“Do Not Get Me Wrong—I Love American Culture, too”: A Postcolonial Narrative Inquiry Into the Identity Shaping of Filipino American Adolescents Using Literary Texts About Filipino Immigrants by Charity Gamboa Embley, M.Ed. A Dissertation In Curriculum and Instruction Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Jeong-Hee Kim, Ph.D. Chair of Committee Mellinee Lesley, Ph.D. Rene Saldana, Ph.D. Mark Sheridan, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School May 2019 Copyright 2019, Charity Gamboa Embley Texas Tech University, Charity Gamboa Embley, May 2019 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work would not have been possible without the support of my best friends (Rena Gordon, Debbie Torres, Karishma Bisht), who always supported me in my endeavors. I also want to acknowledge my Texas Tech “buddies” whom I have shared my joys and frustrations during my Ph.D. journey. I am especially grateful to Dr. Sonya Sherrod from the Texas Tech College of Education Doctoral Support Center for her patience and kindness all throughout my dissertation-writing phase. I am also extremely grateful to my supervising faculty, Dr. Phoebe Okungu and Dr. Nora Griffin-Shirley from the Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Sensory Disabilities, and Dr. Angela Lumpkin, my mentor, who all have been supportive of my career goals and provided me with the protected academic time to pursue these goals. Each of the members of my Dissertation Committee has provided me extensive personal and professional guidance and taught me a great deal about both research and life in general. I would especially like to thank Dr. Jeong-Hee Kim, the chairman of my committee. As my teacher and mentor, she has taught me more than I could ever give her credit. I would also like to thank other members of my committee: Dr. Mellinee Lesley and Dr. Rene Saldana, for all their wisdom and encouragement. Nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the members of my family. I would like to thank my father, Arthur, my sisters Pam, Hope and Faith, my dearly departed mother-in-law Carolyn, and my sister-n-law Priscilla— whose love and guidance are always with me in whatever I pursue. Most importantly, I wish to thank my supportive husband, George, who provided unending love. ii Texas Tech University, Charity Gamboa Embley, May 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 Background of the Problem ........................................................................................ 4 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................... 10 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................. 13 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................... 15 Definition of Terms .................................................................................................... 17 Limitations .................................................................................................................. 19 Delimitations ............................................................................................................... 20 Researcher’s Background and Assumptions ........................................................... 21 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................................... 24 Historical Overview of Filipino American Immigration ........................................ 24 Null Curriculum in American History: Missing History of Filipino Immigration ................................................................................................................ 30 State of Multicultural Books in the United States: Presence of Filipino American Literature .................................................................................................. 35 Asian American Immigrants in American Schools ................................................. 41 Model Minority Complex ........................................................................................ 45 Non-Homogeneity of Filipinos ............................................................................... 49 Research Over Multicultural Education and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Filipino American Students ..................................................................................... 53 Theoretical Framework: Postcolonial Theory........................................................ 61 Filipino Diaspora in the United States .................................................................... 62 The Representation of Colonized People as Minoritized Individuals ..................... 69 Postcolonial Literary Criticism ............................................................................... 73 iii Texas Tech University, Charity Gamboa Embley, May 2019 Examination of Identity Through Literary Texts .................................................... 77 Reader Response Theory ......................................................................................... 83 Socio-Cultural Theory ............................................................................................. 88 Adolescent Literacies and Identity Shaping Through Reading ............................. 95 Vigilance Toward a Student’s Comprehension to the Process of Reading ........... 100 Summary of Related Literature .............................................................................. 117 III. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 118 Research Methodology: Narrative Inquiry ........................................................... 119 Research Site............................................................................................................. 127 Participants ............................................................................................................... 127 Data Sources ............................................................................................................. 129 Interviews .............................................................................................................. 130 Book Study Discussions ........................................................................................ 134 Researcher’s Reflective Journal ............................................................................ 136 Collection of Artifacts ........................................................................................... 137 Alignment Between Research Questions and Methods ........................................ 138 Summary of Data Collection Procedure ................................................................ 140 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................ 140 The Process of Analyzing Data ............................................................................. 141 Alignment of Data Sources Analysis to Research Questions ............................... 147 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................. 148 Trustworthiness ........................................................................................................ 149 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................... 150 IV. TWO FILIPINO AMERICAN ADOLESCENT READER’S STORIES ......... 152 Stories in Segments .................................................................................................. 154 Silver .......................................................................................................................... 156 Who Am I .............................................................................................................. 156 My Filipino Heritage ............................................................................................. 160 iv Texas Tech University, Charity Gamboa Embley, May 2019 My School Life ...................................................................................................... 167 Books I Read in School ......................................................................................... 169 Books I Read for This Project ............................................................................... 171 Lola: A Ghost Story (Torres, 2009) .................................................................. 172 America is in the Heart (Bulosan, 1946) .......................................................... 174 Something in Between (Dela Cruz, 2016) ........................................................ 180 When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (Brainard, 1999) .......................................