Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms

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.

Introduction. 1. Pedagogical Overview. 2. Identity and Stereotypes. 3. Im/Migration. 4. Citizenship. 5. War and Displacement. 6. Activism and Resistance. 7. Contention and Complexity