AANHPI Heritage Month: No Single Story
No Single Story: Amplifying the Voices of Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Early Educators is a book project that brings together a diverse group of Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) across the diaspora to share stories about how our intersecting identities and lived experiences have impacted and influenced our roles in early education and care. Over the past two years, we have formed a community of writers with 30 contributors across the United States to share our personal stories, which will be published by NAEYC in Fall 2026. The framework and context for this book is aligned with NAEYC’s position statement on advancing equity.
These authors represent a group of AANHPI educators with different ethnicities, identities, and roles in education, including family child care providers, classroom teachers, coaches, leaders, directors, higher education teacher educators, staff of community-based organizations serving children and families, public policy advocates, and mental health professionals.
Authors' Note: We use the term Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander to hold both the uniqueness of our distinct cultures and the solidarity of our identities.
No single experience defines what it means to be AANHPI in the United States today. Instead, our lived experiences are in part shaped by where we were born, how connected we are to our family’s ethnic origins, and how others see us and engage with us in our daily lives. We are also reminded that we are not a monolithic group. We have been marginalized and privileged, both within our AANHPI identities and outside of the group. We know that the term “model minority” is a myth. This myth suggests that AANHPI individuals are a successful and well-adjusted marginalized group, achieving high levels of education, income, and low crime rates. This label is a harmful stereotype that obscures diverse experiences and challenges.
It is not the full story for any of us. We consist of people from more than 50 ethnic groups with over 100 languages and dialects, all with different cultures, religions, and our own sets of historic and contemporary international conflicts. We each represent our own story, and one book cannot represent all of the lived experiences or lessons from the field.
However, we hope the book will provide insights into the complexity of our identities and the experiences of AANHPI professionals. We hope it will help dispel misconceptions and stereotypes, instead providing mirrors and windows as educators pursue more fair, just, and inclusive communities. We also hope the book will resonate with many beyond the AANHPI community as we all navigate questions of belonging. This book is a provocation to uplift stories that are often invisible: Who is missing, and how do we amplify their voices? In honor of AANHPI Month, we share a few voices here.
“I am Kanaka ‘Ōiwi, a Native Hawaiian woman shaped by the stories of my ancestors and the values of my culture. I have spent my life navigating the spaces in between—between indigeneity and professionalism, between reverence for ancestral knowledge and pressure to conform to dominant paradigms, between deep pride in who I am and the constant calculation of how much of that I am allowed to show. These tensions do not go away when you become an educator. If anything, they become sharper.”
—Nicol Russell
“My eyes have been a symbol of my identity, perceived by others to symbolize my foreignness, even though I am American. The frequent question ‘Where are you from?’ may stem from curiosity about my ethnic origins, but as a microaggression, it insinuates that I don’t belong. As a child, I felt shame for being visibly different in school, and it made me want to hide and wish that I could look more like the quintessential Barbie—White, blond, blue-eyed. My mother said I had phoenix eyes, the classic eyes of Chinese beauty. She said they stood for loyalty, honesty, and wisdom. I didn’t understand then, but my journey of self-discovery led me to see the wisdom from my mother’s perspective. My eyes are part of a legacy inherited from my ancestors. They carry their stories, sacrifices, and successes that I bring to my work today.”
—Jamie Cho
“One of the most important lessons I hope to pass on to children is a traditional Japanese perspective on life: The belief that everything—people, objects, and even nature itself—possesses a spirit. This idea, deeply rooted in Shinto and Japanese folklore, teaches us to treat everything with reverence and gratitude. If a child learns to see the world this way, they naturally develop kindness, humility, and a sense of respect toward others and their surroundings. This is at the heart of my approach to early childhood education.”
—Yuji Uchida
“As a Brown, disabled, mixed, Chamorro woman, exploring my own identity has deepened my understanding of the importance of children exploring their identities. This personal journey made me a better educator. Educators are crucial in shaping children’s knowledge of the world and who they are in it. So, we must engage in our own identity work to support children in exploring and taking pride in their identities.”
—Jordan Taitingfong
“I am a Pakistani American educator. I was raised in many cultural contexts, having lived in two countries and six cities. I describe myself as bilingual and bicultural in the United States, where ‘Asian’ is the broad census box I am allocated. I describe myself by my various ethnicities: North Indian, Punjabi, Kashmiri when I am among South Asians. The boxes of my identity grow smaller and more specific the more intimately I am acquainted with anyone. As a result of my grandparents coming from three different ethnic groups, I am racially ambiguous to most Americans. Different people have told me I look Puerto Rican, Nepalese, Turkish, Afghan, and Indian. As a light-skinned person with a common name, I know I have the privilege of being White-passing in many spaces—but only until people begin to pick apart the various strands that make me me.”
—Sarah Elahi
“As a child of refugees, I vividly remember feeling different in those early years in America. Even though we came to the US seeking safety, we often felt like outsiders, unsure of where we fit in. The church sponsored us and many families like ours, and the support networks that helped us settle were a lifeline, but even as we received aid, my parents had an immense sense of pride. They did not want to take a ‘handout,’ but the reality of our situation forced them to accept help in order to rebuild our lives and provide opportunities for their children. I grew up watching them try to hold on tight to their dignity, knowing they had come to this country out of necessity.”
—Jackie Thu Hương Wong
“Every Asian American shares a family history as immigrants in the United States. The privileges we walk with, the opportunities afforded to us, the macro culture that surrounds us, and even the language(s) we speak are impacted by our generational position. Each of us is shaped by the regional and sociopolitical contexts that our generation experiences. Growing up, I was aware of the differences between my grandparents, my parents, and my own generation. Understanding their choices from their perspectives and my own would come much later.”
—Lisa Luke Lee
We are thrilled to elevate these voices and many others in this upcoming publication. We hope you will join us in 2026 in Washington, DC, at the NAEYC Annual Conference to celebrate this publication with you. For more information, contact the AANHPI Interest Forum.
Debbie LeeKeenan, MEd, is codirector and cofounder of Anti-Bias LeadersECE, lecturer, consultant, and author. She has been in the field of early education for over 50 years. She is a former preschool, special education, and elementary school teacher. She was director of the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School at Tufts University from 1996 to 2013. She has been a member of the early childhood faculty at Tufts University, Lesley University, and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Debbie is producer of the films Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years (2021) and Families Embracing Anti-Bias Values (2024). Her work has been published in numerous journals and books, including Young Children, Exchange, and Theory into Practice. Her most recent coauthored books include From Survive to Thrive: A Director’s Guide for Leading an Early Childhood Program and Leading Anti-bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide to Change, for Change. Debbie is Chinese-American, the child of immigrant working-class parents, and is part of a multiracial family.
Iris Chin Ponte, PhD, is director and classroom teacher at the Henry Frost Children’s Program in Belmont, MA. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. Recognized as an Exchange Emerging Leader in 2015, Iris is a former Fulbright Scholar, with expertise in cross-cultural issues in education in the United States, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Newfoundland. She worked for Sesame Street Research at the Children’s Television Workshop in New York and has published in the areas of children and technology, behavior management, children’s play, outdoor environmental design, early education program leadership and birth parent reunions and heritage trips for adoptees in China. Dr. Ponte has received professional recognition from the Children’s Defense Fund, CBS, and the American Educational Research Association and was awarded the Thomas J. Watson IBM Fellowship.
Caryn Park, PhD is a core faculty member at Antioch University School of Education in the pre-service teacher education (MAT) program and in the general Master of Arts in Education program. She has taught in early childhood classrooms in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington state, and served as a coach to beginning and veteran educators. Her research and teaching interests include educator development for educational equity, family and community engagement, children’s understandings about race and ethnicity, qualitative research methods, and Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Her work has appeared in Teachers College Record, American Educational Research Journal, and The New Educator. Caryn identifies as a cisgender, disabled, bilingual/bicultural immigrant woman born in South Korea. She keeps busy raising two children in Seattle, Washington, and enjoys books, music, and travel.
Sandy Baba, PhD, is a recognized researcher and practitioner in early care education and family service development. Dr. Baba has led and participated in numerous statewide and national quality rating improvement system efforts. She developed a family engagement framework to support low-income Asian American immigrants that was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Baba is an advocate and well known for her dedication to creating inclusive learning environments for children and adults. In 2008, Dr. Baba led a group of early childhood experts and founded the NAEYC Asian Interest Forum with a goal to elevate the workforce, families and children in the United States and the globe. Dr. Baba has degrees in Asian Studies (B.A., University of California, Davis), Early Childhood Education (M.A, San Francisco State University), and Transformative Studies in Global Education Management and Advocacy (PhD., California Institute of Integral Studies). Her academic interests include classroom-based coaching and mentoring for early childhood practitioners, with a focus on mental health support. She is also interested in the positive effects of school environments on child development, using community-driven interventions to promote family engagement in the classroom. Dr. Baba is currently a senior adjunct professor at Pacific Oaks College, Graduate School of Human Development and Education, and board member for The Council for Professional Recognition. For more information about the Asian Interest Forum, visit: https://sandybabaece.wixsite.com/naeycaif