Teacher-Led Curriculum Design: Centering Asian American Resilience

• In Event: Teacher agency, autonomy, and leadership as essential ingredients for effective professional development

Proposal

In the first half of 2020, the COVID-19 virus brought with it worldwide panic as countries scrambled to mitigate its spread. Many of the earlier reports labeled COVID-19 as the “Wuhan Virus” or “Chinese Virus,” terms that were commonly used by the highest political office (Rogers, Jakes, & Swanson, 2020; Schwartz, 2020). News media coverage spotlighted a seafood market in Wuhan and bat consumption as a likely cause of coronavirus (Mackenzie & Smith, 2020). Along with other damaging rhetoric, these reports created a narrative that pointed to China as the origin of the pandemic. As a result, in the following months, a surge of violence escalated in Asian-American communities across the country. According to the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Report (2021), hate crimes against Asian populations increased by 145% in the 16 largest U.S. cities in 2020 compared with 2019. Additionally, one poll revealed that more than one-third of respondents had seen or heard someone blaming Asians or Asian Americans for coronavirus (Ipsos, 2020). While some of the more high-profile hate crimes against the Asian population have received significant media attention, the pandemic is not solely to blame for the widespread discrimination and misunderstandings of Asians—it only revealed negative perceptions that have long been prevalent.

The concept of Asians as perpetual foreigners (Saito, 1997; Tuan, 1998) is not new, despite the fact that the first major wave of Asian immigrants arrived in the U.S. in the mid-1800s. Additionally, Asian Americans have been labeled as the “yellow peril” (Chen, 2000; Kimura, 2021) in response to their rising numbers and the threat felt by the dominant group. This fear resulted in forms of legislation like the Page Act and Chinese Exclusion Act. Throughout history, Asian Americans have consistently been viewed as “the other” (Said, 1978); the anti-Asian violence following the pandemic has reinforced this. Thus, it is not surprising that the history and contributions of Asian Americans are largely missing from K-12 curricula. In order to prevent bias, violence, and microaggressions that stem from ignorance, it is vital to provide education about Asian Americans, especially in light of the fact that Asians are the fastest growing population in the U.S.; in fact, 15% of the population in New York City identifies as AAPI. Most importantly, education can be used to advance racial and social justice not just for Asian Americans, but for future generations of all races and nationalities.

In April 2021, Illinois became the first state in the United States to mandate Asian American history in K-12 public school (Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, n.d.; Zhou, 2021). Following Illinois (2021) and New Jersey (2022), New York City also passed an AAPI history bill and introduced an AAPI curriculum titled "Hidden Voices: Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the United States," in 2023. The push for more AAPI content to be taught in schools is a positive move forward to combat harmful stereotypes and prevent bias, violence, and microaggressions, yet they are not without challenges. In most states that have passed bills to include AAPI standards, local and regional districts can draft their own curriculum, which means that there is not a unified curriculum (Najarro, 2022). Because of this, teachers, schools, and districts may vary in how they approach content—both in terms of depth and breadth. According to Najarro (2022), one formidable dilemma is teaching AAPI histories “beyond a surface-level, ‘multicultural contributions’ approach” that focuses on festivals and holidays. Another challenge to grapple with is acknowledging the historical, religious, ethnic, and linguistic diversity among AAPI communities, which is composed of more than 50 ethnic groups (Lee, 2005; Lee, 2015). As such, our project is guided by the following research questions: How do NYC secondary teachers incorporate AAPI history into ELA and social studies curricula to align with New York state social studies standards or Common Core ELA standards? How can teachers center histories of resilience in AAPI curriculum?

This project uses an inquiry-based approach and is guided by methodological traditions that seek to democratize the generation of knowledge and make research a participatory endeavor (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Campano, Ghiso, & Welch, 2015). Too often, teachers are seen as implementers of knowledge developed by others rather than as intellectuals who are uniquely positioned to proactively address educational problems (Hess, 2002; Mirra & Morrell, 2011). As such, in this project, we use a communities of inquiry approach to situate educational change within local teaching contexts and more importantly, as a way for teachers to collectively examine complex issues (Cox, 2004; MacKenzie et al., 2010). 10 grade 6-12 NYC teacher participants (5 English teachers and 5 social studies teachers) were selected to participate in a three-day intensive professional development offered through a partnership with the Asian American Education Project, after which each of the participants created two lesson plans.

An analysis of the lesson plans highlights the ways in which AAPI history can be integrated in English and social studies curriculum and critically challenge harmful stereotypes and biases against AAPI communities. Moreover, they reflect the agency with which teachers can build better futures not only for AAPI students, but for all students. This project urges us as teachers and scholars to push the boundaries of our own understandings of AAPI history as well as the purpose that education serves.

Authors

• Minkyung Choi, Montclair State University

• Elise Langan, Bronx Community College CUNY