APEX Express – 6.6.24 Continental Shift-API Educator Pipeline

KPFA - APEX Express

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.

Tonight, we’re going to continue to highlight the podcast Continental Shifts created by bi-coastal educators Gabriel Anthony Tanglao and Estella Owoimaha-Church who embark on a voyage in search of self, culture and the ancestors.

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 4 with Yan Yii

Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression.

Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It’s time to get on board the Apex Express.

Swati Rayasam: [00:00:35] Good evening, everyone. You’re listening to Apex Express Thursday nights at 7 PM. My name is Swati Rayasam and I’m the special editor for this episode. Tonight, we’re going to continue to highlight the podcast Continental Shifts created by bi-coastal educators Gabriel Anthony Tanglao and Estella Owoimaha-Church who embark on a voyage in search of self, culture and the ancestors. Last time we featured the ConShifts podcast, gabriel and Estella talked about anti-blackness in the PI community. And tonight they’re talking to union leader and educator Yan Yii about creating culturally relevant classrooms, the importance and emotional toll of teachers being a social safety net for marginalized students, and the ever-growing union presence in education. If this is your first touch into the ConShifts podcast, I strongly recommend diving into the apex archives on kpfa.org, backslash programs, backslash apex express. But for now, let’s get to the show.

Yan Yii: [00:01:38] But what about the other 179 days? We can’t just celebrate them for one day a year. Or one month a year. We can’t just say, okay, Black History Month and we’re done. We have to celebrate our students all year long. Because, and we need to change the curriculum. You know, we talked about decolonizing curriculum. I am purposeful in the books that I choose to use in my classroom because, yes, I can teach “Number the Stars” for the 600th time, or maybe I can decide to use a book that reflects my students.

Gabriel: [00:02:10] How do we attract API educators into the workforce and support them throughout their professional journey? In this episode, we rap with Yan Yii on increasing the number of API educators that are coming through our teacher pipeline and emerging as union leaders.

Estella: [00:02:26] What up, what up? Tālofa lava, o lo’u igoa o Estella. My pronouns are she/her/hers, sis, and uso.

Gabriel: [00:02:32] What’s good, family? This is Gabriel. Kumusta? Pronouns, he/him.

Estella: [00:02:36] I have the pleasure of introducing our guest today, Yan Yii. Yan is a fifth grade teacher in Canton, Massachusetts, local board president of the Canton Teachers Association. NEA Board of Director for Massachusetts and serves as the Northeast Regional Director for the NEA Asian and Pacific Islanders Caucus. We want to be intentional, though, about not centering our professions above who we are. So Yan, could you please share with us who you are, how do you identify, and who are your people?

Yan Yii: [00:03:05] Hi, as you said, I’m a fifth grade teacher. I’m in my 14th year of teaching. In Massachusetts public schools and I am one of six or seven Asian Pacific Islander NEA board of directors. And I think that number has doubled since last year, which is pretty exciting. I would say that I am a proud daughter of two immigrant Chinese parents. My dad grew up in Malaysia and my mom grew up in Hong Kong and you know being Chinese has always been a huge part of who I am, but it’s also been an interesting divide growing up in America because, I’ve always been split between speaking English and speaking Chinese, you know, even an elementary level, my life was so split in two having my Chinese school on Sundays while all my friends went to church and then going to American school during the week. And that was a huge part of my life separating out, you know, who I was at school and who I was at home, what I spoke at school and what I spoke at home. And, you know, it’s funny being bilingual. My friends have always asked like, “When did you learn how to speak English?” And I’m like, “I don’t remember.” I know I went to school speaking English. I know that my brothers have always only spoken to me in English, but my parents only speak Cantonese to me. You know, Boston is a huge Cantonese community or it used to be anyways, it’s a little more mixed now in our Chinatown, but it’s an interesting divide because I remember being in college and having friends who made fun of the way I talked my English was spoken weirdly from my American friends and my Chinese was off for my Chinese friends. It was this difficulty finding a place where you really belong but I would say a huge part of why I became an educator was because of learning about my identity and being that kid who always loved school. I mean, I’m the kind of kid who didn’t mind homework because I loved school so much. I was going home and playing school with my little brother and I remember, you know being 10 or 11 and my brother convincing me there was school in the middle of a snowstorm and I walked all the way to school because I wanted to be there and then I promplty went home because there was no school but it, you know, it’s, it’s some of those interesting things. Like growing up, aside from going to Chinese school, I really didn’t see a teacher who looked like me. Now, I’ve loved each and every single teacher I ever had. I loved making that connection with them, but I think it was really disappointing to not see anybody who looked like me, except when I went to Chinese school where everybody looked like me. So it was this place where I never really felt like I belonged. I grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts, which is pretty diverse. And in eighth grade, we moved to Stoneham, which is 98 percent white and all of a sudden it felt like I had even less of an identity. Like I didn’t know who I was supposed to be. And there was no one really who looks like me. And the few that did look like me were either adopted or didn’t speak the language or they didn’t share the same culture as me. I think that’s the reason why when I went to college, I went to Simmons University, and the minute I got in there I signed up for Chinese classes. I became an East Asian studies major, even though I am not a history person at all. Because I felt like I needed to find my identity and I joined the Asian Students Association like, it was literally grasping at anything that could help me feel like I had some sort of identity.

Gabriel: [00:06:40] That’s such a powerful point in thinking about how much seeing your culture and identity reflected throughout your educational experience would matter. Even though it was absent, it causes us to want to explore and like you said, grasp for spaces where we can connect with people who share that identity and share that culture. So, part of our conversation here today is really to unpack the landscape of public education and thinking about how API educators aren’t largely represented, depending on what state or local or part of the country you’re from. But, Yan, I wanted to ask you, from your perspective as an API educator and a union leader with perspective across the state, but also nationally, why do you think there are so few API educators in the workforce?

Yan Yii: [00:07:35] Well, I think part of that, especially in the East Asian culture, is built into our culture, right? It’s this idea of is being a teacher a good enough job? I mean, I know when I came home from college and said i’m going into education that was my junior year of college I had already said that I was going to be a psychologist and all of a sudden I came home and I said I’m gonna be a teacher. And no one was upset that I wanted to be a teacher, but they were like, “Are you sure that’s the journey for you? Are you sure that’s where you want to be? Do you know how much a teacher makes? Is that a good enough job for you?” But like I said, I’ve always loved education. I think it’s the perfect job for me. I think these, it’s one of those professions that you’re kind of born into. But I don’t think it’s celebrated among many cultures. Particularly like my Chinese parents, they didn’t deter me from being a teacher, but they did say, “Is this the right path for you? Because we don’t want to have to worry about you.” But I think also when you don’t see yourself reflected in the field when you don’t see other AAPI teachers or people working in education, that it makes you feel like there’s not a place for you. And it’s always about that sense of belonging. Even when I’ve seen other educators come into the field, if they don’t feel like they have someone they can connect with, or, you know. You’re facing microaggressions every single day and believe me, I have seen microaggressions in my community where I work, and I have been there for 14 years. And they’re never, I would like to believe they’re not, they don’t come from malintent, but it feels that way sometimes. And I think that when you feel like an island, it becomes very difficult for people to stay in the profession.

Gabriel: [00:09:15] Can definitely relate to that portion. Just again, that whole idea that we need to have representation in part so we can see ourselves in those roles. And the question that you ask, is being a teacher a quote, good enough job? And that narrative playing out in perhaps immigrant family experiences with the whole idea of migrating to the United States is to try to climb this ladder of socioeconomic elevation in some way. I wanted to also ask Estella, since you know, our co host here is a classroom educator out in California. Do you feel like there’s a strong representation of API educators throughout the West Coast in California? Or how is the perception of API representation out there in your spaces?

Estella: [00:10:10] In my observations I would say definitely not enough, especially as a PI educator, as a Samoan educator, definitely not enough. Part of the reason why I chose to become an educator, and I feel like there’s a list of reasons why I chose education as my profession, and I agree with Yan it is definitely like a calling, right? Like folks who choose this, this is a lifestyle. And it’s far more than just a job or a career and so there are so many reasons why I chose to be a teacher. But one reason why I chose specifically to make sure that I came back home to teach aside from my great aunt saying to me right before she passed away, I was the first in my family to go to college. First to finish and my aunt before she passed, she said, “You know, all of that will do no good if you stay in your ivory tower.” After hearing her say that and then losing her, I was very much committed to making sure that I came back home to teach. Early on in my career when I was younger or still in school, I was always feeling like, you know, I want to, I want to travel and teach. I’m going to go, I want to go to Japan. I want to go to Switzerland. I want to go to all these places and teach. And after my aunt said that, I was like, why? Why would I, why would I do that? I need to go home and teach. I need to go back to South Central to South LA and teach and so I ended up coming back to the South Bay to teach because I had assumed that this was going to be a place where I could teach Black and Samoan kids just like me. Because I had never had a Samoan teacher. I had never had a PI teacher ever in my life and I did have Black teachers and that’s only because my parents were very deliberate in sending me to a Black school in South LA, for elementary school. But the experience changed in public high school and so I was committed to coming back home to be in a space where I knew I would see Tongan kids, Samoan kids, Fijian kids and then when I got here, my second year teaching and I was like, where, where are my peoples? Where is everybody? Like, I know that when I was a kid, this was because my mom went to Gardena High School. I just knew like growing up, I saw Samoans all over the place and suddenly there were none at the school that I was teaching at. And in my years teaching in the South Bay, I taught in the South Bay for six, nearly seven years. It was a continuous decline of enrollment of PI students. There’s a whole host of reasons. One reason, right off the bat, and it goes to everything that Yan has already said, there was no sense of belonging. Or cultural understanding of any of those students in addition, or similarly, there’s a continual decline of Black families in our schools in this area. And I’m not saying that the decline has anything to do with, like, the influx or rise of other populations. I think it needs to be pinned squarely on the fact that PI Students are not receiving the support, academic supports they need, or the social emotional supports they need. There is research to show that there is a push out of PI girls and Black girls. They are more likely to be suspended or expelled and pushed out of our schools. In addition, if the boys are not playing football, there’s not a lot of support or welcoming or belonging created for those students and definitely no teachers who can connect to them on, on a cultural level or literally speak the language and there’s probably a great deal of linguistic needs that aren’t being met. They might speak English, but if their first language was Samoan they probably need a lot more EL supports that we don’t have programs built for. And so students are leaving, parents are opting for private education or other places where they should go. So I think, I don’t know how to name it, but there has to be a correlation with the student population and the number of educators that are also in the space. I’m here to teach students who, you know, I assume or imagine probably going through very similar things I went through as a kid, and there’s no one here for me to teach. You know what I mean? Like, like what I set out to accomplish, I don’t know that I will be able to.

Gabriel: [00:14:47] Stella, there were two things from what you just shared that are resonating for me. First, the push out of PI and Black students in schools. I think it’s important to note that when we think about API: Asian and Pacific Islanders that we perceive this group of people or group of students as a monolith. And when you disaggregate the data, Even though the perception is that API as an aggregate is more highly educated, has higher socioeconomic status, et cetera, et cetera, that when you disaggregate the data, it’s important to understand what the impact is on the various communities that exist within that umbrella of API. The other thing you said Estella, about coming back and it being a calling to connect with students that you reflect and reflect you and your cultural identity. That resonated with me when I was teaching in the classroom in Bergenfield, New Jersey. It was one of the largest Filipino populations in New Jersey. Jersey City, I think is the highest Filipino population, but part of my experience there and being able to connect with Filipino students and families. It made that passion grow even more. So part of what I wanted to ask Yan and Estella both is. If we have listeners listening to this podcast right now, say young API folks that are thinking about their calling and exploring their direction in their future, what about teaching inspires passion for you that would make it attractive for API folks listening to this podcast, be inspired to consider choosing this as a direction in their life’s path.

Yan Yii: [00:16:40] I think one of the things that really resonates with me as an educator and the reason why I love it so much, you know, I’ve been back and forth with my involvement in my local union and the fact that it takes me away from my classroom, it’s the connections that I make with my students. That, I think that’s the most important thing to me, like, how I connect with my students, how I can support them, whether it’s through, you know, a few years ago I started a fifth grade, like, show choir. Might have been a little bit Glee inspired, but, you know, it’s the fact that my students were willing to give up their recess once a week to come sing with me and dance with me. And, art club after school, they’re willing to give up their time, but it’s that making those connections with the students and then having those students come back and say, you really changed my life. When I first started teaching, I had a student who was probably the most happy go lucky child I’d ever seen. And she wrote to me years later and said, “You saved my life. Like I was in such a hard place,” and this is, I’m talking about a nine year old child, when she was in my class and she said, “I was in such a bad place and my home life was not good. And, and you made me feel loved.” And that’s what we’re supposed to do as educators. We’re supposed to make our students feel loved. And I think especially when I talk about this in terms of Asian Pacific Islander identity, when you don’t feel that connection to your classroom and you don’t feel like your teacher sees that part of you, because you know, I hear educators say a lot, “Oh, I, I don’t see color.” And I’m always like, but when you don’t see color, it’s the danger of a single story, right? You’re only seeing one part of your student, you’re seeing the academics of that student. But, you know, I remember a few years ago, one of the big things I’ve always done in my classroom is celebrate Lunar New Year, because it’s a huge celebration for my family. I wanted to share that with my students, and you know, two boys in one of my coworker’s class had said, they were so excited to share about their culture and what they do at home. And she’s like, well, then that was great. And I said, yes, it was. But what about the other 179 days? We can’t just celebrate them for one day a year, or one month a year. We can’t just say, okay, Black History Month and we’re done. We have to celebrate our students all year long. And we need to change the curriculum. You know, we talk about decolonizing curriculum. I am purposeful in the books that I choose to use in my classroom because yes, I can teach Number the Stars for the 600th time, or maybe I can decide to use a book that reflects my students. And, you know, that’s why I started my year off with Seedfolk, because I wanted to talk about what cultures coming together looked like, and you know, one of my students immediately said, he’s like, “Wow, I could see myself in that book.” And that’s what I want to hear from my students. I can see myself in that book. And it’s not the same whitewashed characters over and over and over again, because my students are gaining nothing from that. And it’s, it’s trying to make that relevant throughout the entire school and not just my classroom. But making that connection with my students I would say is what makes my job worth getting up for every single day.

Estella: [00:19:37] It is not lost on me that this is what episode four and nearly every guest we have had on this show, every single one of us have said that an important part of our journey was cultural or ethnic studies. At some point in our life, probably undergrad, graduate school, we made a very conscious choice to seek it out and go after it. And it was crucial to our becoming who we are, right? We’ve had professors, educators, social workers on the show, and every single person has stated that cultural studies was somewhere in their journey. So that’s not lost on me that you said earlier that, you know, that was an important part also of your journey. Even though you’re not, you’re like history [blows a raspberry], but [laughs] it was still an important part of becoming who you are as an educator and a leader. And I wanted to just call that out. You also mentioned how important it was to find a place of belonging, and I guess I struggle with actually encouraging young people to become educators, in part because I don’t know that the profession itself serves us the way it should. Right? Like, as a union leader, as a educator, as a Black woman, as a PI woman, I don’t know that our field has figured out how to take care of us the way it should and I don’t, I feel guilty, I guess, pushing young people to move into education. And that bothers me, right? Because the other, the flip side of that is we’re having this conversation: How do we get more educators in classrooms? And I’m struggling because I know we need more API representation in the field. But then I’m like, do I want to do that to people I care about? Because this profession does not lend itself to self care. We are not taught in our training programs how to create collectives or community you know, to survive our field. We don’t have open and honest conversations through that credentialing program about how we survive in this field you know. How do we deal with a lot of us are empaths, right? Like we are in this and we lead with our hearts. And when you’re dealing with your trauma and then a whole host of secondhand trauma. I didn’t take a class on that. You know [laughs] how to deal with your own emotions and carrying the weight of everything your kids are going through and you’re trying to, you know, help them as best as you can, while also dealing with your own. There was nothing to prepare me for that part of this, this industry. And I think that those of us who this is our calling we just put our heads down and we fight through and we push as hard as we can to show up, to continue to show up for our kids. But oftentimes it is absolutely at our detriment. We are self sacrificing martyrs more times than I think we should be. I’m just being honest, I’m not saying I plan on walking away from my classroom anytime soon, but I just wanted to, to state that. I definitely agree that the biggest thing that keeps me inspired or in the classroom is the relationships with students. The amount of times they, I mean, I teach high school, I’m secondary, so I’ve got ninth through twelfth graders, and every single grade level is its own special brand of hilarious. And I just love, I love those moments in between the lesson. I love the moment where they absolutely take charge of the lesson. I love moments where students are, you know, correcting and calling me out because I know learning is happening. I know that they, something has been ignited and lit and they’re questioning and they’re being curious and they’re pushing back and they’re thinking critically. So I welcome all of those moments and those are the best moments that keep me in the classroom and similar stories when kids come back or write me messages like miss, you know, I just, you know, thank you or I can’t wait for my younger sibling to be in your class or, you know, whatever the case may be, those are definitely the things that keep you in the classroom or keep you willing to keep coming back. Even though the profession does not look out for us or protect us or take care of us. Virtual teaching, if nothing else, has pointed out how bad these silos have gotten. Because during this virtual teaching, and I don’t know about other folks, but my experience has been I feel absolutely disconnected from colleagues. I could go a whole week without ever talking to another colleague. And it’s just me and students logging into Zoom and logging out. And so this has sort of made those silos even worse in some cases. But what I was thinking about when you were talking is there’s an added layer of culture. Like, if we’re having conversations about intersectionality that I think teachers of color deal with, that API teachers deal with, that other teachers may not fully understand and those microaggressions that you talk about, sometimes I don’t even like using the word microaggression because I, like you said, I feel like nah that was just aggressive, bro like you, you didn’t have to say what you said, the way you said it. It wasn’t, there was nothing micro about that. That was just straight up aggression. Cause like you, just unnecessary. And so there’s this added layer of like cultural and I guess this and I feel like I’m talking to circles now, but this goes back to feeling like the profession doesn’t take care of us. And there’s an added layer to that for Black teachers for Latinx teachers for API teachers. And so not only do we then burden the responsibility or we shoulder the burden of having to show up for every single kid who looks like us and sharing those experiences as first generation Americans and immigrant students, but we also then have the extra task of showing up for all the educators across the field who also share in, you know, why I had to go all the way to college just to figure out who I am and what my calling is and find a place where I could be and exist and belong.

Yan Yii: [00:26:17] I just wanted to say, you know, I think that the demand of educators because I’m mentoring a brand new teacher this year. She’s literally a one year teacher And she was made for this, right? Like, she was made to be an educator, but there are times where I’m like, you probably shouldn’t do this. Like, if there’s still time for you to get out, I’ve already put too many years into this. You know, I think back, you know, when the Boston Marathon bombing happened, and then the next day when my students came to school, they said, “What are you going to do to protect me?” So, so all of a sudden, and my fifth graders are 10 years old. All of a sudden, I’m not just your teacher now. Now I’m your protector. That is my job to sacrifice myself, and I would willingly do it for any of my students. To protect them. And then on top of it, now we’re in a pandemic and we’re learning in person. So, you know, I’m, I’m going to be 100 percent honest. I was exposed at school and I’m under isolation right now. Thankfully tested negative, but this is another layer that students have to deal with. And as students that now they’re worried that they’re going to one get us sick. And if we get sick, you know, there’s another layer of trauma and I feel like everywhere I turn, there’s more trauma and more administrators telling us, you should take care of yourself, but also I’m going to give you new curriculum. I’m going to give you this, this and this to do, but I’m not gonna take anything off your plate, but also take care of yourself. And I want to be able to tell new teachers it will change because let’s be honest, public education has been a pendulum. It goes to the extreme, and then it comes back because someone goes, Whoa, what are we doing? But I think there’s a lot of pressure on educators constantly to do the right thing and then to always put their students first. And you’re right, we end up sacrificing ourselves and our, our mental health and our well being for our students. How many teachers, you know, who probably have taken home like a student who doesn’t have a home or is spending their own money to buy students lunches or, or buy students clothes or whatever else they need to do, whatever else they need to do for their students. And we give and we give and we give, especially, you know, anytime we can, and I don’t ever want to not do that. But when you think about a brand new educator coming in, you go, you still have time, like, and it’s a terrible, terrible way to feel. But, one of the things that, you know, we started an Asian mentorship program this, last year, and honestly, it’s been a breath of fresh air to not be alone and we went from 12 people last year to 40 people this year. And it’s been like, wow, there are other people who are going through the same thing I’m going through and there are other people seeing what I’m seeing and on top of it being an educator of color, you have people, especially in your first three years of education that will doubt your abilities in the job because you probably got it because of the color of your skin, at least in their opinion. Right? And you’re fighting, like, if I didn’t have a super ethnic sounding name, if I could, if I could have hidden that, I would have, because I wanted people to know that I did it on my merit and not because of the color of my skin. That I didn’t get this job because I’m Asian, but I got this job because I’m a good educator and I got to keep this job because I’m a good educator, not because of affirmative action. And there are so many different layers that we have to deal with as educators of color on top of everything else we’re already dealing with.

Estella: [00:29:45] After the shooting in Florida at…

Yan Yii: [00:29:48] Stoneman Douglas.

Estella: [00:29:50] Yes. Yeah, there you go. Stoneman Douglas. Thank you. After that shooting, I remember at our school, it was my 10th graders were doing, you know, school shooter drills or having conversations about what to do if there’s a school shooter on campus. And my students, I remember their response was very similar. Like, what do we do, miss? And them being very vocal about like, I don’t trust teachers, miss. Like who’s going to take a bullet for me, miss? And when I thought about it, I was like, hold up. There’s not one teacher on campus. And then students stopped and thought, and they’re like, well, I mean, I guess I’m coming to this room and we can figure it out together. And I had to have an conversation with students about like, now that I’m a mother and a wife. My perspective has changed, right? Like my first year of teaching, maybe it would have been, you know, and I can’t say what I would do in a terrible moment like that, but you know, I know that my first year teaching my attitude was probably more like I will do whatever to protect my students. I took an oath, right? I’m going to protect my students. And after having my daughter, I had a conversation with another educator, you know, we’re talking about. What do we do in, in events like a school shooting? And she said to me, “I know that you are willing to take care of your students. We, we know that no one is questioning that you are a good educator, but your responsibility now is different because you have a child to make it home to.” And that cut real deep and hit different. And I, [long pause, tearing up] I questioned whether or not I could stay in the profession and how much longer I could stay in the profession. If what we had to deal with was going to continue to bombings, shootings, pandemics, I have a child to make it home to and a husband to take care of. And I don’t know how much more, you know, folks expect. For us to be willing to sacrifice and watching the conversations online about open up schools, go back to schools. Teachers are whining. Teachers are this, that, and the other. When just nine months ago, it was, “Oh my God, I never knew how much you guys do in the classroom every day.” And then to suddenly like this quick shift to just go back to the classroom. It doesn’t instill me with a whole lot of faith. And I honestly don’t know where I was going. I was just thinking about what you said about, you know, the bombing and having that conversation with kids. And while I know that students need to feel and know that we’re going to take care of them, I definitely had a conversation with students. An honest conversation. And I said, I don’t, I don’t know. I know that I’m, I will do everything that I can. And if this is the room that you feel safe coming to, this is the room you need to be at. And I’ve practiced with students, like, you know, we’ve had large fights where the school gets shut down and we go under lockdown and I’ve gone outside and just yanked kids into my room as quickly as I can. As soon as that lockdown sound goes on. And we’ve practiced, like we’ve had conversations like, “Miss, we gon bust that window out. We’ll make a rope ladder,” like whatever it is, like we’ve had those conversations and I just hate that we have to have those conversations. Like, I really hate that that’s normal now.

Gabriel: [00:33:49] The amount of pressure that educators are feeling, especially in this moment, being the nurturers, caregivers, and now being asked to be the protectors. The overwhelming workload, the self sacrifice physically, mentally, emotionally, and as Yan mentioned, in some cases, financially, even dealing with the Eurocentric curriculum, in some ways is a form of emotional violence. That we as educators are expected to perpetuate onto our students and that it takes its own toll. In addition to the quote, microaggressions that are really aggressions, there’s a lot and what I also heard from you both is that it’s really the relationships with the students, with some colleagues, with creating communities of affinity spaces, where you can share some experiences, cultural identity, and as Yan was describing that mentorship program, building those relationships internally. Those are the things that keep the weight on this scale as even as it can be to keep you connected and committed, at least in this moment.

Swati Rayasam: [00:35:14] You’re tuned in to APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1. KFCF in Fresno and online at kpfa.org. Coming up is the song “Depressure” by Nu Nasa, off of the Khamsa music project.

MUSIC

That was the song “Depressure” by Nu Nasa, off of the Khamsa music project. And now back to the ConShifts podcast.

Gabriel: [00:38:52] So, Yan, just a question I had for you, being involved in union leadership in your local, state, and national level, specifically in the spaces that lean into cultural affinity. And address racial inequity within the union spaces, having that space, platform, experience network in what ways, what drew you to that for what reason do you now serve in leadership roles in that way? And, what would you say to folks that are currently API educators, but not as involved in their union at the current moment? What would you say to those folks?

Yan Yii: [00:39:32] So I took a class a few years ago, maybe like two years ago on how to not burn out. And I was like, wouldn’t there be irony if I burned out while taking this class on how to not burn out. But it’s things that you’re passionate about will never burn you out. They’ll, they’ll energize you to do more work. Right. You know, I have a painting here and I think it’s a Gabriel Tanglao quote. We rise by lifting others. I painted it a few years ago. And it’s always, I’m always searching because basically how I got involved was somebody said, “Hey, you’d be really good as a building rep.” And then a few years later, they were like, “You should step into the role of secretary.” And then it was, “You should consider running for union president.” And I became the NEAA pick because you Gabe you told me “You should try this out.” And I said, well, okay, I’ll give it a shot, right? Because part of union work is about identifying other leaders and we rise by lifting others, right? It’s not about the power grab. It’s not about staying in power. You know, one of the big things I pushed in my local is we need term limits because a healthy union has turnover. There’s a reason why we only have eight years allowed for a president, right? You can, you can serve a total of two terms because if someone has more than two terms, they tend to go, you know, like, what is it? Absolute power corrupts. And, you know, we want to avoid that and, I’m less concerned about, um, corruption in teacher unions than I am about complacency. If the same person is in charge for 20 years, great, because then they will always do the work. But guess what? That person is going to retire at some point. You know, I’ve been union president for four years now, and I’m stepping down at the end of this year, because I think it’s time for someone else to step up. And I think that, you know, this is not a top down, it’s a bottom up. Like, we have to all work together. And we are all part of the union. So it drives me absolutely insane when someone says, “But what is the union doing for me?” And I turn around and say, “You’re the union. We are all the union.” Like it can’t, you can’t just look at me and think that I’m going to do things for you because I am your spokesperson as your president, not your dictator. It’s not my job to make these decisions. In fact, I try to step back as much as possible to allow decisions to be made by the membership versus made by me. And I think, you know, I remember being in Dallas, I want to say four or five years ago, and we were in a very, very large room for a very small group of people. I want to say there were maybe four people and one of them was a friend who was not Asian that I dragged into the room with me so that she could also be there. And then my first RA at the, for NEA, we had a small room of people. And when we were in Minnesota. And even when we were in Houston, we didn’t have enough chairs. It was the most exciting thing in the world to me. Our group has gotten so large. They put us in a small room and we didn’t have enough chairs. And you feel comfortable. Like, I love the term we use in APIC, Ohana, like family. We’re family together. Like it is our APIC family. Like we’re small, but, but we’re mighty, right? Like we want to have that voice and we want to fight for what’s right for not just us, but for, for everyone. And I think, you know, I’ve, I’ve managed to do that in my role serving 6 years on EMAC and it was, you know, like most recently we had conversations about how to decolonize curriculum throughout Massachusetts and, you know, like the idea that I’m one person what can I do? I can change what I’m choosing to teach in my classroom with a little teacher autonomy. I can choose to not only read whitewashed curriculum. I can find a paired text of this is what happened during this time in history. I can focus my readings during Black history month on different people instead of just Martin Luther King. Not that that’s not important, but why are we only getting one perspective? There are so many historical Black figures. And if we’re not pushing that, are we waiting for our students to push for it? Because they might not know too, because they’ve never been exposed to it. And I do think we live in a time where kids are pushing more and more and more against whitewashed curriculum, but we as educators have to do our job too. And it’s making that connection with each other and not feeling so alone in that journey.

Gabriel: [00:43:57] Yeah, nah, we definitely started the conversation around how union leadership creates spaces. And part of what you kind of illustrated through that is it’s an opportunity to lift up more people, more educators, specifically more API educators into spaces to learn with each other and grow with each other. Specifically with the decolonizing curriculum conversation, I remember that you and I had a chance to collaborate in some spaces around decolonizing curriculum, and it was through the union space that we connected even Estella and I connected through the union spaces. So that’s a place to find the community of folks. That you know, are doing that critical work. So I loved your response. I wanted to also just talk more broadly about the educator pipeline for API folks. Do you have any thoughts on ways that we can expand this API educator pipeline? And if you wanted to integrate some of the work that you’re doing with your mentorship program into that conversation. So part one, how do we attract more educators into the profession and workforce? Part two, how do we continue to support those educators throughout their professional journey?

Yan Yii: [00:45:18] So I’m going to start with part two, because I feel like part two has to happen in order for part one to happen, right? I think we need to work on retaining educators, particularly AAPI educators, because coming into the profession, and then we don’t feel supported and people will leave. And I think part of this is helping people to not feel like an island, but also making people feel like there’s a sense of belonging in the field. Because if everyone is constantly looking at you like you don’t belong, then you’re not going to stay. Unless you have a lot of fight in you, which many of us do [laughs] but when everything is working against you and there’s so much pressure on you already. Not having a sense of belonging is really going to drive you from the profession. Now, once we build up that, you know, like, and what I love about this mentorship program, and I know you’re using the word pipeline, and we started with that term, and we pulled away from it because we feel like it tends to have a negative connotation. When I hear the word pipeline, I think school to prison pipeline. Right? So we had changed it to a mentorship program because really, you know, especially this year we’ve talked about it. It’s not just the veterans mentoring newer teachers or even aspiring educators. It’s that we all have so much to learn from each other, regardless of where we are. My mentee at my school, she and I talk every single day, and she’s constantly showing me new things, and I’ve been an educator for 14 more years than she has. And it’s this idea that it’s a group of, like, this is a learning experience for everybody, not just the person who is brand new, and it’s not just me as a veteran who has something to offer. Now, in terms of getting more people to come into the profession, particularly more AAPI educators, one, it’s seeing us in the field. Seeing themselves reflected in the field. Two, I think it’s changing the narrative about the respect this job deserves. You know, Estella said it before we live in a time where 6 months ago you said everybody loves teachers. Right? And then all of a sudden we became enemy number one. And that was really hard for me to stomach as a union leader and as an educator. I know, you know, I was personally attacked on my personal Facebook because of some of the union work I was doing and trying to advocate for the safety of my educators. And someone has said, it sounds like you don’t really want to be in the classroom. Maybe you should consider a change of profession. And I was like, first of all, this is my personal Facebook. Second of all, I had your child in fifth grade, so I know you know what a good educator I am. And if you remembered what a good educator I was, you would know that I care more about these students than I do about my own safety sometimes. So maybe we should take a step back and think about what we’re saying before we start attacking educators. But it’s having that connection and being able to support them and changing that narrative. But I also think it’s not, it’s not like, you know, right now we were like, okay, we’re going to find AAPI students in college who are already in education. Well, guess what? There aren’t very many of them. Like, we need to get to you before that. We need to get to them in high school. We need to get to them in middle school and elementary school, we need to dig as deep as we can. And part of that digging is going to be reflecting ourselves in the education field. I think if you don’t see yourself there and you don’t see that as a possibility and if people are constantly telling you, don’t be a teacher, it’s not worth it, or you won’t make enough money or those who can do, and those who can’t teach. Like all of those feelings, that’s what prevents people from being, becoming educators. And I will say this as, as much as my Chinese mom complained about me becoming a teacher when she talks to my aunties she’s always like, “And my daughter is doing this in her classroom and you should see the pictures of her classroom. And then she’s always saying to my nieces and nephews, you should listen to your auntie, she’s a teacher. She knows what she’s doing.” Right. So like that always makes me feel a little bit better because for years I was like, did I choose the right profession? I think when I turned 30, I was like, okay, this is it. Am I going to stay here? Because I’m investing in my retirement now. Or am I going to consider changing my career and honestly, I can’t see myself doing anything else.

Estella: [00:49:40] I had the same thought at 30. [Laughs] Am I in it or, or am I going somewhere else? And my dad was the same way with, you know, “Are you sure? Teaching?” Also, I was a double major in theater. It was Black studies and theater. And I knew I was going into education and I don’t know what it is about Nigerian parents, but it’s “Theater? You’re going to be a clown for the rest of your life?” Like that’s, that was the thought process. Like excuse m?. But, I wonder how much of that, because it’s come up in previous episodes and, and Gabe, you mentioned too about, you know, the need of immigrant children to push and push and push and do great in school and speak, you know, in Nigerian family “speak the King’s English” is what we say. And I wonder how much of that. is just a product of assimilation or trying to align with whiteness. And so, I mean, I hate it. Kind of makes my skin crawl. And you know, and then of course that imposter syndrome, it just looms. It just like nags and looms. And I don’t know what to do with those, those feelings or thoughts because I know first gen kids are gonna deal with that I don’t, like, I don’t know how to help kids move past that, honestly, because it’s not something I’ve ever learned to fully cope with, move past, or deal with. Every time I think I’m in my stride and I’ve dealt with those emotions, again, I’m still feeling like, did I do enough? Is this good enough? But then, like you said, then I hear my dad go, “Oh, well, my daughter, blah, blah, blah.” And I’m like, really dad? Cause when I told you I switched my major, you, you show that that is not what you said. But anyway, you mentioned like our API spaces is like Ohana. And one thought that I’m having. You know, and thinking about how we make sure that we’ve got safe affinity spaces for API educators and our union is definitely one of those spaces with our ethnic caucuses at the state level and the national level. There definitely is still some area for growth within our affinity spaces along the lines of generational issues, but also in the ways in which anti- blackness or racism creeps in, right? Like I think that there is, and I don’t know how to define it, segment it, weed it out, but there’s definitely a generational difference between, I’d say, you know, teachers who are currently within their, like, first 10 years to our educators who, you know, they’re 20 plus year veterans. We don’t necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to cultural ethnic issues. And part of that might be because our education, once we found those cultural spaces of belonging in college, I imagine probably looked very different for some of our elders in the profession. And so I think our level of race or critical race consciousness is not in the same place and so I think there needs to be a level of some just personal reflective work on the individual level, but also as a collective, like as an Ohana, like we need to have some of these really hard conversations together and continuously, so that we can move forward towards solidifying some sort of collective identity. I think that there’s probably far more API educators out there in the field that may not yet identify as API because they may be in a different place in their cultural identity work. They might be in a very different place. Because whoever named us API, right, like they fit a whole bunch of nationalities and cultures into one category. Whole different groups of people, islands, like nation states, bunched up into this API term. And so there might be a whole bunch of folks out there that’s like “API. What’s an API?” when that’s probably technically where they would belong if they knew what box to click on, you know what I mean? And so I think part of our work is defining who we are and then like [laughs] doing the marketing work to make sure educators in the field know. Hey, this is your affinity space over here. We’ve got your back. Your Ohana is right here. If you, you know, come on over, join us, take a seat. And, and then we can continue to do that reflective work, transformation work.

Gabriel: [00:54:24] As we close today, I’d love to ask you, what is one thing that gives you hope in this moment where hope may be hard to find?

Yan Yii: [00:54:34] I think one of the things that makes me hopeful is that at my very last class of 2020, it was December 22nd, I asked my students, what is one thing you are thankful for, from this past year? And they were like, “The fact that I can come to your class,” like come to school. Like I had kids who wanted to be in school, whatever capacity we were going to do this, they wanted to be there. And that meant the world to me, the connections we’ve made. And you know, one of the things, even, even being in hybrid, You know, I worry every day about the impact of that. But I see how close my cohort A is to themselves, like, and I see how close my cohort B is, and I do a lot of work where, you know, the students, like, I teach synchronously all day long, so the student, they, they are constantly working with each other and the bond that they have as a class. I think that’s what makes me really hopeful. And, you know, in terms of being a API educator, the thing that makes me the most hopeful is that we tripled in size in our mentorship program that we’re out there. And we just have to find, like you, you have to dig a lot, because especially in Massachusetts, many of our AAPI educators are actually not, in the same union. They’re part of the AFT and not the NEA because they’re part of Boston Public, which is the largest local we have. And some of us are literally islands alone in Western, in a small, small rural town in Western Massachusetts, but the fact that they found us and they said, this is, this is, this is where I feel like I’m connecting. Like it’s the connections that we’re making that I think allow me to be hopeful.

Estella: [00:56:11] Fa’afetai Tleilava. Thank you for listening.

Gabriel: [00:56:13] Salamat. Thank you for listening.

Estella: [00:56:14] We want to thank our special guest, Yan one more time for rapping with us tonight. We appreciate you.

Gabriel: [00:56:19] Continental Shifts Podcast can be found on Pod Beam, apple, Spotify, Google, and Stitcher.

Estella: [00:56:26] Be sure to like and subscribe on YouTube for archived footage and grab some merch on our site

Gabriel: [00:56:31] and join our mailing list for updates at conshiftspodcast.com. That’s C-O-N-S-H-I-F-T S podcast. com and follow us at con underscore shifts on all social media platforms.

Estella: [00:56:49] Dope educators wayfinding the past, present, and future.

Gabriel: [00:56:53] Keep rocking with us fam. We’re going to make continental shifts through dialogue, with love, all together.

Estella: [00:56:58] Fa’afetai Thanks again. Tōfā, deuces.

Gabriel: [00:57:02] Peace. One love.

Swati Rayasam: [00:57:08] Please check out our website, kpfa.org backslash program backslash apex express. To find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. Apex express is produced by Miko Lee, along with Paige Chung, Jalena Keene-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaida, Kiki Rivera, Nate Tan, Hien Ngyuen, Cheryl Truong, and me Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the team at KPFA for their support and have a great night.

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