Abstract
Throughout American history, examinations of ethnicity have mainly focused on a binary of Black and White (White, 2007, p. 339). Little study has been conducted on the nation's ethnic minorities, including Arabs, Jews, Asians, Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians. The White race has effectively become the nation's default race (Khoshneviss, 2018, p. 19). Furthermore, research on the experiences of individuals of mixed ethnicity, particularly in education, remains limited. This study will uncover the mixed-ethnic Afakasi (half Samoan and half White) experience of myself as an educator who lived through and taught within the American K-12 system, experiencing the status quo curriculum of unapologetically White spaces, feeling overwhelmingly alienated and dissociated in the education system. Using an autoethnographic methodology, I critically analyze my experiences and those of other mixed-race students in the United States, exposing the lack of adequate support for diverse students in the school system. I employ a critical multiracial theory (MultiCrit) framework as the basis for this autoethnography.
Recommended Citation
Buckley, Jacqueline F.
(2026)
"Afakasi: An Ambiguous Space in a Monolithic Education System,"
Journal of Multicultural Affairs: Vol. 11:
Iss.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/jma/vol11/iss1/1
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Methods Commons
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