Chapter 4: Racialized Experiences of Asian American Student Teachers

In this chapter,¹ critical race theory is used to examine the racialized experiences of four Asian American² preservice women teachers during their interactions with their cooperating teachers and classroom students. Analysis of individual interviews and focus groups revealed how the intersections of race, language, phenotype, immigration status, and accent discrimination shaped the process of learning to teach. The stories that these preservice teachers tell offer counternarratives to the traditional race-neutral stories about student teaching. In the presentation of the findings, poems are used to forefront particular incidents that reflect the themes of benign racism, stereotyping, silence, and resistance that emerged.