“What’s in a Name”: An “Asian” Australian Educator’s Autoethnographic Account of Critical Pedagogical Practice That Deconstructs Whiteness in Teacher Education Spaces

In June of 2021, the Australian senate voted in support of a motion calling on the federal government to reject Critical Race Theory (CRT) from the national curriculum. That the Australian right-wing and conservative political agenda is so heavily shaped by its fear of the “left’s vile new theory” is cause for concern not only for the Australian school classroom, but for the higher education one as well. This is because dominant discourses of Whiteness that underlie such forms of sensationalist censorship foreclose opportunities to prepare nascent teachers to address deeply entrenched forms of racial inequality facing minority students in a respectful manner, and consequently, obscuring their ability to effectively navigate school classrooms full of plurality and difference. In response, this Asian CRT (AsianCrit) autoethnographic account chronicles a migrant “Asian” Australian teacher educator’s performative attempt(s) at deconstructive critical pedagogical practice in the predominantly White Australian higher education classroom. By interrogating a series of performative moments where the personal, political, professional, and pedagogical intertwine, this chapter presents a possible path to praxis in deconstructing the overwhelming presence of Whiteness in the Australian higher education classroom.