.O. Box 103, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 212-678-3774; Fax: 212-678-6619; e-mail: tcr@tc.edu; Web site: http://www.tcrecord.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01