Dr. Aaron Teo

In Episode 70 Dr. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook hosts Dr. Aaron Teo is a Singaporean Chinese first generation migrant settler living on unceded Jagera and Turrbal lands. He currently works as a sociologist of education at the University of Southern Queensland. Our conversation centers on his research into the racialized and gendered subjectivities of migrant teachers and students from Asia within the Australian context, and the enduring legacies of White Australia in contemporary schooling and teacher education. Dr. Teo reflects on his journey from international student to secondary teacher and middle leader in Queensland, and ultimately to doctoral studies shaped by autoethnography and duoethnography. He speaks candidly about navigating predominantly white educational spaces, teaching critical race theory in teacher education programs, and making academic writing accessible without losing theoretical depth. We discuss the rise of anti-Asian racism during COVID-19, his involvement with the Australian Human Rights Commission’s national study on university racism, and his community engagement with the Asian Australian Alliance. Aaron highlights the politics of perpetual foreignness, Asia illiteracy, and the conditional inclusion of racialized communities in settler colonial nation-states. Throughout, he calls for critical pedagogies that move beyond symbolic inclusion toward structural change, consciousness-raising, and collective responsibility in confronting racialization within and beyond the classroom.