There is a problem of underrepresentation of Filipinos in textbooks (including Filipino-Americans). This problem has negatively affected our ability to (completely) understand/accept the Philippine people because omissions of Filipinos in textbooks can create negative perceptions in young Americans’ minds, which could lead to misconceptions, stereotypes, and racism against the Filipinos.
At the start of the trimester, I wanted to do something like a create paper with anime. However, my topic has changed drastically since then. I went from that project idea, to textbook bias against the Japanese in WWII in grade school American history textbooks with a content analysis, to (finally) the underrepresentation of Filipinos -- including Filipino Americans -- in grade school American history textbooks with a content analysis as my method. Initially, I didn't understand that research could be looking into possible problems within an already "answered" problem; I thought that research always had to be new. This misunderstanding cost me greatly classtime-wise, but I was able to learn from my mistakes and push forward.
Something that I have learned through my topic is textbook bias, colonized education, and ethnocentric education. Never in my life did I think that education was biased, colonized, and Eurocentric in America. The thought never crossed my mind. However, in the wake of BLM and becoming more exposed and aware of racism in America, the fact that biased education exists started to make more sense. I've always trusted textbooks as a credible education tool, but now I'm aware that I shouldn't put too much trust into them. Rather, I should consider the information, but also keep in mind other perspectives of American minorities that may have been left out. Finding this information has helped me greatly in finding my topic and guiding my research.
Rather than focusing on the Japanese, I decided to switch Asian groups to Filipinos. The drive behind this change was because 1) I noticed that there weren't many studies solely on Filipino representation in American history textbooks and 2) there were more studies showing that Filipinos are currently experiencing racism in America now than the Japanese -- an effect of no education on Filipinos in school curriculum. To be honest, I feel like this switch of Asian groups has made me feel more comfortable in my topic because Filipinos are commonly acknowledged as "forgotten." So, to conduct research that will make them somewhat more visible in discourse makes me feel content. Additionally, I feel like I have a better grasp on my research now than I did at the start of the trimester due to me fumbling about through assignments that taught me how to conduct capital "R" research. I've certainly gotten better with citations and finding reliable sources to make my work credible. Also, my way of thinking has changed dramatically into one that follows a researcher's mind. With these qualities, I feel like I'm ready to create a solid research paper.