Critiquing Empire Through Desirability: A Review of 40 Years of Filipinx Americans in Education Research, 1980 to 2020

Abstract

There is a paucity of research on the educational experiences of Filipinx Americans, the second-largest Asian American group in the United States. Studies that do exist often lump Filipinxs with other Asian Americans or present them devoid of critical contexts that shape their experience, namely, colonialism and racialization. Using a desire-based framework and empire as an analytic, we conducted a semi-systematic review of 74 journal articles to better understand how Filipinx Americans are presented in the research. Our analysis suggests that researchers often position Filipinx Americans relative to whiteness or utilize critical educational framings to interrogate the complex ways they are racialized. We offer implications for research focused on Filipinx Americans and minoritized groups. We conclude by discussing the utility of interdisciplinary research as well as the necessity for desirability and empire as a lens for future education research.

Co‐creating knowledge with undocumented Filipino students: Kuwentuhan as a research method

“…Undocumented Filipino students in the inquiry did not feel seen within the broader undocumented community and Filipino American community due to the ways undocumented has been racialized as a Latin* issue (Enriquez, 2018; Menjívar, 2021) and the liminal position Filipinos hold in U.S. racial categorizations (Maramba et al., 2021). Participants felt a “missing” piece of their identity in spaces that were supposedly designed for them due to socially constructed legal, racial, and/or panethnic identities (e.g., not feeling Filipino enough compared to U.S.‐born Filipinos when joining Filipino American student organizations).…”

“…This article provides tools on how to better understand and work with undocumented Filipino students who experience a compounded form of exclusion due to their legal status as undocumented and racialized identity as “Asian,” who are perceived as model minorities in higher education (Enriquez, 2019) along with a liminal position in U.S. racial categorizations (Maramba et al., 2022). This intersecting and layered form of marginalization has shaped the ways undocumented Filipino students continue to lack a sense of belonging within the broader undocumented, Asian American, and Filipino American community.…”