Learning settler colonialism in my K-12 education: A re-search counterstory

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zou, Isabella

Affiliations: Austin, TX, USA | E-mail: [email protected]

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Austin, TX, USA. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: In this essay, I examine how settler colonialism operates in the dominant U.S. K-12 education system through an analysis of my own educational experiences in the Eanes School District in Austin, Texas. Grounded in the analytical frameworks of critical race theory and TribalCrit, the methodology of counterstory (telling marginalized stories in critique of dominant narratives), and my positionality as a second-generation Chinese-American settler, the paper examines how my K-12 education taught me the ideologies that underpin Indigenous dispossession and further settler colonialism’s “logic of elimination.” I re-search my experiences, from a kindergarten lesson on “Indian drums” to high school textbook readings, to trace how educational practices and curricula reinforce settler colonial ideologies and conscript students into settler society. In conclusion, I discuss decolonial teaching and how it gives students tools to recognize and challenge settler colonial ideologies.

Keywords: Settler colonialism, counterstory, K-12 education, Asian-American settler colonialism, TribalCrit, decoloniality

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-240094

Journal: Education for Information, vol. Pre-press, no. Pre-press, pp. 1-20, 2024