Neoliberal Pedagogies and Indian American Youth: Constructing Academic Identities in Central Texas

Abstract

Centering the voices of Indian American high school students, this investigation utilizes postcolonial theory, Orientalism and cultural identity in diaspora to engage the ways five Indian American students form academic identities. Participants formed academic identities in relation to neoliberal pedagogic contexts and interactions with curricula and educators, demonstrating the fluid, antagonistic, and culturally related nature of their academic identities mired in mimicry, mockery and ambivalence. Participants’ insights highlight the negotiations of prescribed ways of knowing/being particular to their high school space, and their own agentic decisions within these dynamics construction notions of self-efficacy related to hard work and resiliency in the contemporary neoliberal moment.