Challenging Native Speakerism in Literacy Research and Education

Abstract

Scholars have examined the myth of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) as model minorities in education and specifically within mathematics education, yet less is known about how this myth reveals an intersection of race and language that shapes the experiences of AAPIs in the literacy field. In this article, I argue that a monolingual model rooted in nativist ideologies of English is part and parcel of AAPIs’ racialization as model minorities and forever foreigners. Drawing from AAPI and literacy studies as well as autoethnographic insights, I further argue that the positioning of AAPIs in literacy research illustrates its Eurocentric legacy. This Insights article seeks to raise awareness of a racialized native speaker ethos of literacy research and education, and to call for more literacy research on AAPIs—an invisible minority within the field. Implications include expanding notions of literacy with varied and global perspectives through more research with and from multilingual nondominant communities.