Grassroots Organizing for K-12 Asian American Studies

Book excerpt: This edited book captures Asian American grassroot organizing in Georgia through counterstorytelling. Rooted in Critical Race Theory and traditions of narrative inquiry, counterstorytelling in educational research seeks to challenge dominant narratives by centering marginalized communities’ experiences and perspectives as sources of valuable knowledge. By employing AsianCrit, global citizenship education, human rights, and liberatory postcolonial education as theoretical lenses, the editors of this book interrupt essentialized portrayals of Asian Americans by featuring stories of Asian American students, parents, and educators who are fighting for Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies in K-12 schools in Georgia. Their stories capture common as well as divergent experiences of being Asian American in the South and illuminate possibilities, challenges, and complexity of grassroots organizing for Asian American studies and ethnic studies in the South.