How Asian/Asian North American Women Theological Educators
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HOW ASIAN/ASIAN NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATORS NEGOTIATE POWER DYNAMICS by JANNETTE WEI-TING W. P. GUTIERREZ (Under the Direction of RONALD M. CERVERO) ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to understand how Asian and Asian North American women negotiate race and gender in the patriarchal context of Christian theological education. Two research questions guided this study: 1) What are the power dynamics within Asian/Asian North American women theologians’ learning and teaching environment?; 2) What strategies do they use when encountering power dynamics in their teaching and learning in which patriarchal ideologies dominate? The sample for this qualitative study was comprised of eight Asian/Asian North American women theological educators who taught or are teaching in theological institutions. Participants include one Chinese American, two Chinese immigrants, one Korean American, one Japanese immigrant, one Japanese American, and two Korean immigrants. Their age ranged from 38 to 62. Analysis of the data revealed that participants, as learner and teachers, experienced power dynamics and utilized a variety of strategies to negotiate in the context of theological education. The power dynamics in their learning and teaching were characterized in four themes: mastery, voice, authority, and positionality. Categories under mastery were downgraded academic performance as students and being resisted, challenged and dishonored as teachers. Nonexistence of role models and invisibility to students and colleagues were categories of the theme of voice. Authority was usurped, undermined, and questioned; authority was weakened due to their race, gender and age; and secured and reinforced authority were found under the theme of authority. Categories of being stereotyped, Androcentrism and white privilege, and tokenism emerged under the theme of positionality. The data also showed that participants developed and utilized various resources of strategies to negotiate their power when they encountered race and gender in the context of theological education. These strategies included teaching philosophy, faith and theology, sense of accomplishment from teaching, acculturation/absorbing/adjustment, engaged feminist and critical pedagogy, authenticating their authority as teachers, pronouncing and asserting their positionality, and alignment with and getting supports from communities and allies. Three conclusions were drawn from this study. First, Asian/Asian North American women theological educators are invisible and silenced in the construction of knowledge in the patriarchal context of theological education. Second, the positionality of Asian/Asian North American women impacts the power dynamics in their classrooms and is negotiated with a variety of strategies. Third, perpetuated racism and sexism was experienced by Asian/Asian North American women theological educators in the institutional context of theological education. INDEX WORDS: Asian American, Asian American Women, Adult Education, Theological Education, Christian Education, Religious Education, Sociology of Adult Education, Sociology of Religion, Power Dynamic, Positionality, Feminist Pedagogy, Feminist Theological Pedagogy, Feminist Theory, Asian Theology, Racism in Christianity, Sexism in Christianity. HOW ASIAN/ASIAN NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATORS NEGOTIATE POWER DYNAMICS by JANNETTE WEI-TING W. P. GUTIERREZ B.Ed. National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, 1993 M.Ed., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1995 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2005 © 2005 Jannette Wei-Ting W. P. Gutierrez All Rights Reserved HOW ASIAN/ASIAN NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATORS NEGOTIATE POWER DYNAMICS by JANNETTE WEI-TING W. P. GUTIERREZ Major Professor: Ronald M. Cervero Committee: Robert J. Hill Juanita Johnson-Bailey Jung Ha Kim Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are numerous names should be listed and appreciated as I am able to accomplish this dissertation. The first group of people is my teachers who helped in various stages of my life. Dr. Beder who was my supervisor at Rutgers, where I got my master degree in Adult education provided his encouragement. Later in the applications of admissions for doctoral program, his recommendation led me to UGA. After I entered the department, Dr. Merriam was one of the admissions committee members at UGA who not only guaranteed me the grant and the admissions but also offered the assistantship which supported me three consecutive years during the course of my studies. Dr. Valentine, you always stand by me in those times when we worked together for UGALAA. Then the committee member: Dr. Hill, he has been so inspiring to me not only personally but scholarly since the day he stepped into the department. Dr. Johnson-Bailey has been very nurturing to me academically as well as personally when I first got into the department. She was also the person who led me into the women’s studies and fashioned me a healthy feminist. Thanks for your wisdom shared in your classes and in the guidance of my dissertation. Dr. Kim, I am so grateful for you as an outside person in my committee. You have been reading my work not only as an insider (Asian American) but also as an outsider from different perspectives and field in Sociology. Last, Dr. Cervero, you are the greatest teacher that I’ve ever had in my whole life. You are such a good educator in the classrooms. Thanks for your mentoring and taking me as one of your students. It has been my honor and pleasure to work with you. I can’t complete my dissertation without your patience with me as well as your belief in me. Thanks for your iv constant encouraging words such as “fantastic,” “excellent,” and “great job” which served as catalysts in the process of my studies. Second group of people is my friends and allies. Kate, Kit, Karen, Roy, Linda, and Frank who not only have been wonderful friends to me when I was down emotionally but also offered their kind help in my academic writing of the comps, the prospectus and the dissertation. Besides, I also have to give thanks to my Christian friends who are in Taiwan and in Athens who have been praying for me. And also Dr. Yang, my boss, who loaned me his banking account record as my financial support for the Ph.D. applications. Without your assistance, I would have not been even able to apply for the PhD programs. No doubt, I am so appreciable for my participants now who had become my friends. I can’t even start my studies without your trust and back-up. The last group is my families in Taipei, Taiwan and Irvine, California. My family in Taiwan, thanks for letting me come to the states six years ago. It was a hard decision for me to leave you. Sorry that I was not home when I was busy at schools here in the states. My family in Irvine, thanks to Daddy for your financial support in the past 2.5 years. The last one but the most significant person I am so indebted to is my life companion, Simone. Thanks for your willingness and love to come to Athens for companying me from Taiwan. Thanks for being there all the time whenever I was down or stuck in the creation of this dissertation. Furthermore, thanks for taking so good care of our home as I was so concentrating on my little dissertation world. You were also so thoughtful and gentle when I was in severe illness during the course of writing up my dissertation. Professionally, you have been the most intelligent woman I have ever met in my life and shared your invaluable insights with me. This completion of my dissertation is impossible without your presence in my life as a doctoral student. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 The Statement of Problem.........................................................................................2 The Purpose of the Study and Research Questions...................................................6 The Significance of the Study ...................................................................................7 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE................................................................................8 An Overview of Asian Pacific American ..................................................................8 Theological Education.............................................................................................14 Feminist Theology and Theological Education.......................................................17 Pacific-Asian North American Religious Education...............................................20 Teaching and Learning of Asian Pacific American Women....................................28 Positionality in Teaching and Learning in Adult Education....................................35 Conclusion...............................................................................................................49 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................51 Research Design......................................................................................................52