Asian American Pacific Islander SPECIAL ISSUE

2023-05-15

                                                   CALL FOR AAPI SPECIAL ISSUE MANUSCRIPTS

One of the goals of adult education is empowerment; being adult educators and practitioners, we see the call for systemic studies conducted by the adult education community on this issue to help start critical dialogues, move beyond awareness, and examine Anti-AAPI, racism, and discrimination from multiple dimensions, including social-historical, cultural and educational in AAPI people and their communities daily life and their work settings. This issue invites original research, innovative practices, or critical analysis that advance adult education knowledge and understanding of the intersections of race, education, and social justice for AAPI.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to waves of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States, making Chinese, Chinese Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) the target of racism and victimization (Lantz & Wenger, 2021). In a national survey (SAH), nearly one in five Asian Americans (21.2%) and Pacific Islanders (20.0%) experienced hate incidents in 2020 (Jeung et al., 2021). The anti-AAPI sentiment has also happened in academia. For instance, Law Professor Amy Wax from the University of Pennsylvania made “thoroughly anti-intellectual and racist” comments in a public interview that warned of the “danger of the dominance of an Asian elite in this country” (Kaur, 2022). All of this has caused a “dual pandemic” for AAPI communities (Seervai, 2021), with a collective disjuncture (Jarvis, 2006) and a “disorienting dilemma” (Mezirow, 1991, p. 168).

The anti-Asian sentiment is not a new phenomenon. It began in the 19th century when Chinese workers migrated to the U.S. to work in gold mines and build railroads on the West Coast (Gyory, 1998). The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned all immigration of Chinese laborers, was not repealed until the signing of the Magnuson Act in 1943. The internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans after the Pearl Harbor attack and the racially motivated murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin in 1982 demonstrated continuity in U.S. anti-Asian policy (Suzuki, 2002). Other historical events related to anti-Asian sentiment include the 1965 Immigration Act (Kim, 1999; Suzuki, 2002). These stereotypes emphasize the foreignness and otherness of Asian American minorities in the U.S. (Kim, 1999). Moreover, Asian American voices and experiences are uncommon in education (Han, 2019).

Topics may include, but are not limited to: 

  • The history and roots of anti-Asian sentiment.
  • The role of media and representation that impact hate crimes and racism on Asian communities: What have learned?
  • Addressing and combating anti-Asian hate: Policy, strategies, and initiatives.
  • Solidarity and allyship.
  • Critical pedagogy & culturally responsive teaching.
  • Immigration, language, and literacy (ESL/EFL) learning.
  • Intersectionality: Gender, race/ethnicity, and immigration status.
  • Empowering communities through adult education.
  • Confronting racism against AAPI in the workplace environment.
  • Community-based and participatory approaches for Anti-Asian and racism.

All submissions must be relevant to adult, continuing, and/or higher education and racism against the AAPI people and community for social justice and equality. We seek to include contributions from adult education researchers, practitioners, and graduate students applying critical race theory, including AsianCrit and other related frameworks addressing issues facing AAPI in various settings.

Timeline:

  • Deadline for 250-word abstract: Oct 1, 2023
  • Notification to submit a full manuscript:             Nov 1, 2023
  • Deadline for complete paper submission:                 April 15, 2024
  • Final revisions due: August 1, 2024
  • Publication of issue: Fall 2024

Submitted manuscripts must be written in the style outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), not previously published, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Send abstracts to qsun8@utk.edu

Consider submitting your manuscript for this themed issue of Dialogues in Social Justice: An Adult Education Journal. Please direct inquiries to qsun8@utk.edu .

                                                 

                                                  Co-Editors: Qi Sun and Haijun Kang

Dr. Qi Sun is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the Adult Learning Ph.D.Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Sun’s research interests include adult learning, transformative learning, adult development, international and comparative education, and lifelong learning. She is an accomplished academic and has received recognition for her work, including the 2022 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education from AAACE. Dr. Sun has extensive journal editor experience, including Co-Editor for Adult Education Quarterly, Guest Editor on Special Issues for Convergence, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, and the Journal of Higher Education, Skills, and Work-based
Learning, and serving on multiple editorial boards. Her own identities as an international faculty, woman of color, and Asian immigrant have enabled her an advocate for diversity, inclusion, and equality research. She has chaired the Executive Committee of Asian Diaspora pre-conference of the Adult Education Research Conference for over a decade, promoting Asian scholars’ research in academics and their contributions to the adult education community at large.

Dr. Haijun Kang is an Associate Professor at Kansas State University. His primary teaching and research interests are at the intersection of adult learning technology, online learning, international & comparative education, and digital leadership development in global multicultural environments. Coming from a multicultural background, Dr. Kang advocates Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) through his personal and professional journeys. He has extensive experience serving on different journal review boards. He has guest-edited special issues for academic journals, such as New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, Journal of Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning (HESWBL), The
International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) (West Indies), Educational Considerations.