Abstract
This paper outlines my Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) process as a pedagogical pathway: the creation of community-based curricula, of developing relationships with community partners, and the complexities I grappled with as a new Vietnamese American scholar at a university next to a large co-ethnic enclave. Specifically, I reflect on the partnership between my Vietnamese American Studies courses and a local elementary school with a high percentage of newly immigrated students from Viet Nam. We engaged in oral history interviews, classroom visits, the production of bilingual children’s books, and English language tutoring to build inter-generational bridges. Through this reflective process, I consider the role of the university in providing added support for Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) teachers as sources of cultural enrichment, community development and engagement, and pipelines for first-generation college students. I discuss the challenges and successes of developing a new community partnership with a local elementary school (pseudonym Hope Elementary) and building bridges between second-generation immigrant college students and first generation immigrant community members. The CBPR process offers an opportunity to begin a dialogue about the trajectory for teaching in and with transnational communities. In particular, it offers avenues of teaching and scholarship with Southeast Asian American communities that are relevant to their contemporary lived experiences.
Recommended Citation
Dao, Loan T.
(2015)
"Making My Path by Walking: Using Community Based Participatory Research in Vietnamese American Studies,"
Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement: Vol. 10
:
Iss.
2,
Article 6.
DOI: 10.7771/2153-8999.1134
Available at:
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jsaaea/vol10/iss2/6
