About this project:

This project is grounded in a methodology called Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR).

It highlights the work of 10 Asian American youth and 5 teachers from diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds in Michigan.

Five diverse people sitting around a conference table in discussion, with an American flag in the background and large glass windows behind them.

Together we ask:

How do youth-generated family and community oral histories disrupt stereotypical portrayals of Asian Americans?

How do these oral histories help PK-12 educators develop a more transformative curriculum to teach Asian American history?

A child wearing pink and blue headphones watches a video on a tablet while an adult man in a navy shirt and khaki pants observes at a table.

Oral History Workshops for Youth

The 6 oral history workshops for youth are led by the research team, alongside the Michigan Oral History Association and Detroit-based multimedia experts.

Display board titled Oral History featuring biographical summaries of two women, a central colorful illustration of multiple women holding flowers, maps showing places they have lived, and author’s notes.

Oral History Project by Youth

The youth conduct oral history interviews with at least two members of their family and/or local community, and curate them in multimedia ways.

Tablet with blue protective case displaying a video of a street with buildings and red flags, subtitles read 'My grandparents came from China.'

Co-developing Digital Archive and Curriculum Guides

Using oral histories, photographs, and other artifacts, the youth co-develop antiracism curriculum resources for K-12 teachers and teacher educators.

For the digital archive, the youth map their oral histories onto the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (An & Rodriguez, 2022) and Michigan’s Social Studies and Literacy curriculum standards.

For curriculum guides, the youth generate overarching questions on race, migrations, and settlements as well as questions about oral histories to understand particular family and community trajectories.

Why this matters:

Through this project, we envision creative and collaborative ways to center Asian American counterstories that challenge stereotypes, reclaim histories, and advance racial justice in education.By uplifting the lived experiences of Asian American youth and their communities, our project:

Empowers youth as storytellers and educators

Disrupts historical erasure and epistemic violence against Asian Americans

Fosters a deeper understanding of race, migration, identity, and belonging in education

Supports educators, education policymakers, educational researchers, and other stakeholders in rethinking whose histories are told—and how

Two women embracing each other, one wearing a black hijab and the other with long dark hair and a floral patterned blouse.

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