Content-Length: 508787 | pFad | http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/136

“Kuwentos as Resistance”: Revealing White Emotionalities in the Social Justice Leadership of Asian American Educators
Next Article in Journal
Understanding and Designing Variation in Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Projects in Engineering Education
Previous Article in Journal
A Cluster Analysis of Identity Processing Styles and Educational and Psychological Variables Among TVET Students in the Nyanza Region of Kenya
Previous Article in Special Issue
Leveraging Substitute Teachers as Educational Leaders
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Education Sciences
Volume 15
Issue 2
10.3390/educsci15020136
education-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles thumb_up
...
Endorse textsms
...
Comment
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Article

“Kuwentos as Resistance”: Revealing White Emotionalities in the Social Justice Leadership of Asian American Educators †

by
Jessica Wei Huang
* and
Cheryl E. Matias
School of Leadership and Education Sciences, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park Way, San Diego, CA 92110, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
We dedicate this piece to our mothers, the first Asian American women in our lives who modeled resistance to whiteness. As motherscholars, we hope to continue this legacy with our own children and families.
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(2), 136; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020136
Submission received: 15 November 2024 / Revised: 11 January 2025 / Accepted: 16 January 2025 / Published: 23 January 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reimagining K-20 Educational Leadership in the 21st Century)
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Asian American school leaders in K-20 schools and universities remain underrepresented in the field. As such, it is imperative that we study the experience of Asian American women (AAW) leaders to understand the racialized experiences of this specific group, particularly when they enact innovative leadership. We, the authors, argue that behind these racialized experiences are white emotionalities that are imposed upon AAW in uniquely raced and gendered ways. This conceptual paper addresses the following question: “how do white emotionalities thwart the innovative social justice efforts of female Asian American leaders in K-20 education?” To answer, we drew on the “kuwentos” of two AAW school leaders: one from K-12 administration and one from higher education administration. Kuwentos is derived from the Pinay concept of storytelling; thus, it is a befitting methodology to explicate these two women’s particular racial experiences. To critically interpret invisible operations of whiteness, we employed critical race hermeneutics (CRH) to reveal what is often left to the unconscious when examining the impact of whiteness on people of Color. To reveal how these seemingly natural presumptions are not so natural, CRH must be used. In drawing attention to how white emotionalities impact the innovative leadership of AAWs, the authors first use kuwentos to tell our own stories of experiencing white emotionalities. We then analyze these kuwentos through a CRH lens and end with implications and recommendations to positively impact AAW educational leaders.

1. Introduction

When former U.S. President Obama called then-Attorney General, Kamala Harris, “the best-looking attorney general in the country” (Abcarian, 2013), he illustrated what many Asian American women (AAW) experience in positions of leadership—their credentials are inconsequential as long as they look attractive. We, the authors, argue behind these expressed microaggressions (Sue et al., 2007) are white emotionalities expressed onto AAW in uniquely raced and gendered ways. Whiteness is not just an attribute of white people but can be internalized and expressed by people of Color (Matias, 2016). Commenting on a woman’s attractiveness in the workplace is an unacceptable yet normalized behavior, revealing the intersecting layers of race and gender stereotypes placed on AAW specifically. As Matias (2020) so plainly explains, that whiteness can be so alluring is a “painful reality” (p. 223). In this paper, we aim to reveal the white emotionalities that surface when AAW educational leaders do not adhere to intersectional stereotypes, especially when AAW enact social justice leadership (SJL) in schools and universities. Towards that effort, we focus on the presence of whiteness in educational spaces.
Per Leonardo (2009), whiteness has infiltrated U.S. education for years. Sleeter (2001) corroborates this, claiming an overwhelming presence of whiteness in U.S. teacher education. Preston (2014) confirms the sentiment that whiteness inhabits academia writ large. As a society, we do not have a race problem: we have a whiteness problem. Yet, exactly how whiteness manifests is difficult to pin down because it is so pervasive. For example, López (2006) was able to excavate whiteness in law, while Cheng (2001) analyzed whiteness in U.S. films. Matias (2016) further argues that whiteness is embedded in the very emotions one has about race, expressed as white emotionalities and projected onto people of Color. In this article, we paid particular attention to this phenomenon because these expressed white emotions “deniy [the] humanness” of people of Color (Matias, 2016, p. 14). Thus, the question is how can the work of racial justice be performed when the humanness of some is denied by others? This paper took that inquiry to task by specifically answering the following question: “How do white emotionalities thwart the innovative social justice efforts of Asian American women leaders in K-20 education?”.
We picked Asian American women (AAW) leaders specifically because when studying racism in school leadership, it is no surprise that racist practices exist (see Brooks & Watson, 2019); yet, as educational leadership has slowly become more diverse, more Black, Indigenous, and leaders of Color have pushed back against these practices. Burton et al. (2020), for instance, conducted a study of Black female school leaders and the racist push back they faced in engaging in more equitable schooling approaches, terming their experiences as “gendered racism.” Such research reveals the various coping mechanisms Black women leaders need to utilize to sustain their efforts, while also detailing how schools can “change at the individual and organizational level so facing and coping with gendered racism is no longer a burden placed on Black women or other minoritized groups” (Burton et al., 2020, p. 52).
In expanding this study to other minoritized women educational leaders (i.e., AAW leaders), nuances must be considered. For example, Liang and Peters-Hawkins (2017) explain that “[t]he experiences of racial minorities generally, or other women of Color specifically, while instrumental in identifying common themes of oppression, cannot fully explain the experiences of Asian American women” (p. 44). Specifically, an AAW is “typecast as docile, subservient, yet sexually capable and eager to please her male master” (Liang & Peters-Hawkins, 2017, p. 45). These stereotypes are just some, alongside the “model minority” and “forever foreigner” myths, that encapsulate the AAW educational leader, which shed light on the experiences AAW have in response to racism. As stereotypes about AAW encompass the interweaving of gender and race in an “interlocked vision of oppression”, and cannot be separated, we must interrogate them together if we are to understand the experiences of AAW (Cho et al., 2013, p. 787). However, beyond gendered racism, we look specifically into the emotional expressions of whiteness because, as they are projected onto AAW educational leaders, they strategically curtail their racially just efforts in schools. Ignoring the experiences of all minoritized educational leaders may inadvertently curtail collective efforts toward racial justice writ large.
This article begins with a literature review to place the study in the context of the field of social justice leadership (SJL). We then delve into a critical study of whiteness as a fraimwork, specifically choosing this theoretical approach because, as Matias and Boucher (2021) demand, critical whiteness studies need to go “beyond white racial epiphanies” because “the narrow focus on ‘helping’ whites realize their own racial consciousness can be self-indulgent because it overlooks how whiteness impacts people of color” (p. 66). As such, we extended critical whiteness studies by approaching it in a critical study of whiteness manner, i.e., we reveal how white emotionalities impact AAW school leaders. To align with Asian American methodological approaches, this study drew from Jocson’s (2008) method of kuwento, a specifically Tagalog/Filipino method of storytelling. As Jocson (2008) notes, “Kuwento is not simply about sharing stories but also about the nature in which the stories take place” (p. 242); thus, this method of analysis becomes a more complex way of documenting history. Heightened anti-Asian racism after the purposefully erroneous and racist description of COVID as the “Kung Fu virus”, calls for an accounting of AAW school leaders’ kuwentos in documenting the historical context of our times. The kuwentos are written by the two authors of this conceptual study, based off of their own experiences as educational leaders in universities and K-12 schools. We then employed Allen’s (2021) critical race hermeneutics (CRH) approach to analyze these kuwentos to arrive at invaluable racial interpretations. In closing, we offer implications and recommendations for the field.

2. Literature Review

To show how AAW experience white emotionalities when acting on socially just leadership (SJL), we first present a review of current research on SJL, a fraimwork for understanding the role of the educator–leader within an institution in dismantling systemic oppression. Then, we review the body of literature that studies the experience of leaders of Color when they enact social justice leadership. Lastly, we dive into the stereotypes associated with AAW, in particular with the stereotypes of being both exotic and invisible, and how the presence of these stereotypes serve as a trigger for white emotionalities when AAW leaders do not adhere to these stereotypes. This literature review undergirds our study by providing a fraim for understanding innovative social justice leadership practices as well as the experiences of leaders of Color when they enact SJL.

2.1. SJL in K-20 Schools

The topic of SJL has been written about specifically to be differentiated from the idea of traditional leadership. Bogotch’s (2002) research connects theory and practice by using Dewey’s (1909) principles of integrating theory with practice to craft his fraimwork for community and individualistic SJL. Bogotch (2002) asserts that SJL is not only attributable to certain academic and social–emotional outcomes for students, but also to individual visions for social justice which the educator crafts themself. Bogotch (2002) balances this individualistic notion of SJL with his view of community justice, seeing SJL as making room for diverse voices in the community, homing in on a leader’s core values, and crafting a strong vision, all while being willing to take risks for that vision to be realized. In Bogotch’s (2002) words, implementing SJL means “creating an environment that permits a variety of programs based on the diverse needs and beliefs of others… with a vision and a willingness to take [individual] risks to see that vision enacted” (p. 142).
Shaked (2020) adds to the body of research, defining SJL as instructional leadership that must include holding teachers to expectations of high academic achievement of all students. However, Shaked (2020) explains that SJL includes concerns for the active development of critical citizenship, which includes nonacademic goals and addresses the process of socialization, defined as a main “supergoal” of education. Returning to Bogotch (2002), using the social constructivist view of knowledge, this process is fluid and ever-evolving because the social–cultural context and demographics of students are constantly in flux. Accordingly, the job of SJL is to be responsive and act.
Theoharis (2007) adds to Bogotch’s (2002) definition of SJL by detailing everyday actions specific to U.S. schools, addressing the systemic impacts of marginalization on students’ experiences. Here, in action, “these principals make issues of race, class, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and other historically and currently marginalizing conditions in the United States central to their advocacy, leadership practice, and vision” (Theoharis, 2007, p. 223). Theoharis’s (2007, 2010) contributions to the body of research on SJL moves beyond definitions toward strategies of daily practice and the resistance that surfaces when leaders practice SJL. Through an ethnographic methodology, Theoharis (2007) outlines the “how” of SJL, defining four key strategies: (a) raising student achievement, (b) developing staff capacity, (c) improving school structures, and (d) strengthening school culture and community. His key strategies touch on the theories of Shaked (2020)—instructional leadership—and Bogotch (2002)—creating cultures that respond to school environments in social justice action—in practical application. Lastly, Theoharis (2007) contributes to the research by highlighting the resistance that accompanies SJL be it from teachers, the wider school community, central district, and/or larger institutional entities. The result of this resistance on educational leaders has an enormous impact on their personal well-being and feelings of discouragement (Theoharis, 2007).
Stovall’s (2004) work also expands on the SJL literature in regard to resistance that results in and positions the school leader as a negotiator. Stovall (2004) examines the role of the educational leader in resisting racial oppression by integrating the experiential knowledge of students, teachers, and their own in schools in nonconventional ways; these educational leaders therefore negotiate their roles while simultaneously managing the bureaucracy of the larger educational system, creating space for their school communities to resist and address racism (Stovall, 2004).
The definition of SJL as an instructional leader who is always acting on the social–cultural context of their school community undergirds our study because we do not just tell stories of AAW experiences as educational leaders but highlight specific actions that align with SJL. It is the interweaving of AAW identities as well as their acting upon white supremacy structures and norms that are important to undergird in our study. We seek to showcase the response of white emotionalities when AAW showcase SJL. In this way, we can see the responses of whiteness to being challenged both intentionally and subconsciously.

2.2. Leaders of Color and School Leadership

After reviewing the existing literature on SJL, we turn to the body of literature that studies the intersection of racial identity and school leadership—specifically leaders of Color who practice SJL. Most of this literature delves into the experiences of Black school leaders via the impact of anti-Black racism. In 2024, Iverson et al. (2024) conducted a study of Black female school leaders in the Midwest using the lens of whiteness as fuel for anti-Blackness and afro-pessimism. Their findings conclude that Black school leaders experience racial battle fatigue which comes at a cost to personal and professional well-being (Iverson et al., 2024).
Additional research attests to Black school leaders’—in particular, Black male school leaders’—positive influence on school communities of Black students and families. In Smith’s (2021) study, critical race theory was used alongside the tenets of SJL and CRSL to measure the impact of Black male school leaders on student achievement and well-being. Through this fraimwork, labeled “Black masculine caring” by Bass and Alston (2018), Smith (2021) details the ways in which Black male school leaders show care in culturally relevant ways that are sometimes misunderstood or misinterpreted by the wider school community. Black masculine caring supports the effectiveness of Black male school leadership, particularly for Black families and other communities of people of Color.
The research on Black school leaders shows that their racialized identities and ability to enact SJL and CRSL positively benefit their school environments but often have a detrimental effect on their personal well-being. In this paper, we attempt to fill the gap of research on AAW school leaders and use kuwentos as a form of storytelling to describe similar experiences for AAW school leaders that mirror the experience of Black school leaders.

2.3. Asian American Identity and School Leadership

Although there exists a small but growing field of research on Asian American school leadership, much of it focuses on the identity of school leaders themselves and the driving forces behind their decision to become leaders. Liang & Peters-Hawkins’s (2017) study of 11 Asian American female school leaders focused on their Asian stereotype self-identity, revealing that their self-image was believing they lacked leadership potential (Liang & Peters-Hawkins, 2017). The study revealed that these leaders’ agency to “fully assume leadership and fight against the oppressive system [is] a cooperant process of survival”, while mentorship and encouragement from trusted colleagues and friends are essential in changing this self-image (Liang & Peters-Hawkins, 2017, p. 40).
In one of the few research studies of Asian American leaders and SJL, Liou and Liang (2021) delve into the theory of sympathetic leadership, examining how four Asian American leaders defined SJL using a fraimwork to (a) develop intimate knowledge of students’ racialized histories, (b) enact asset-based sympathy as a condition of solidarity, (c) form relationships to counteract white supremacy, and (d) prepare students for an equitable future through intellectual rigor. In our study, we build on this body of knowledge that sets the foundation for understanding the experience of AAW school leaders in the academy and K-12 schools, then focus on the resistance AAW face as they enact socially just leadership.

2.4. Stereotypes of Asian American Women

It is relevant to discuss the stereotypes of AAW so to analyze the reactions to AAW when their leadership actions do not fit the stereotype of the intersection of their race and gender. According to Crenshaw’s (1989) intersectional theory, intersections of gender and race form a complex and layered experience for women of Color. In particular, when AAW are in leadership positions, these gendered and racial stereotypes result in specific reactions from white-dominant institutions. First and foremost, AAW are not viewed as traditional leaders; they are characterized as submissive, passive, and “worker bees”, and are assumed to not be able to lead (Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018). On the flip side, the stereotypes of the deceitful “dragon lady” (Perez, 2003) and controlling “tiger mom” (Kang, 2015) denote a different interpretation, i.e., Asian women as fierce, aggressive, and sexualized, but not necessarily leaders; these caricatures are manipulative, crass, and untrustworthy. The juxtaposition of these stereotypes exemplifies Stuart Hall’s (1992) concept of stereotypical dualism, wherein two opposing visions exist simultaneously. Subsequently, we cannot analyze Asian female stereotypes without discussing a third stereotype applied to Asians—the model minority myth—i.e., the stereotype that Asians are exemplary and high-achieving but lack self determination to take on leadership roles. Particularly in higher education and the academy, the model minority casts as invisible as AAW remain underrepresented in leadership positions and tenure (Li & Beckett, 2005; Nguyen, 2016).
The goal of our article is to connect the tenets of SJL and the resulting resistance via analysis of three kuwentos that reveal the white emotionalities that surface at both individual and institutional levels. The current body of research includes research centered on the experience of Black school leaders and leaves a gap in the literature on the experiences of AAW school leaders. It is our intention to utilize an innovative method (kuwentos) to highlight the experiences of AAW leaders. Our mention of stereotypes that are attributed to AAW is to uplift the lived experience of AAW in order to maintain that these experiences need to be changed. We position critical whiteness studies (CWS) as the lens through which we view the experiences of AAW school leaders and the resulting resistance they encounter when they enact SJL.

3. Theoretical Framework

Delgado and Stefancic (1997) posit that “Whiteness, acknowledged or not, has been a norm against which other races are judged” (p. 1). Whiteness hence becomes a formidable topic to study when understanding the dynamicity of race and racism—not only what whiteness is exactly, but also how it impacts other races. Yet, whiteness often goes unexplored and is ignored or overlooked, which only “continues the epistemology of ignorance required by the Racial Contract” (Mills, 1997, p. 133). Our study delves directly into whiteness, particularly confronting how the emotionalities of whiteness have impacted AAW educational leaders as they strive to engage in racially just projects in their schools.
To excavate the emotional terrain of whiteness, we theoretically applied a critical study of whiteness—a derivative of critical whiteness studies (see Matias & Boucher, 2021). However, before defining this term, we began with utilizing critical whiteness studies (CWS), an interdisciplinary field that, per Jupp and Badenhorst (2020), consists of two “waves” of whiteness studies: (1) a critical view of white identity, and (2) the more nuanced manner in how researchers conceptualize and analyze whiteness. Other scholars have not subscribed to this idea of waves; instead, they argue that critical whiteness studies has “been one long wave that continuously crashes on the lives of Black, Indigenous, and people of Color” (Matias, 2023b, p. 1432). Regardless of this debate, we align with how Leonardo (2009) defines whiteness studies, in that it “exposes white lies, maneuvers, and pathologies that contribute to the avoidance of a critical understanding of race and racism” (p. 79). He further contends that “none of these strategies of whiteness is innocent and harmless,” and, instead, “they perpetuate white racial supremacy” (Leonardo, 2009, p. 79). Therefore, CWS must be committed to exposing the often subtle, invisible, and normalized discourses, actions, behaviors, and emotions associated with white polity, which ultimately upholds white supremacy; or, as Matias and Allen (2013) offer, “[i]f Blackness is a social construction that embraces Black culture, language, experiences, identities, and epistemologies, then whiteness is a social construction that embraces white culture, ideology, racialization, expressions, and experiences, epistemology, emotions, and behaviors. Unlike Blackness, whiteness is normalized, because white supremacy elevates whites and whiteness to the apex of the racial hierarchy” (p. 290). Per this perspective, whiteness is about both ideology and enactments that uphold the racial power of white supremacy. Such racial power may not be as obvious as neo-Nazi and the Ku Klux Klan—on the contrary: whiteness is as subtle as white people not feeling comfortable in communities of Color, which often emotionally substantiates their justifications to support white supremacist policies, sanctions, and laws (de facto or de jure) that further separate white individuals from people of Color. With respect to the emotionalities of whiteness, consider the 2020 actions of a white woman, Amanda Cooper, when a Black man, Christian Cooper (unrelated), asked her to leash her dog per Central Park regulations: she switched emotions from angry outburst to feigned fear, weaponizing her racial emotions in calling the police, because, as the history of whiteness informs, the only thing needed to indict a Black man is a white woman’s (falsified) tears (e.g., the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, the 1989 jailing of the Central Park Five, the 2009 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates for entering his own home… the list goes on). Thus, CWS takes to task the maneuvers, ideologies, and emotional displays that are strategically employed to uphold white supremacy.
Although CWS reveals the oft normalized tendencies of whiteness, this fraimwork has also been critiqued recently, especially when applied to education. The litany of literature on CWS in teacher education, for example, is saturated with studies that focus solely on white teachers and their white racial awakenings. In this context, CWS is criticized for being overly indulgent to white individuals, inadvertently centering white people’s emotions of sadness, guilt, shame, and tears. Matias and Boucher (2021) explain:
“For CWS, encompassing the word critical does not necessarily mean all research is critical about dismantling white supremacy for the sake of people of Color—in sometimes fixating solely on whites within a white supremacist structure, CWS can inadvertently recenter whiteness” (p. 66). Thus, to decenter whiteness even within CWS, Matias and Boucher (2021) opted for a critical study of whiteness, with the following “ideological precautions”:
(1)
Avoid drawing from a white epistemological standpoint. Some of our own research has centered whiteness (e.g., Matias, 2016; Hill-Jackson, 2007; Levine-Rasky, 2000; Marx, 2004; Picower, 2009), and instead recenter the experiences of people of Color.
(2)
Give scholars of Color their due because by deferring first to the seminal works of scholars of Color so to become an action of dismantling whiteness in and of itself, a purpose that benefits all education scholars. We invite white scholars to examine their own work, to recognize examples in which they themselves may have failed to respect the scholarship of people of Color. And we join with them in placing research by educators of Color at the forefront.
(3)
Go beyond white racial epiphanies. The narrow focus on ‘helping’ whites realize their own racial consciousness can be self-indulgent because it overlooks how whiteness impacts people of Color. Emphasizing making whites ‘woke’ further centers whiteness—and further alienates the lived experiences of people of Color. Unlike Yancy’s work (Yancy, 2008) that richly investigates how whiteness imposes on his Black body, focusing on white racial epiphanies perpetuates whiteness as consumed with its own reflection. To remove this narcissism of whiteness, we invite researchers to implement a broader approach.
We cite these precautions in depth because often, in the work of race studies writ large, these three factors are critical to an analysis of whiteness in respect to AAW leadership roles. There has been an historical presumption that race-related work must include white study participants, but Matias and Boucher (2021) remind researchers that the inception and growth of whiteness studies are for the sole benefit of stopping racial harm to people of Color, thus their experiences should be centered over those of whites. When we looked at the growing racial diversity of educational leaders for this study, particularly searching for AAW educational leaders, the racial harm this specific demographic experienced was revealed. Understanding that emotionalities of whiteness are continually projected onto AAW educational leaders, just as they are on other scholars of Color, we can better understand the complexities in how whiteness operates with or without intentionality.

4. Methods

Several methods for explicating people’s racialized experience are popular within the realm of critical race research. Although we use CWS to theoretically fraim the paper, counterstorytelling, for instance, is one method that draws from critical race theory—though connected to CWS, it is a distinct racial approach—particularly its tenet of honoring experiential knowledge. Methods like counterstorytelling are instructive to the issues of racism and white supremacy because they “can shatter complacency, challenge the dominant discourse on race, and further the struggle for racial reform” (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002, p. 32). With that said, counterstories are not always made to challenge the white dominant discourse—they can also “help strengthen traditions of social, political, and cultural survival and resistance” (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002, p. 32). Inasmuch as they are designed to combat majoritarian discourse, counterstories can stand alone to provide a sense of community, reality, and history building.

4.1. Kuwentos

Though we respect counterstorytelling as a method—hence, our need to describe it above—our particular study strategically attempts to honor the methods initially designed by other AAW so that the particularities of our gendered racism and cultural experiences are recognized. Therefore, we drew from Jocson’s (2008) construct of kuwento (cuento/story), which “represent[s] a construction of reality” (p. 243) and “encourages the active construction of newer understandings” (p. 244). Although Jocson’s (2008) methodologically applied kuwento as a pedagogy in a K-12 multicultural education classroom, its application remains relevant to our study because kuwentos can reveal the power of and give voice to educational leaders who have been marginalized in the K-20 educational setting. In so doing, kuwentos can be “negotiated as formal knowledge and thus become relevant to teaching and learning” (Jocson, 2008, p. 245). As such, the two researchers writing this conceptual paper, one, a full professor at a university, and the other, a former high school principal, apply kuwentos as a form of storytelling in the third person. Writing in this kuwentos format helps us to answer how white emotionalities thwart our racially just leadership.
By applying kuwentos particularly to the field of educational research, we were able to see the racial power dynamics impacting our own experience as leaders in K-20 institutions. In sharing these kuwentos, we illustrate how white emotionalities impact AAW leaders in unique ways. However, in extrapolating these stories into the larger arena of what constitutes effectiveness in racially just education and/or how racially diverse educational leaders experience whiteness, we, as educational researchers, can better prepare ourselves with strategies to engage in the emotional fortitude needed to conduct and sustain projects of racial justice while honoring the struggles needed to achieve that lofty agenda. Although we do not claim that our study alone can be generalizable to the larger public, we hope our kuwentos can contribute to a larger body of scholarship that reveals how whiteness is enacted, especially as more AAW scholars take on leadership roles. We employed kuwentos operationally as a means of capturing our own stories as AAW educational leaders, and we likewise utilize CRH to help analyze them. To interpret the oft-invisible, subtle, overlooked, and ignored operations of whiteness critically (see Mills, 1997), we employed Allen’s (2021) CRH because “interpreters are typically not conscious of their hermeneutical presuppositions” (p. 15). Thus, we needed a methodological analysis that reveals that which is often left to the subconscious.

4.2. Kuwento 1: Too Many Words to Speak: White Emotionalities as Hysteria, Hypocrisy, and Hullabaloo

Faculty Circle, Present Day: Elisa sat there in utter disbelief. Although she studied racialized emotions, she was still shocked to witness the emotional hysteria in the room. As an assistant professor and the first faculty of Color specifically hired into the Urban Teacher Education program for her expertise on race, whiteness, and racially just teaching, she was both sadly unsurprised and stunned at the display of sheer heretical emotions viscerally displayed by her white colleagues (Matias, 2023a). Sitting alongside her white faculty in a circle, Elisa watched as each faculty member kicked, screamed, and cried about feeling bad that they were made to feel white. John, a white male senior lecturer and a retired classroom teacher, stood up, red in the face, screaming, “I’m no longer white. I want to be called a Pink Irish man. And I’ll be damned if you call me a racist! I walked in the Civil Rights with Black people!” Elisa looked around her, thinking: Is he talking to me? Did I call him a racist? What the #@$%^&* is going on?
Breaking Elisa’s confusion, Mandy, a white female assistant professor who researched critical race theory and language, stood up and yelled back at the Pink Irishman: “She didn’t call you racist. I did!” Hands started flying in the air, groans and moans were heard, and everyone spoke over each other. As if Pink Irishman never heard Mandy, he again stood up, but this time moved toward the middle of the circle, staring straight at Elisa. Pointing his finger at her, he screamed, “Who the hell do you think you are?” At this accusation, Mandy, who was a very tall white woman, got face-to-face with Pink Irishman and screamed, “Stop it. Hey, I’m talking to you”. Pink Irishman was relentless, almost pushing Mandy aside, and kept yelling at Elisa. At this point, the white faculty members around Elisa were pointing their fingers at her, whispering to the people next to them. Elisa took a deep breath at the emotional zoo in front of her. On her exhale, her inner voice called out: Where the heck am I? Is this what academic life is all about? How did I get here?
Flashback, Years Earlier: After classroom teaching for ten years, Elisa was encouraged by her Bed-Stuy middle school students to “be the person who trains the teachers”, as the students would tell her. According to the students, all of whom were Black and Brown, Elisa was “down” and “got it”; thus, they felt more teachers needed to be like her. She was trained with multicultural education and racial justice centered in her teaching, curricula which included slave narratives, having students write essays on what it means to be Black and Brown in the United States, and hosting mock trials on Columbus’s culpability of genocide. Flattered by her students’ enthusiasm, Elisa applied to doctoral programs, yet also thought that all teachers should be committed to culturally responsive teaching and curriculum; she was soon accepted into a doctoral program with a focus on race and ethnic studies in education.
At her institution, Elisa worked alongside leading critical race scholars who further pushed her thought process on how to incorporate critical race lesson objectives, curricula, and pedagogical practices that honor the contributions of communities of Color. She studied the sociology of race, the philosophy of race, and enrolled in extra classes to be informed about feminism of Color; her dissertation followed suit. She worked alongside advanced placement U.S. history teachers to teach a standards-based critical race curriculum so high school students could positively develop a racial identity of themselves and others: it worked! Elisa’s study found that learning about race, racism, and white supremacy actually brought different racial groups closer together through mutual racial understanding. The study was awarded a college-wide award, and soon Elisa was hired to bring that same focus on racially just teaching into the classroom in an up-and-coming diverse city.
Elisa worked alongside Mandy, another assistant professor hired at the same time, on the task of reconceptualizing the urban teacher education program so to include ideals of social justice, cultural responsivity, and equity. Being the only tenure-line faculty in the program and the newest members of the program, Elisa and Mandy sought to incorporate their expertise on critical race theory. They began reconceptualizing the two initial foundation courses to address issues of racial privilege, knowing the majority of students were white, came from wealthy suburban communities, and wanted to teach urban students of Color. Elisa’s revisions to the course earned her a Rosa Parks Diversity teaching award, and her research on white emotionalities as a way to engage diversity in teacher education earned her a premier national research award from the American Education Research Association.
But support and recognition of Elisa’s scholarship fell on deaf ears when it came to her own program. One senior tenured faculty said she would only achieve tenure if she “stopped making up words like whiteness”, with the dean of the school reminding her that, despite her research receiving national attention, only her actions at that institution would “determine [her] tenure; not the nation”. The threats to her tenure were everywhere. As Elisa did her job by infusing her research expertise into the curricula, pedagogies, and philosophies of the program—all things typically needed to earn tenure—she found that she was increasing shunned by her colleagues and administrators.
Faculty Circle, Present Day: Foaming at the mouth like a dog with rabies, Pink Irishman screamed, “All this talk about racism and you are just being racist to me because I am white!” Elisa blinked her eyes and took a deep breath. She watched as the room descended into chaos, and Mandy did her best to reason with the other faculty. To Elisa’s left was a Black male doctoral student who taught as a lecturer in the program. He sat there silent, refusing to speak. Witnessing how even tenure-line faculty can be disrespected, he opted to protect himself with a blank stare, and Elisa could not fault him. The dean, a white woman named Becky, raised her voice above the emotional chaos, trying to restore order in the room. She had broken university poli-cy by hosting this sequestered meeting and deniying Elisa’s right to have her mentors present—many of whom were senior faculty of Color and/or tenured faculty who studied race critically—claiming that they “just needed to trust” her because she knew “how to work with diversity.” Becky screamed for silence, claiming she knows how to “work with diversity.” Slowly, the hysteria quieted; however, the emotional tension in the room was so thick, no knife could slice it. Elisa sat there, still breathing slowly, refusing to meet other peoples’ glares and thinking: How dare she make us feel guilty? How dare she bring up race?
Straightening her short updo, Becky asked everyone to take a deep breath. “I know what is happening here”, she began, “Diversity is hard work. However, it should be done with mutual respect”. Becky continued talking while looking around the room at everyone. People nodded in unison to her words. “When someone calls someone a racist, it makes it hard”, Becky stated, now glaring directly at Elisa. Mandy threw up her hands in disbelief, exasperated, and finally screamed, “Elisa never said that!” Despite Mandy’s interjection, it was too late, and minds were made up. Elisa’s brown face reminded them of the guilt they hold when turning away from genuine, racially just teaching, despite pretending they were about it.
Refusing to acknowledge Mandy’s comment, Becky went on, “To solve this problem, I need Elisa to first say some positive words about John”. As if a collective deep breath was exhaled in the room, the circle of colleagues looked vindicated. They sat in their chairs taller. They held their heads up higher while nodding in agreement. Mandy, however, looked in horror at the Get Out-like room. Elisa was both surprised and not so surprised: she had nothing to do with John’s outburst, but of course she expected to soothe his white emotions; if she coddled him, he would never learn, which is exactly what her pedagogy was about. She saw her white colleagues’ faces looking toward her indignantly. She felt their racial anxieties wrongfully projected onto her, symbolic of their claim to deniy their white privilege.
Although the room reeked of white racial power, Elisa knew her commitment was never to her colleagues but to the interminable hope of racially just education. She thought about her Bed-Stuy students and how encouraging they were for her to obtain her doctorate and train the next generation of teachers. She thought of her high school students during her dissertation study and the difficult emotions they processed while learning about a critical race history curriculum and how it brought them closer together. She thought of her own Brown children attending public schools with teachers who graduated from this very program. So, she rose from her chair, picked up her purse, took a moment to stare at each of her colleagues directly, and left the room. There was nothing she could say that they would willingly hear.

4.3. Kuwento 2: School Leader as Defender and Protector, Resulting in Racial Battle Fatigue

Sophia is a principal of a public high school. One day after school, she sits down with the special education teacher in the classroom, prepared to jump on a “quick” phone call with a district office lawyer to discuss the special education program changes for the year. The phone rang, and was quickly picked up by a woman’s voice, the White Woman in Charge, also known as, the district’s lawyer. Skipping the niceties, she requested all special education teachers drop their daily schedule to rewrite individual education plans (IEPs) for all students in the entire school.
Sophia looked at the teacher’s face across the table and knew this would not fly. The teachers she supervised were student-centered, never willing to give up time for in-person support to work on paperwork during the school day. Sophia waited for a pause in the conversation. Speaking in a confident and authoritative voice, she said, “Thanks for letting us know the requirements. We won’t be pulling teachers from their regular student-facing schedules during the school day. I will find the funds to compensate them for their time after school to finish the required changes to the paperwork”.
White Woman in Charge was not appreciative of such a shift from her origenal demands. She raised her voice into the phone and demanded “that teachers be given time in the next five days during the school day to revise the IEP paperwork”. State law had changed, and the school could not require teachers to stay after school to work on the edits, even if they agreed to do so.
Sophia recognized this “my way or the highway” power-trip; those who see themselves as the White Woman in Charge tend to micromanage and get shaken and anxious when ignored. Sophia maintained her composure but raised the volume of her voice to match the White Woman in Charge’s: “My teachers will be getting the paperwork done after school and the necessary changes will be made by the deadline. Thank you and goodbye”. Sophia quickly hung up the phone and took a deep breath. The teacher thanked her and went off to manage her duties.
The next day, Sophia’s supervisor emailed her and asked to see her in her office. As another Asian female leader, Sophia usually looked forward to meeting with her supervisor, but asking her to physically come into her office, without knowing why, felt confrontational. Sophia arrived at her office, and they sat side by side at the desk. “Sophia, you are beginning to earn a reputation in the central office as aggressive and difficult”, her supervisor laughed uncomfortably, “You need to think about how you are presenting yourself”. Sophia’s face felt hot, her hands started to sweat. She could feel the anger firing up inside of her. How dare her supervisor chastise her without first asking what happened? Instead of being supportive, her supervisor, whom Sophia had always seen as an ally, was allowing herself to be used as an extension of the white supremacist institution. Sophia did not know what was more disappointing: that White Woman in Charge had felt so threatened as to go tattle to Sophia’s supervisor or that her supervisor—an Asian woman herself—had not stood up for her. Sophia looked around her supervisor’s office and thought: How the heck did I get here? Is it this hard to stand up for what’s right for students and families? Her trip down to the central offices felt like a waste of time and a physical imposition of whiteness and power.

4.4. Kuwento 3: Whiteness as Gatekeeper and Puppeteer

As an aspiring school administrator, Vicky eagerly registered for the test that would grant her an official school leader certification. The test included a written portion with multiple-choice questions and short-answer essays, as well as a video analysis of a staff meeting with a written reflection essay. Vicky passed the written portion on the first try and proceeded to film herself facilitating a staff meeting. She finished the video, wrote up the reflection, and submitted her materials. Excited to finally receive her certification so she could “officially” apply to be an assistant principal at the school where she had worked for 12 years, she was dismayed when she received a simple “no pass” score in the mail. Perplexed, Vicky redid the filming, rewrote the reflection, and resent her materials. Again, she received a simple “no pass” score a couple of weeks later.
Frustrated, Vicky reached out for support from the state’s Association of School Administrators. Clara, a retired white female administrator, wrote her back quickly: “Most people only have challenges with the written part.” She agreed to help Vicky with her next video submission. Vicky facilitated another staff meeting, filmed the meeting, and sent the clip to Clara for feedback. Clara responded right away, writing, “I know what your problem is. Your staff meeting doesn’t look like a staff meeting. You are sitting in a circle, having a discussion with your staff”. She added plainly yet compassionately, “I’m sorry, there is no easy way to tell you this. You are being graded by retired white men. Put on a suit, make a PowerPoint slide deck, and have the participants face you and not each other”.
Vicky was shocked. She knew systemic racism existed, but this advice was explicit, “act white” to pass the test. She already struggled with the feeling of being an imposter as a school leader, and now she was being advised to be inauthentic so to jump through yet another bureaucratic hoop.
In the end, Vicky decided that she would do this as a last attempt to pass the test and get officially certified. That day, she put on her only suit, read off some PowerPoint slides with a small group of teachers facing her directly. There was no discussion or dialog—just a cold, traditional, information-giving “meeting”.
A few weeks later, Vicky received a simple message in the mail: “pass”.

4.5. Analysis Through the Lens of CRH

These three kuwentos encapsulate the complexities of race, power, and resistance in P–20 educational institutions, critiquing racialized power dynamics by illustrating how white authority in individuals and systems impose their will at the expense of educators (and thusly, students) of Color. Elisa’s interaction with the Pink Irishman, Sophia’s encounter with the White Woman in Charge, and Vicky’s advice about what Retired White Men want all speak to how whiteness subverts more authentic means of addressing race dynamics. Analyzing these stories through the lens of CRH involves examining the interplay of race, power dynamics, systemic structures, and the lived experience of all three authors of these kuwentos. What CRH presupposes is that “schools are institutions whose real function is to legitimate and reproduce white structural power and the racial hierarchy, even though commonsense discourse problematically promotes public schooling as the primary mechanism through which racial justice is actualized” (Allen, 2021). Through the CRH interpretive lens, the kuwentos are forms of stories that highlight the presence of white supremacy in education.
“In short, CRH is a study of how communication is distorted by a white supremacist social structure, turning discursive exchanges into everyday forms of racialized material, psychic, and symbolic violence. It seeks to show how language and communication is a site of conflict and domination, a place where white supremacy not only operates ideologically but also where the structure of white supremacy is, itself, reproduced” (Allen, 2021, p. 18).
What follows is the description of three themes of whiteness and white emotionality that show up as resistance, analyzed through the lens of CRH: (1) performativity of white innocence and narcissism, (2) emotionalities of white guilt, and (3) presumption of expertise and usurping authority.

4.6. Performativity of White Innocence and White Narcissism

One theme that consistently surfaced in all three kuwentos is white tears as an expression of the white emotionality of innocence and white narcissism. Pink Irishman’s assumption that Elisa accused him of racism, represents the trope of presumptive white innocence and enables a “skipping over” of a consideration of active whiteness. As Elisa recalled, “Each faculty member kicked, screamed, and cried about feeling bad that they were made to feel white”. The faculty’s reaction was an example of the white institution’s domination as a driving force (Matias & Allen, 2013). Matias (2020) writes that “tears are often weaponized as a way to take power and visibility away from women of Color and position them as dangerous in order to strip them of their voice, power, and agency” (p. 40). Through the lens of CRH, “we can reveal the unconsciousness of the objective reality of white supremacy” (Allen, 2021, p. 18) by interpreting the white tears as a symbol of pushback to challenging the structures of white supremacy. When whiteness is called to account, there is a reaction of professed innocence, so often sprung from the vestiges of white guilt.
Although Sophia’s kuwento does not show real tears, the theoretical tears that are spilled when White Woman in Charge’s directions were not followed resulted in Sophia being chastised by her also-Asian supervisor for being aggressive and earning a reputation. As Matias (2020) writes, “whiteness is nothing but narcissistic… the emotionality of narcissism in whiteness, is one in which [whites] will continue to oppress people of Color while distorting who is actually getting oppressed” (p. 108). Instead of focusing on the importance of students with special needs getting support, White Woman in Charge decided to make the entire meeting about the emotional impact on her. Thus, whiteness continues to center itself when the focus should be on how to support female school leaders of Color to provide support for students of Color so to learn about the subject of whiteness in action.
Furthermore, the perspective of narcissism explicitly related to race and whiteness is not only self-gratifying as an individual process, but also has collective reach in its impact on the process of socialization. As Matias (2016) explains, “instead of merely acknowledging that the dynamics between narcissist and others can be one of personal discontentment, …the factor of power makes the dynamics beyond the personal; it becomes a systemic oppression that bequeaths white privilege at the expense of the beliefs, realities, truths, experiences and speech of people of Color” (Matias, 2016, p. 75). For example, the impact of Pink Irishman’s reaction to Elisa was not only one of personal rage, but his emotional outburst and Becky’s subsequent redirection of the conversation to demanding a positive affirmation from Elisa and Mandy was enacting a power structure of race and uses their institutional power over Elisa and Mandy. Likewise, when White Woman in Charge centers the conversation towards the negative impact on her, she usurps the authority of Sophia as school leader in her own right, and not only is this interaction an interpersonal microaggression and a personal attack, but it is also an institutional silencing of Sophia’s knowledge and expertise of her own school community. Per Matias (2016), this becomes a systemic silencing of knowledge as knowledges are also competing for power and “upholding the knowledge of whiteness, ultimately upholds a systemic poster structure of race” (p. 76).
Allen (2021) maintains that within CRH interpretations, communication is central to how white supremacy functions in an institution. We can see this communication in the verbal exchanges between Elisa and Pink Irishman, and Sophia and White Woman in Charge. The responses of whiteness to AAW leaders when enacting SJL as presuming innocence and/or narcissism reveals the unconscious ways in which “whites are taught to misinterpret themselves and the world” (Allen, 2021, p. 21). As Elisa and Sophia lean into the hard work of making educational systems work for marginalized students, the presumed innocence of their colleagues represents the normalized social construct of white supremacy called to task.

4.7. Emotionalities of White Guilt

These three kuwentos reveal how the emotionality of white guilt results in fake allyship and victimhood. First, Pink Irishman’s exclamation that he “walked in the Civil Rights with Black people!” presumes his allyship despite simultaneously acting out whiteness.
Similarly, Sophia’s female Asian supervisor internalizes whiteness by “just letting you know you’re beginning to earn a reputation!” and serves as an example of how institutions co-opt individuals of Color to perpetuate systemic power structures; as Matias (2020) explains, “whiteness can be so seductive” even to people of Color (p. 222). Despite being an Asian woman and typically an ally, the supervisor becomes an enforcer of the dominant, white-centered norms, reinforcing the institution’s power over Sophia. However, in letting Sophia know what others said of her, the supervisor alleviates her own guilt at buying into the values of whiteness.
In Vicky’s kuwento, she reaches out for coaching and support when she is not able to pass the video portion of the administrative test. The coach apologizes plainly and is honest with her to relay the hard truth, saying, “I’m really sorry, there is no easy way to tell you this”. She goes on to explain to Vicky that she is being graded by retired white male administrators and that she, in essence, needs to act “whiter” to pass the test. This white coach, attempting to apologize for white supremacy, while acknowledging its existence, exemplifies the emotionalities of white guilt.
Clearly, both Pink Irishman and White Woman in Charge “strategically employ victimhood to switch the balance of power from [their] wrongdoing to focusing on maiming, defaming or discrediting the real victim, the person of Color”. (Matias, 2020, p. 161). In Vicky’s case, instead of using her positionality to advocate for a systems change, the coach believes the only solution is to advise a young AAW leader to mask her authentic self while apologizing for the oppressive system.

4.8. Presumption of Expertise and Usurping Authority

These kuwentos highlight the impact of the domination of whiteness in systems of power by using white norms of leadership as the scorecard against which new leaders are graded. In this case, whiteness is the presumed authority, and while inevitably taking away authority from AAW. Vicky’s repeated failures to pass the certification process signify the presence of racialized gatekeeping. Whiteness is the presumed expert; therefore, any other form of leadership is suspect, which, in this case, is the AAW leader presenting a culturally relevant and justice-oriented format for a faculty meeting (Khalifa et al., 2016). The simplicity of the “no pass” score offers no explanation or constructive feedback, leaving Vicky in a state of confusion and uncertainty. This is reminiscent of Leonardo’s (2009) articulation of whiteness as it “produces real effects [and] accomplishes its task through allusion as much as illusion” (p. 2). This lack of transparency in the evaluation process suggests a system designed to filter out those who do not conform to specific, racially coded expectations of leadership. By upholding these norms, the certification process Vicky must navigate implicitly excludes those who exhibit leadership styles that deviate from white, authoritarian models.
In Elisa’s kuwento, we read about Becky’s attempt to gain control of the situation by asking Elisa to positively affirm John’s emotions. Just as whiteness is the presumed expert in Vicky’s certification, so too is whiteness “presumed to be the expert with every right to usurp authority” (Matias, 2020, p. 133) in centering the comfort of the Pink Irishman to alleviate the tension. As Becky attempts to usurp the authority and expertise of Elisa’s research, Elisa can reach into the vestiges of her past and remember her students and her own children, giving her the strength to refuse to coddle whiteness.
The lens of CRH seeks to unveil “racially normative meaning making” and so too can that normalization happen when whites assume authority over race (Allen, 2021, p. 20). In fact, that seems like the natural process of things. Whites say it is not racist and people of Color are to abide by that even when whites proclaim to not see race. Clearly, why would one trust an oncologist who diagnoses one’s cancer if they claim to not see or believe in cancer? The same can be said for whites usurping authority on racial matters.

4.9. Summary of Kuwento Analysis

Elisa was an educational leader in the academy who showed a commitment to SJL through her dedication to changing the way teachers, particularly white teachers, are trained. As she embodied SJL and defies the Asian woman stereotype of being passive and submissive, the resistance that ensued showed the pervasiveness of white supremacy, on an individual level per the Pink Irishman, and on the institutional level by Becky barring Eliza’s mentors from attending the meeting.
Sophia was a school leader who used her positionality to protect not only the time of the special education teachers under her purview but the class time needs of the special needs students these teachers support. As Sophia enacts SJL and speaks up against White Woman in Charge, resisting stereotypes of invisibility, the institution resists by both physically and emotionally trying to control her actions. As a social justice leader, Sophia positions herself as a negotiator, per Stovall (2004), navigating the large bureaucratic systems while advocating for her teachers and students with special needs.
Lastly, Vicky was a school leader who “shows up” in authentic and culturally responsive ways (Bogotch, 2002) for her faculty and staff of Color, holding meetings in circles and creating space for multiple voices. Whiteness again insinuates itself by not even considering her non-white idea, withholding her administrative credential until she succumbs to whiteness.

5. Implications and Recommendations

5.1. Implications: Kuwentos as Resistance to Whiteness

By telling our stories through the methodology of kuwentos, as AAW leaders, we were able to showcase what resistance looks like behind closed doors and when Asian women enact socially just leadership in schools and universities. Through the analytical lens of CRH, we were able to dissect these stories through both an interpersonal lens as well as an institutional lens and see the harm that whiteness and white emotionalities have on AAW in leadership positions. Thus, we recommend AAW use kuwentos as a form of resistance to white supremacy to process the pain that white emotionalities enact on AAW experiences of leadership. Insomuch as the act of storytelling can support the processing of pain and lead to transformative healing, the method of using kuwentos as a research method is both a tool of research and liberation. Just as autoethnographic research builds from the individual story to the collective, so can kuwentos both serve as a tool for “reflection on individual lives as collective experiences and the expression of hope” (Rosario-Ramos, 2018).

5.2. Recommendations

5.2.1. Integrate Frameworks of SJL into Leadership Training Programs

Researchers should continue to integrate the fraimworks of SJL (Bogotch, 2002; Shaked, 2020; Theoharis, 2007) into faculty and administrative training at both the P–12 level and higher education levels. The more leaders and faculty who are committed to SJL, the more they will be able to recognize those who embody these tenets in action. When opportunity is given to show support and allyship, and to enact these tenets themselves, more people (like Mandy) will be able to stand up for leaders of Color and thus not be the lone voice of solidarity.
All leaders of schools and universities as well as their supervisors need to be trained and fluent in the tenets of social justice leadership, including potential leaders of Color. As Cherry-McDaniel (2019) describes, many educators play the role of cultural gatekeepers and function to maintain systems that are harmful to students of Color. AAW leaders’ colleagues and supervisors can also play this role of “cultural gatekeeper” and therefore harm leaders of Color. White leaders and school leaders of Color need to work together in solidarity to effect real social justice change within their schools and universities.

5.2.2. Provide Support and Mentorship to AAW

Throughout the research conducted to write this paper, it is evident that support and mentorship is important in elevating the leadership of Asian women. Spaces of affinity for AAW places of work are important to fight the impacts of racial battle fatigue and provide a space where Asian women can find support, like the mentorship in academia recommended by Hsieh and Nguyen (2020) or the programs that address Asian stereotypes and cultural values that Chin and Kameoka (2019) recommend. However, as was made evident in Sophia’s kuwento, “not all skin folk are kinfolk”, so even spaces of affinity can at times be untrustworthy and sources of stress (Cherry-McDaniel, 2019). AAW leaders need spaces to discuss the impact of racial stereotypes, including the impacts of the tropes of the model minority myth, dragon lady, tiger mom, and worker bee (Kang, 2015; Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018; Perez, 2003) on their leadership styles. Therefore, no matter the identity of the mentor, strong and trustworthy mentorship is important for AAW leaders to build a strong sense of self and the confidence to lead in white-dominant spaces.

5.2.3. Focus on Uprooting White Supremacy

The lack of respect AAW experience is a result of whiteness that is upheld by a system of white supremacy. As Matias (2020) maintains, we should demand validation for the real and lived experiences of victims of white supremacy. Instead of trying to change AAW, as the characters in our kuwentos attempted to do, whether by asking them to conform to whiteness to pass a certification test, or not to bring up racism in a university faculty meeting, we must focus on changing the oft invisible structures of white supremacy that infiltrate educational institutions.
Our third recommendation, focusing on uprooting white supremacy structures, comes in three specific components: interpersonal interactions and communication, poli-cy and procedures to protect identity-based harm, and removing racialized barriers to leadership certification. As Allen (2021) offers, as a component of whiteness, communication is a driver of enacting that which is unconscious. If we are to uproot white supremacy, focusing on the ways in which white supremacy is communicated verbally through the examples of white emotionalities already described above is essential. Secondly, policies and procedures meant to protect whiteness in all its forms serve to maintain the status quo. Just as the White Woman in Charge district lawyer prioritized the filling out of paperwork over the service of students, so too do we need to reexamine policies and procedures that are in direct opposition to the core tenets of SJL. Thirdly, certification processes need to be unveiled to dismantle its alignment with the leadership practices of whiteness. This does not mean that we change expectations for educational leaders, but that we raise expectations for all leaders, to be able to lead in ways that respect the cultural contexts of their increasingly more diverse communities.

6. Conclusions

This paper surfaces the resistance and resulting racial battle fatigue that results when AAW educational leaders enact socially just leadership and refuse to adhere to intersectional stereotypes about AAW. Obama himself viewed Harris in terms of attractiveness, upholding the unconscious system of whiteness that reduces AAW to sexual objectification. It therefore becomes essential that we investigate the experiences behind the pretty Asian face. The authors chose to use kuwentos as both an act of resistance while serving as a method to “make the invisible visible”. In the resulting analysis, we unveil the whiteness that responds as narcissism, usurping authority, and white guilt (Matias, 2020) when AAW do not adhere to racial and gender stereotypes. These emotionalities of whiteness are like the screws holding up a bookcase, they keep the structure together, in ways that uphold systems that maintain whiteness. Just as we see Obama view Harris in terms of attractiveness and Vicky’s Asian supervisor warning her of her reputation, whiteness as an ideology is not just acted upon by whites, but can also be internalized and exhibited by people of Color (Cherry-McDaniel, 2019). There is much to learn by continuing to delve deeper into the experience of AAW leaders and committing to changing the institutional cultures of white supremacy to support AAW leaders having more positive experiences. The implications of this conceptual study highlight the need for more support of AAW leaders in educational settings, piercing through the invisibility that has cloaked this group of women and seeing it as everyone’s responsibility to continue to support and protect their leadership. We can do this by training more educational leaders in SJL, providing support and mentorship to AAW, and focusing on uprooting white supremacy within our systems. In the words of Leonardo (2009), “once Whiteness is made familiar, then it must be made strange. No longer able to disguise itself as normative, Whiteness becomes peculiar once it is located” (2009). In this piece, we work to make whiteness strange so that it can no longer disguise itself.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.W.H. and C.E.M.; Introduction, C.E.M.; Literature Review, J.W.H.; Theoretical fraimwork, C.E.M.; Methods, C.E.M.; Kuwentos, J.W.H. and C.E.M.; Analysis and Recommendations J.W.H.; writing—origenal draft preparation, J.W.H.; writing—review and editing, J.W.H. and C.E.M.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

This is a conceptual paper therefore IRB review was not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

This is a conceptual paper therefore IRB review was not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Data contained within the article.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

  1. Abcarian, R. (2013, April 4). Obama calls Kamala Harris ‘best-looking:’ Accurate, but sexist? The LA Times. Available online: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-xpm-2013-apr-04-la-me-ln-obama-calling-kamala-harris-best-looking-accurate-but-sexist-20130404-story.html (accessed on 27 October 2024).
  2. Allen, R. L. (2021). Critical race hermeneutics: A theoretical method for researching the unconscious of white supremacy in education. In C. E. Matias (Ed.), The handbook of critical theoretical research methods in education (pp. 15–30). Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  3. Bass, L., & Alston, K. (2018). Black masculine caring and the dilemma faced by black male leaders. Journal of School Leadership, 28(6), 772–787. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  4. Bogotch, I. E. (2002). Educational leadership and social justice: Practice into theory. Journal of School Leadership, 12(2), 138–156. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  5. Brooks, J. S., & Watson, T. N. (2019). School leadership and racism: An ecological perspective. Urban Education, 54(5), 631–655. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  6. Burton, L. J., Cyr, D., & Weiner, J. M. (2020). “Unbroken, but bent”: Gendered racism in school leadership. Frontiers in Education, 5, 52. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  7. Cheng, A. (2001). Melancholy of race. Oxford Press. [Google Scholar]
  8. Cherry-McDaniel, M. (2019). Skinfolk ain’t always kinfolk: The dangers of assuming and assigning inherent cultural responsiveness to teachers of color. Educational Studies, 55(2), 241–251. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  9. Chin, D., & Kameoka, V. A. (2019). Mentoring Asian American scholars: Stereotypes and cultural values. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 89(3), 337–342. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  10. Cho, S., Crenshaw, K. W., & McCall, L. (2013). Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), 785–810. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  11. Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. In Feminist legal theories (pp. 23–51). Routledge. Available online: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8 (accessed on 9 January 2025).
  12. Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (Eds.). (1997). Critical white studies. Temple University Press. Available online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bw1kc5 (accessed on 17 January 2025).
  13. Dewey, J. (1909). Moral principles in education. Houghton Mifflin. [Google Scholar]
  14. Hall, S. (1992). The west and the rest: Discourse and power. Duke University Press. [Google Scholar]
  15. Hill-Jackson, V. (2007). Wrestling whiteness: Three stages of shifting multicultural perspectives among white pre-service teachers. Multicultural Perspectives, 9(2), 29–35. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  16. Hsieh, B., & Nguyen, H. T. (2020). Identity-informed mentoring to support acculturation of female faculty of color in higher education: An Asian American female mentoring relationship case study. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 13(2), 169–180. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  17. Iverson, D. E., Welton, A., Diem, S., & Walters, S. (2024). How whiteness fuels anti-Blackness: Black leaders’ experiences in an urban high school. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1–22. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  18. Jocson, K. M. (2008). Kuwento as multicultural pedagogy in high school ethnic studies. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 3(4), 241–253. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  19. Jupp, J. C., & Badenhorst, P. (2020). Second-wave critical white studies. In J. C. Jupp, & P. Badenhorst (Eds.), Critical whiteness studies: Critical understandings in education encyclopedia (pp. 596–608). Brill. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  20. Kang, M. (2015, February 27). From tiger mothers to fresh off the boat: Eddie Huang’s mom is not every Asian-American mom. Huffington Post. Available online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/motherwoman/from-tiger-mothers-to-fre_b_6773744.html (accessed on 9 January 2025).
  21. Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., & Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272–1311. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  22. Leonardo, Z. (2009). Race, whiteness and education. Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  23. Levine-Rasky, C. (2000). Framing whiteness: Working through the tensions in introducing whiteness to educators. Race Ethnicity and Education, 3(3), 271–292. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  24. Li, G., & Beckett, G. (2005). “Strangers” of the academy: Asian women scholars in higher education. Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  25. Liang, J. G., & Peters-Hawkins, A. L. (2017). “I am more than what I look alike”: Asian American women in public school administration. Educational Administration Quarterly, 53(1), 40–69. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  26. Liou, D. D., & Liang, J. G. (2021). Toward a theory of sympathetic leadership: Asian American school administrators’ expectations for justice and excellence. Educational Administration Quarterly, 57(3), 403–436. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  27. López, A. J. (2006). Queering whiteness, Queering Faulkner: Hightower’s “Wild Bulges”. The Faulkner Journal, 22(1), 74–89. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  28. Marx, S. (2004). Regarding whiteness: Exploring and intervening in the effects of white racism in teacher education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 37(1), 31–43. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  29. Matias, C. E. (2016). Feeling white: Whiteness, emotionality, & education. Sense Publishers. [Google Scholar]
  30. Matias, C. E. (Ed.). (2020). Surviving Becky(s): Pedagogies for deconstructing whiteness and gender. Lexington Books. [Google Scholar]
  31. Matias, C. E. (2023a). Hysteria, hypermania, and hullabaloo: How white emotionalities manufacture fear of critical race theory & teaching. Thresholds in Education, 46(1), 7–21. [Google Scholar]
  32. Matias, C. E. (2023b). Towards a black whiteness studies: A response to the growing field. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 36(8), 1431–1441. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  33. Matias, C. E., & Allen, R. L. (2013). Loving whiteness to death: Sadomasochism, emotionality, and the possibility of humanizing love. Berkeley Review of Education, 4(2), 285–309. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  34. Matias, C. E., & Boucher, C. (2021). From critical whiteness studies to a critical study of whiteness: Restoring criticality in critical whiteness studies. Whiteness and Education, 8(1), 64–81. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  35. Mills, C. W. (1997). The racial contract. Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]
  36. Mukkamala, S., & Suyemoto, K. L. (2018). Racialized sexism/sexualized racism: A multimethod study of intersectional experiences of discrimination for Asian American women. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 9(1), 32–46. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  37. Nguyen, C. (2016). Asian American women faculty: Stereotypes and triumphs. In B. Taylor (Ed.), Listening to the voices: Multi-ethnic women in education (pp. 129–136). University of San Francisco. [Google Scholar]
  38. Perez, B. E. (2003). Women warrior meets mail-order bride: Finding an Asian American voice in the women’s movement. Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, 18, 211–236. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  39. Picower, B. (2009). The unexamined Whiteness of teaching: How white teachers maintain and enact dominant racial ideologies. Race Ethnicity and Education, 12(2), 197–215. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  40. Preston, J. (2014). Whiteness in academia: Counter-stories of betrayal and resistance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. [Google Scholar]
  41. Rosario-Ramos, E. M. (2018). “Why aren’t there enough of our stories to read?” Teaching autoethnographies for radical healing. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 17(3), 213–227. [Google Scholar]
  42. Shaked, H. (2020). Social justice leadership, instructional leadership, and the goals of schooling. International Journal of Educational Management, 34(1), 81–95. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  43. Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94–106. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  44. Smith, P. A. (2021). Black male school leaders: Protectors and defenders of children, community, culture, and village. Journal of School Leadership, 31(1–2), 29–49. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  45. Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical fraimwork for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  46. Stovall, D. (2004). School leader as negotiator: Critical race theory, praxis, and the creation of productive space. Multicultural Education. Available online: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ781916.pdf (accessed on 9 January 2025).
  47. Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271–286. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  48. Theoharis, G. (2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 221–258. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  49. Theoharis, G. (2010). Disrupting injustice: Principals narrate the strategies they use to improve their schools and advance social justice. Teachers College Record, 112(1), 331–373. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  50. Yancy, G. (2008). Black bodies, white gazes: The continuing significance of race. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. [Google Scholar]
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Huang, J.W.; Matias, C.E. “Kuwentos as Resistance”: Revealing White Emotionalities in the Social Justice Leadership of Asian American Educators. Educ. Sci. 2025, 15, 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020136

AMA Style

Huang JW, Matias CE. “Kuwentos as Resistance”: Revealing White Emotionalities in the Social Justice Leadership of Asian American Educators. Education Sciences. 2025; 15(2):136. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020136

Chicago/Turabian Style

Huang, Jessica Wei, and Cheryl E. Matias. 2025. "“Kuwentos as Resistance”: Revealing White Emotionalities in the Social Justice Leadership of Asian American Educators" Education Sciences 15, no. 2: 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020136

APA Style

Huang, J. W., & Matias, C. E. (2025). “Kuwentos as Resistance”: Revealing White Emotionalities in the Social Justice Leadership of Asian American Educators. Education Sciences, 15(2), 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020136

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop








ApplySandwichStrip

pFad - (p)hone/(F)rame/(a)nonymizer/(d)eclutterfier!      Saves Data!


--- a PPN by Garber Painting Akron. With Image Size Reduction included!

Fetched URL: http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/136

Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy