Education About Asia: Online Archives

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Curriculum Materials Review

Reflection on the What Does It Mean to Be an American? Curriculum Reviewed by Whit W. Grace

by Whit W. Grace

In this review, I focus on how the What Does It Mean to Be an American? (www.whatdoesitmeantobeanamerican.com) curriculum relates to the study of Asia in high schools and colleges. The review focuses on the curriculum’s methodology, the Mineta Legacy Project (Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education [SPICE] curriculum developers were invited to create a companion curriculum to complement the documentary Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story) and the goals and co...

Curriculum Materials Review

What Does It Mean to Be an American? Reviewed by Bruce Stubblefield

by Bruce Stubblefield

The Mineta Legacy Project and Stanford’s SPICE curriculum collaboration, What Does It Mean to Be an American? is an ambitious and sleek set of lessons designed to educate high school and collegiate users on its namesake. The curriculum is the offspring of The Mineta Legacy Project, which was created to honor the work of Norman Mineta (Democrat), who broke barrier after barrier for Asian-Americans by becoming the first Asian-American to serve as a mayor of a major US city, the first Asian-Ameri...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

Economic Development: The Case of South Korea

by Joel R. Campbell

Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) 158 pages with CD, 2015 See http://tinyurl.com/jmyzs5u for more information. Reviewed by Joel R. Campbell South Korea is a country that the world should know better. It is the third-largest economy of East Asia and the thirteenth-largest in the world. It is one of the Asian “miracle” economies that rose from poverty and the ashes of war to become an example of state-led, export-oriented economic development and indust...

Curriculum Materials Review, Online Supplement

“My Cambodia” and “My Cambodian America”

by Van Anh Tran

The traditional high school history classroom presents dominant narratives as facts. This is not a surprise. It was not until after I had become a history teacher, however, that I understood the intentional effort a teacher must put into finding (often creating) and implementing culturally relevant, competent, and responsive curriculum for the classroom. I was born and raised in one of the largest Vietnamese ethnic enclaves in the United States. I grew up hearing stories of war, redemption, and ...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

“My Cambodia” and “My Cambodian America”

by Tobey C. Reed

My interest in Asia dates back to when I was a child. My interest in Cambodia started when I began my teaching career in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Attleboro was one of the places where a large group of Cambodian families moved after leaving the refugee camps in Thailand after the Khmer Rouge period. My first Cambodian students in 1999 were born in Thailand in the Site II camp. Now, sixteen years later, my Cambodian-American students are second-generation Americans who are heading off to college ...

Curriculum Materials Review

The Choices Program: “Indian Independence and the Question of Partition”

by William J. Tolley

Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, RI (2013) Reviewed by William J. Tolley I was first introduced to The Choices Program in 2006 during a weeklong intensive seminar on controversial issues in the social studies classroom, led by Diane Hess from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then, for the past eight years, I have enjoyed introducing my students to the same compelling content and the same interactive process: first in my AP World History courses in New ...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

The United States in Afghanistan

by Kelly McKee

THE CHOICES PROGRAM, 2011 WATSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PROVIDENCE, RI: BROWN UNIVERSITY It is essential for today’s youth to acquire a broad set of skills to be active participants in the democratic process, yet teachers are often challenged to find quality teaching materials to facilitate classroom dialogue focused around current global issues. So how can educators teach their students to engage in civic learning activities to develop effective skills for participation in the...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China

by Arthur Barbeau, Richard C. Marsh Jr.

Editor’s Note: Although published several years ago, Primary Source’s The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China text and accompanying CD-ROM have received accolades from teacher users and remains in publication. Art Barbeau, a China specialist who has worked with teachers, and Richard Marsh, an experienced social studies teacher, contributed the review that follows. PRIMARY SOURCE, INC., EDITORS NEW YORK: CHENG ANDTSUI, 2006 298 PAGES, ISBN: 978-0887275081, PAPERBACK Reviewed by Arthur Barbea...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

Western Civilization with Chinese Comparisons, 3rd edition

by Jeffrey L. Richey

JOHN G. BLAIR AND JERUSHA HULL MCCORMACK SHANGHAI: FUDAN UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2010 635 PAGES WITH CD-ROM Reviewed by Jeffrey L. Richey Since ancient times, the peoples of what are now known as China and the West have gazed at one another across vast distances of culture and geography with intense interest, occasional enmity, and no small amount of exoticism. Han dynasty scholars wrote with wonder of the land of Daqin (Roman Syria), where seemingly every Chinese custom was turned upside down. Th...

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

U.S.-South Korean Relations

by Karl R. Neumann

U.S.-South Korean Relations is a valuable resource for any teacher at the secondary or college level seeking to introduce their students to the complex interdependent relationship of the two countries over the last sixty years. Even though the unit, developed by Rylan Sekiguchi, Joon Seok Hong, and Rennie Moon at the Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education (SPICE), is designed as a self-contained exploration of historical and current US-South Korean interactions, its vario...

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

Uncovering North Korea

by Saya Okimoto McKenna

It is my pleasure to have worked with SPICE in a variety of capacities. I enrolled and participated in the SPICE seminar on East Asia, I served as a presenter to that same seminar in later years, I worked as a consultant on a curriculum unit, and I have long considered myself a devoted user and fan of their classroom resources and curricula. The latest unit on North Korea is no exception. What I particularly appreciate about SPICE materials is that while they are exceptionally well-organized and...

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

Asia for Educations in the High School Classroom

by Ian Tiedemann

Columbia University’s Asia for Educators Web site is an invaluable tool for high school social studies teachers who want to incorporate East Asia into their curriculum. To say the least, the amount of information available to a visitor is staggering. The site includes maps, timelines, and primary sources from several East Asian cultures, as well as specific examinations of art, religion, geography, the humanities, literature, dynastic studies, and cross-cultural interactions. Navigating this l...

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

Asia for Educators (AFE) Web site

by James A. Anderson

Reviewed by James A. Anderson With the recent proliferation of Web-based secondary materials and primary source databases pertaining to Asian Studies, both researchers and instructors are now freer than ever to seek out information online. But, do these resources alone make one a more savvy consumer of this cornucopia of information on Asia? I would suggest that the opposite may be the case, particularly when we ask our students to do the searching. Raw data without contextual information can l...

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

Teaching Resources for Modern China

by Ian Tiedemann

With its rapid emergence on the world scene, including China into a global studies curriculum is no longer an instructor’s choice but a necessity. Not examining our great commercial and diplomatic competitor/partner in the classroom would be irresponsible to our students. I have, therefore, sought to augment my course curriculum with Chinese case studies and comparisons in print, Internet, or audio/visual formats. Making curricular additions to my school’s global history offering is...

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

The Role of Education in US-South Korean Relations: A Modified Excerpt from the Curriculum Unit US-South Korean Relations

by Joon Seok Hong, Rylan Sekiguchi

This lesson examines the important role that education plays in the cultural and social relationship between the United States and South Korea. Students will also learn about education in Korea and complete independent projects on various education-related topics. Ultimately, students will consider how this aspect of the US–South Korean relationship has influenced the individual lives of Koreans and Americans. (Note: The full lesson introduces the important roles of sports, media, and the arts...

Book Review Essay, Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

When Asia Was the World

by Gwen R. Johnson, Stewart Gordon

Stewart Gordon’s, When Asia Was the World, promises to be an important source for both high school teachers and undergraduate instructors in World History and Asian Studies. Having meticulously researched original historic texts and memoirs of the explorers and travelers who traversed Asia from 500 to 1500 CE, Gordon provides a unique multiple perspective lens from which to view the “riches of the East,” the interconnection of peoples and cultures, and the spread of ideas and knowledge acr...

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

Chinese Dynasties, Part Two: The Song Dynasty Through the Qing Dynasty, 960 to 1911 CE

by Alan Whitehead

Chinese Dynasties Part Two: The Song Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty is the second of a two-volume curriculum unit from Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). Anyone with exposure to the curriculum products previously offered by SPICE will find themselves on familiar ground with this unit.

Curriculum Materials Review, Resources

Chinese Dynasties, Part One: The Shang Dynasty Through the Tang Dynasty—1600 BCE to 907 CE

by Alan Whitehead

Chinese Dynasties Part One: The Shang Dynasty Through the Tang Dynasty is a recent offering from the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). Anyone with exposure to the curriculum products previously offered by SPICE will find themselves on familiar ground with this unit, which contains a collective history of China’s early civilization and endurance through a succession of kings, emperors, and their respective dynasties.

Columns, Curriculum Materials Review

China’s Cultural Revolution

by Cindy Martinez

When the time came in the school year to teach about China and China’s Cultural Revolution, I would sigh. Not because I didn’t find China fascinating (I do) or think it was important (it’s incredibly important), but because I didn’t like my unit. Reading, lecture, questions, timeline, test, big yawn. The students got the material, but not the feel for the period or a real understanding for how it evolved. The questions—how and why did so many people let it happen?—were not answered f...

Curriculum Materials Review

China and the West: A Fresh Strategy against Provincialism

by Jerusha McCormack, John Blair

A teacher’s work against provincialism never ends, but sometimes a new idea offers fresh hope. The strategy introduced here was developed in China for students with good English and an interest in understanding the Western world. For them to understand such a distant world, they must be able to relate what they learn to what they already know—they must be able to compare it to China. This means learning to look at the Chinese way of life as if from the outside, both comparatively and histori...

New to EAA?

Before viewing the full archives, view Editor’s Choice Articles, handpicked by EAA Editor, Lucien Ellington, which provide a good overview of EAA and introduction for new readers.