Soukprida Phetmisy on diversity of Asian American learners and educators

Thought leaders share ideas with WorkingNation Overheard at SXSW EDU 2023
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“When we treat the Asian American community like it’s a monolith – when we don’t disaggregate the data, especially to student data – we start to realize that we lump everyone together,” says Soukprida Phetmisy, head of Asian American and Pacific Islander Alliances, Teach for America.

Phetmisy adds, “Folks do not often get the resources that they need specifically for their groups. When we start to disaggregate the data, we see that a lot of Asian American communities, like the Southeast Asian community, for example, needing a lot of resources.”

WorkingNation sat down with Phetmisy at SXSW EDU 2023 in Austin.

They say it’s important that her organization work to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander educators into the teacher workforce.  “We are often thinking about how to bring more diversity into the classroom. That’s true for our Black teachers. Yes, that’s true for our Latinx teachers. But for Asian American and Pacific Islander teachers, we are really focused on bringing them into the space, bringing them into the conversation, knowing that they have very unique things to add.”

Phetmisy says of the incoming corps, 8% identify as Asian American and Pacific Islander.

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