From Objects to Subjects: Voices, Perspectives, Histories, and Learning in the South Asian American Experience (original) (raw)

Abstract

Using a postcolonial lens, this paper critiques scholarly discourse on the experiences of South Asian Americans (SAAs) in the United States as being too othering and too homogenized. In most of that discourse, SAAs are treated as objects who may only be reactive to dominant society and culture; their racialized experiences are also muted. Treating SAAs as subjects, this paper presents a way to enrich their experiences, paying particular attention to how those experiences have been racialized. Drawing upon, but also critiquing cultural historical activity theory, the paper presents an alternative way to think about and empirically examine learning. Disciplinary Perspectives and Literature Consulted Using a postcolonial lens, this paper divides the scholarship on the experiences of SAAs 1 into three broad perspectives: historical, historical-materialist, and social-cultural. In this section we briefly describe postcolonial theory and then use it to analyze the three perspectives 2. Postcolonial Theory Postcolonial theory is a dialectic union of Marxism and Poststructuralism that engages the historical condition of postcoloniality to expose the material exploitation and cultural imperialism of colonialism as well as the complicity of the colonized with the colonizer. In so doing, the theory interrogates the bondage of the mind, self, and culture that remains invisible in the aftermath of colonialism; questions and reinterprets the East/West, Orient/Occident divide and modern/traditional binary-with their implication of Western technological and cultural superiority; and critiques "the enduring hierarchies of subjects and knowledges" (Gandhi, 1998, p. 15). All of that is done with the goal of learning from colonialism's past in order to "make, but also to gain, theoretical sense out of that past" (Gandhi, 1998, p. 5).

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (17)

  1. Badruddoja, R. (2007). The ABCD conundrum: What does it mean to be a South Asian-American woman? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick.
  2. Baptiste, I., Nyanungo, H. N., & Youn, C. (2009). Researching learning in community action: Highlighting the role of locality. Unpublished manuscript.
  3. Chandrasekhar, S. (Ed.). (1982). From India to America: A brief history of immigration; problems of discrimination; admission and assimilation. La Jolla, CA: Population Review Publications.
  4. Engeström, Y. (1996). Developmental studies of work as a testbench of activity theory: The case of primary care medical practice. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 64-103). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Engeström, Y. (1997). Learning by expanding: Ten years after. Retrieved March 11, 2005, from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/Engestrom/expanding/intro.htm
  6. Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133-156.
  7. Engeström, Y., & Miettinen, R. (1999). Introduction. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen & R. L. Punamäki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory: Learning in social, cognitive, and computational perspectives (pp. 1-16). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  8. Foot, K. (2001). Pursuing an evolving object: A case study in object formation and identification. Mind, Culture and Activity, 9(2), 132-149.
  9. Gandhi, L. (1998). Postcolonial theory: A critical introduction. New York: Columbia University Press.
  10. Harpalani, V. (2003, August). Ambiguous scapegoats: Critical race theory and the racialization of South Asians in the U.S. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p106674\_index.html
  11. Jensen, J. M. (1988). Passage from India: Asian Indians immigrants in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  12. Lal, V. (2008). The other Indians: A political and cultural history of South Asians in America. Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press.
  13. Mazumdar, S. (1989). Racist responses to racism: The Aryan myth and South Asians in the United States. South Asia Bulletin, 9(1), 47-55.
  14. Prashad, V. (2000). The karma of brown folk. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  15. Roth, W. M., & Lee, Y. J. (2007). "Vygotsky's neglected legacy": Cultural-historical activity theory. Review of Educational Research, 77(2), 186-232.
  16. Rubinstein, A. T. (2001). Subverting a model [Review of the book Karma of Brown Folk]. Monthly Review Press, 52(10), 41-44.
  17. Takaki, R. (1989). Strangers from a different shore: A history of Asian Americans. Boston: Little Brown and Company.