RACIALIZED EMBODIMENT: SUBJECT FORMATION AND ETHICS OF THE SELF OF ASIAN CANADIAN TEACHER CANDIDATES by Sheena Ann Resplandor A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master‘s of Arts Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto Copyright by Sheena Ann Resplandor (2010) RACIALIZED EMBODIMENT: SUBJECT FORMATION AND ETHICS OF THE SELF OF ASIAN CANADIAN TEACHER CANDIDATES Master of Arts, 2010 Sheena Resplandor Department of Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto ABSTRACT Through Foucault‘s genealogy and ethics of the self, I examine the experiences of Asian teacher candidates in the K-12 Canadian school system and how those experiences influence what teaching means for them. I look at the connections between race, the body and education and ask, how do the embodied experiences of racialized students inform the formation of the racialized teacher candidate? In my study I reveal that discourses of racism and discrimination are embodied and constitute racialized subjectivity. Through using individual interviews and a focus group, I listen to the narratives of my participants as they recount experiences in education. These stories and my analysis have important implications for educators, scholars, researchers and policy-makers interested in race, the body and education as well as concerns of diversifying the teaching personnel and transforming curriculum. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my parents who had the courage to migrate to Canada over 20 years ago to build a better life for me and my sister. Thank you to my committee for your unwavering guidance and support Roland- You have been incredibly influential this past year. Thank you for pushing me, believing in me and allowing me to wrestle with uncertainty. Heather- For your meaningful insights and commitment. I am incredibly grateful to my participants for their courage, assistance and strength. This would not have been possible without you. Thank you to my inspirations: Sonya and Savio- For the formatting and the edits, thanks for being a lifesaver! Kim- For reading, discussing and listening. Thank you for the light on the water. Lori- For everything unconditional. Apes- For being busy doing nothing with me. Lee- For pushing my bum up that mountain. This is dedicated to my family who taught me that when we do everything through, for, and with God, we love deeply, live passionately and will always have the courage to fight. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...….….. ii Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………….…..… iii Preface……………………………………………………………………………………..….... vi 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………...….....1 2. Analytical framework ……………………………………………………………..……...….. 9 Foucault‘s genealogy …………………………………………………….…………..... 10 Foucault‘s ethics of the self ………………………………………………………....… 10 Literature Review………………………………………………………………….…... 12 Racialization …………………………………………………………...…………....… 13 Embodiment and experience …………………………………………………….…..… 17 Education …………………………………………………………………...…….…… 22 3. Methodology …………………………………………………………...………….…...…… 31 Self reflexive phase …………………………………………………………….....…… 32 Institutional context …………………………………………………….…...… 33 Sampling and profiles of teacher candidates …………………………...…...… 33 Figure 1: Profile of participants …………………………………………….…. 33 Empirical phase ……………………………………………………………….…..…... 37 Interviews …………………………………………………………….….….… 38 Focus group ………………………………………………………….…...…… 40 Data analysis ………………………………………………………...……...…. 43 Ethics and consent procedures ………………………………………...………. 44 Reciprocal phase ……………………………………………………….………...……. 46 Member checks ……………………………………………...……………...…. 46 Peer debriefing ……………………………………………………………….... 46 4. Racialized embodiment: Why does the body matter in education? ……………..….………. 48 Stereotypes …………………………………………………………..……..………… . 50 Academic excellence: ―The Asian six pack‖ ………………………………..…..…… . 52 Academic nonexcellence: Filipino/a high school drop outs …………………......……. 55 South Asian youth violence ………………………………………………………….... 57 Shy, timid Asian girl …………………………………………………...………..…….. 61 5. Subject formation ……………………………………………………………………...……. 64 K-12 schooling experiences ………………………………………………………...…. 67 Ann‘s story: auditory economy …………………………………………….…. 67 Qara‘s story: feeling like an alien ……………………………………...…….... 69 John doesn‘t speak Chinese ….……………………………………...…...……. 74 Of mixed race …………………………………………………….………...…. 78 Discourses of inclusion and the body …………………………………….……...……. 80 Multiculturalism ……………………………………………………….…...…. 80 Race/equity policies and programs at OISE/UT ………………………….….... 82 iv 6. Teaching as an ethics of the self ……………………………………...……….……………. 89 Cultivation of the self ……………………………………………...………….………. 91 Four figures: Hard working immigrant ……………………………...………...………. 92 Asian role model ……………………………………………………...……………….. 93 Community seeker ……………………………………………………...………..……. 98 Consciousness-raiser ……………………………………………………....……….… 101 Teaching as a practice of freedom: Making the system livable …………...……….… 102 Disavowing race? Making sense of ethnicity and class ……………………...………. 106 7. Limits of race and education ……………………………….………………………...……. 111 Foucault‘s ―limit-experience‖ ………………………………………………...…...…. 112 Critiques: representation, disavowal and intersectionality ………………..….…….... 113 8. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...…. 117 Summary ………………………………………………………………….………….. 117 Recommendations: For teacher education ………………………………………...…. 120 For K-12 schooling ……………………………………………………...………….... 121 Methodological reflections …………………………………………………...…...…. 122 For Foucault‘s genealogy and ethics of the self ………………………...……...……. 123 For Asian Canadian Studies …………………………………………...………...….... 124 References ………………………………………………………………………….……...…. 122 Appendices ………………………………………………………………...……...…………. 136 Appendix A Sample Interview Questions for Teacher Candidates of Colour ……...…….….. 136 Appendix B Sample Focus Group Questions for Asian Teacher Candidates of Colour …...... 138 Appendix C Request Email for Participation in Research Study ……………………...…...... 139 Appendix D Request Letter of Participation for Teacher Candidates of Colour ..………….... 140 Appendix E Participant Consent Form ………………………………………………………. 143 v Preface Even when our bodies have been battered by life, these artistic ―languages,‖ spoke from the body, by the body, are still laden with aspirations, are still coded in hope and ―un desrame ensagretado,‖ a bloodied truce. By sending our voices, our visuals and visions outward into the world, we alter the walls and make them a framework for new windows and doors. We transform the posos, apertures, barrancas, abismos that we are forced to speak from. Only then can we make a home out of the cracks (Anzaldúa, 1990, p. xxv). This project comes from a place of deep respect and struggle. On various levels, it has presented many challenges that pushed me to grapple with ideas and processes that were initially unknown and even rejected. I owe much to you, my participants, the teacher candidates, who gave of your time during a very busy semester, let me listen to your stories and write them down. Many of us grew up in the same city and I have often felt like we shared the same high school experiences. Sometimes I thought to myself, I know that teacher or that group of students you were talking about; it seems the system and its hegemony is quite powerful. On the other hand, each one of the individual stories are different, unique and as valuable as the next. Many of you shared very private experiences of discrimination and racism that haunt many of you even today as teacher candidates. Those stories continue to resonate with me as well. Yet you speak. And these experiences, you say, have pushed you towards change and radical transformation. For those who did not speak as much, we felt your bodily presence and the sound of your body as language is not enough and often fails. This writing process has indeed been very bodily. Writing about and through bodies, thinking and theorizing bodies has allowed me to acknowledge my own. Not only that, but my body as it exists among and with other and every body. That has been the ethic of this process, as well as the reward. As racialized students in the Canadian educational system, we are grappling with how our bodies are seen, felt, heard and feared. This is important because we go to school here. Because we learn and teach here. Because many of us might say we‘re Canadian and many might say Asian. Because we are both or in between Asian-Canadian. Because we don‘t know. Because we want to know. Echoing Shirley Geok-lin Lim (1998) ―because our countries are in our blood and we bleed them‖ (p.74). This thesis is a small contribution to a very large world of academic learning. As my participants‘ stories crack through experiences in space and time, I hope that my work can find its way through the cracks. And maybe even create some cracks of its own. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ―Every cultural change is signified through and on the body‖ Shirley Geok-lin Lim (in Bow, 2002, p. 8). I begin with a quote from Shirley Geok-lin Lim because she emphasizes the body as the site through which the specific inscription of events take place. Like Michel Foucault, Lim traces the varied histories that are systematically and often violently encoded through and on the body. Explaining that, ―my Westernization took