Centering Asian American women's experiences in (re)conceptualizing leadership in higher education through counter-storytelling
Date
2022
Authors
Nakasone Wenzler, Kerry, author
Poon, OiYan, advisor
Albert, Lumina, committee member
Graglia, Pamela, committee member
Muñoz, Susana, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand how Asian American Women (re)conceptualize leadership given their racialized and gendered experiences with oppression within higher education. Asian American Women leaders' stories are not represented in the traditional leadership theories dominated by white male heteronormative perspective that creates a culturally biased and homogenous conceptualization of leadership. Seven Asian American Women research collaborators joined me in co-constructing how we collectively (re)conceptualized leadership and centered our multiple identities to interrogate the systems of oppression within higher education that have impacted our leadership experiences at the intersections of race and gender. This critical constructivist study is rooted in Asian American Feminist ways of knowing, using a qualitative critical race methodology called counter-storytelling to highlight the power of experiential knowledge that exists within Asian American Women's experiences. The (re)conceptualized leadership themes are interconnected, introspective, culturally informed, and reflect a duty of care for our communities that centers the humanity in others and ourselves, ongoing engagement in critical self-reflection as part of our own healing and leadership praxis, an understanding of how to leverage our positionality through intersectional strategic leadership, and a commitment toward shared liberation through collective empowerment. The significance of this study is contributing an intersectional (re)conceptualization of Asian American Women leadership, co-constructed through meaning-making of counter-stories shared by Asian American Women leaders in higher education. Additionally, I offer a conceptualization of Asian American Women's ways of knowing and engaging with the world to contribute to future research toward an Asian American Feminist epistemology co-constructed with other Asian American Women leaders and scholars.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
counter-storytelling
women of color leaders
higher education leadership
Asian American women