Week 10-Cory Takiguchi

Cory Takiguchi

A03

Week 10

“The Time to Fight is Now” by Caroline Valverde and Wei Wing Dariotis discuss the unfair hierarchy for Asian American women in academia. They claim Asian American women are adept at understanding the failed hierarchy system because they are “falsely positioned between dominant and minority positions as the idealized worker”(Valverde 2) It angers me that women are still not treated the same as men in the American education system. My mother, who is an Asian American woman, is a high school math teacher. At her school, the majority of teachers are women. Fortunately for her, her high school places no biases against women, especially women of color. Everyone is treated fairly. Unfortunately, that is not the case across most of the country. Most of my educators throughout grade school were women. I actually favored them over my male teachers. I think female teachers were able to sympathize more with students and as a result, I developed stronger relationships with them compared to my male educators. Granted, I had many good male teachers as well. By no means am I insinuated that male teachers are inept at teaching, I am just saying through my personal experiences, I had positive education experiences with my female teachers. Therefore, they should be stationed at the same hierarchy as male educators. Finally, I wish more women of color would be educators at schools across the country. Professor Valverde is my first ever Asian American teacher I’ve had throughout my entire education career. I wish universities would recognize that women, and all people of color, are terrific educators to leave a mark on the next generation of students.

Q: Why must be done to raise awareness to Asian American women in academia? Would the students have to be involved? Would it involve a complete clean house of administration?

Valverde, C. & Dariotis, W. M. (2017). “The Time to Fight Is Now”: When Asian American Women In Academia Go Rogue. Retrieved November 25, 2017.

Black Community Alliances. TeachforAmerica. [digital image]. Retrieved November 25, 2017 from https://www.teachforamerica.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/thumbnails/image/2015/09/aapi_carousel.png?itok=bIN8cixV