Developing, Learning and Teaching Hidden Voices: AAPIs in United States History

• In Event: Asian American Pedagogies as Remedy: Resisting Systemic Erasure

Abstract

Purpose
This paper focuses on reflections of several lead scholars for Hidden Voices: AAPIs in United States History, the June 2023 social studies curriculum and teacher’s resource guide developed by NYC’s Department of Education (DOE) about AAPI history and contemporary experience. This paper focuses on how the authors understand the guide’s goals, and how the undergraduate students we have taught and Asian Americans doing community work in NYC have learned from and responded to this guide.

Perspective
This paper draws on the perspectives of scholars who worked on Hidden Voices and teach Asian American Studies at a campus of the City University of New York (CUNY), the nation’s largest public urban university. Most of the students we teach have little prior knowledge about this key population, who comprise close to 18 percent of New York City’s residents. The authors draw on existing research that shows the positive impact of Ethnic Studies on academic outcomes among students of color and white students from 2nd grade through higher education (Sleeter and Zavala 2020; Bonilla et al. 2021).

Method
We critically reflect on what brought us to this project; and what we, as Asian Americanist scholars and activists, learned from working on this and teaching and sharing the guide, both to undergraduates and with broader adult communities.

Data sources
The data sources include: our own experiential reflections, reflections from AAS students of what they have learned and want to see in future NYC public school curriculum, after analyzing assigned excerpts from Hidden Voices, alongside foundational research in Asian American Studies; and our community work in NYC. Hidden Voices: AAPIs in U.S. History is available in NYC, the nation’s largest public school district. The guide features: an overview of AAPI history, an essay on the benefits and challenges of teaching AAPI history, with written portraits of several eras: 1560s-1820s, early Asians and Native Hawaiians in North America; 1830s-1920s, a time of political restrictions, exclusion and resistance; 1930s-1970s, the era of APIs becoming American; and 1975 to the present, around borders, endurance and resistance. The guide includes profiles of 38 notable individuals in varied domains, along with lesson plans on how to incorporate them into one’s teaching. The guide concludes with a glossary of AAPI Terms, and an annotated map of historic and contemporary AAPI sites in NYC.

Findings
This paper concludes that the learning of our nation’s many histories and experiences are crucial to racial and ethnic coalition building and civic engagement towards social justice.


Significance
This study demonstrates AAPI history must reach adults and youth, who have never been exposed to the many stories that make up American history and the American experience (Kim et al. 2024). In our still segregated and polarized world, this is crucial for transformation to a just and democratic society.

Authors

• Vivian Louie, Hunter College - CUNY

• Linh An, Hunter College - CUNY

• Chris Kwok, Hunter College - CUNY