This innovative volume offers the first sustained examination of the myriad ways Asian American Studies is taught at the university level. Through this lens, this volume illuminates key debates in U.S. society about pedagogy, multiculturalism, diversity, racial and ethnic identities, and communities formed on these bases. Asian American Studies shares critical concerns with other innovative fields that query representation, positionality, voice, and authority in the classroom as well as in the larger society. Acknowledging these issues, twenty-one distinguished contributors illustrate how disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to Asian American Studies can be utilized to make teaching and learning about diversity more effective. Teaching Asian America thus offers new and exciting insights about the state of ethnic studies and about the challenges of pluralism that face us as we move into the twenty-first century.

Asian American Education--Asian American Identities, Racial Issues, and Languages presents groundbreaking research that critically challenges the invisibility, stereotyping, and common misunderstandings of Asian Americans by disrupting "customary" discourse and disputing "familiar" knowledge. The chapters in this anthology provide rich, detailed evidence and interpretations of the status and experiences of Asian American students, teachers, and programs in K-12 and higher education, including struggles with racism and other race-related issues. This material is authored by nationally-prominent scholars as well as highly-regarded emerging researchers. As a whole, this volume contributes to the deconstruction of the image of Asian Americans as a model minority and at the same time reconstructs theories to explain their diverse educational experiences. It also draws attention to the cultural and especially structural challenges Asian Americans face when trying to make institutional changes. This book will be of great interest to researchers, teachers, students, and other practitioners and policymakers concerned with the education of Asian Americans as well as other peoples of color.

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this text examines how Asian American teachers in the US have adapted, persisted, and resisted racial stereotyping and systematic marginalization throughout their educational and professional pathways. Utilizing critical perspectives combined with tenets of Asian Critical Race Theory, Kim and Hsieh structure their findings through chapters focused on issues relating to anti-essentialism, intersectionality, and the broader social and historical positioning of Asians in the US. Applying a critical theoretical lens to the study of Asian American teachers demonstrates the importance of this framework in understanding educators’ experiences during schooling, training, and teaching, and in doing so, the book highlights the need to ensure visibility for a community so often overlooked as a "model minority", and yet one of the fastest growing racial groups in the US. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the sociology of education, multicultural education, and teachers and teacher education more broadly. Those specifically interested in Asian American history and the study of race and ethics within Asian studies will also benefit from this book.

"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 America 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"--

Plan and deliver a curriculum to help your students connect with the humanity of others! In the wake of 2020, we need today’s young learners to be prepared to develop solutions to a host of entrenched and complex issues, including systemic racism, massive environmental problems, deep political divisions, and future pandemics that will severely test the effectiveness and equity of our health policies. What better place to start that preparation than with a social studies curriculum that enables elementary students to envision and build a better world? In this engaging guide two experienced social studies educators unpack the oppressions that so often characterize the elementary curriculum—normalization, idealization, heroification, and dramatization—and show how common pitfalls can be replaced with creative solutions. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, methods student, or curriculum coordinator, this is a book that can transform your understanding of the social studies disciplines and their power to disrupt the narratives that maintain current inequities.

Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans was created for educators and other practitioners who want to use interactive activities, assignments, and strategies in their classrooms or workshops. Experts in the field of Asian American Studies will find powerful, innovative teaching activities that clearly convey established and new ideas. The activities in this book have been used effectively in workshops for staff and practitioners in student services programs, community-based organizations, teacher training programs, social service agencies, and diversity training.

Asian Americans are often stereotyped as the “model minority.” Their sizeable presence at elite universities and high household incomes have helped construct the narrative of Asian American “exceptionalism.” While many scholars and activists characterize this as a myth, pundits claim that Asian Americans’ educational attainment is the result of unique cultural values. In The Asian American Achievement Paradox, sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou offer a compelling account of the academic achievement of the children of Asian immigrants. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the adult children of Chinese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees and survey data, Lee and Zhou bridge sociology and social psychology to explain how immigration laws, institutions, and culture interact to foster high achievement among certain Asian American groups. For the Chinese and Vietnamese in Los Angeles, Lee and Zhou find that the educational attainment of the second generation is strikingly similar, despite the vastly different socioeconomic profiles of their immigrant parents. Because immigration policies after 1965 favor individuals with higher levels of education and professional skills, many Asian immigrants are highly educated when they arrive in the United States. They bring a specific “success frame,” which is strictly defined as earning a degree from an elite university and working in a high-status field. This success frame is reinforced in many local Asian communities, which make resources such as college preparation courses and tutoring available to group members, including their low-income members. While the success frame accounts for part of Asian Americans’ high rates of achievement, Lee and Zhou also find that institutions, such as public schools, are crucial in supporting the cycle of Asian American achievement. Teachers and guidance counselors, for example, who presume that Asian American students are smart, disciplined, and studious, provide them with extra help and steer them toward competitive academic programs. These institutional advantages, in turn, lead to better academic performance and outcomes among Asian American students. Yet the expectations of high achievement come with a cost: the notion of Asian American success creates an “achievement paradox” in which Asian Americans who do not fit the success frame feel like failures or racial outliers. While pundits ascribe Asian American success to the assumed superior traits intrinsic to Asian culture, Lee and Zhou show how historical, cultural, and institutional elements work together to confer advantages to specific populations. An insightful counter to notions of culture based on stereotypes, The Asian American Achievement Paradox offers a deft and nuanced understanding how and why certain immigrant groups succeed.