Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms (Equity and Social Justice in Education Series)

Asian American voices and experiences are largely absent from elementary curricula.

Asian Americans are an extraordinarily diverse group of people, yet are often viewed through stereotypical lenses: as Chinese or Japanese only, as recent immigrants who do not speak English, as exotic foreigners, or as a “model minority” who do well in school. This fundamental misperception of who Asian Americans are begins with young learners―often from what they learn, or do not learn, in school.

This book sets out to amend the superficial treatment of Asian American histories in U.S. textbooks and curriculum by providing elementary teachers with a more nuanced, thematically driven account. In chapters focusing on the complexity of Asian American identity, major moments in Asian immigration, war and displacement, issues of citizenship, and Asian American activism, the authors include suggestions across content areas for guided class discussions, ideas for broader units, and recommendations for children’s literature as well as primary sources.

Noreen Naseem Rodríguez is an Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Educational Justice in the College of Education and Core Faculty in the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Michigan State University. She studies the pedagogical practices of Asian American educators and how elementary educators teach so-called “difficult histories” through children’s literature and primary sources. Before becoming a teacher educator, she was a bilingual elementary teacher in Austin, Texas for nine years.

Sohyun An is a Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Kennesaw State University. Her teaching and research centers on issues of race, war, migration, and imperialism within the context of social studies education. She is a founding member of Asian American Voices for Education, a grassroots collective in Georgia with a mission to advance K-12 Asian American studies and ethnic studies in public schools. Prior to migration to the US, she taught secondary social studies in South Korea.

Esther June Kim is an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for Secondary Social Studies in the School of Education and an affiliate faculty in Asian Pacific Islander American Studies at William & Mary. Her research explores how different communities are represented in Social Studies curriculum, particularly racial and religious communities. Prior to her work in teacher education, she was a high school history and humanities teacher in South Korea and California.