Why Are Asian Americans Missing from Our Textbooks?
I still remember my fourth-grade social studies project. Our class was studying the Gold Rush, something all California fourth-graders learned. I was excited because I had asked to research Chinese immigrants during that era. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had always known that "San Francisco" translated to "Gold Mountain" in Chinese. The name had stuck ever since Chinese immigrants arrived on the shores of Northern California in the 1850s, eager to try their luck in the gold mines. Now I'd have the chance to learn about them.
My excitement was short-lived. I remember heading to the library with my class and asking for help. I remember the librarian's hesitation. She finally led me past row after row of books, to a corner of the library where she pulled an oversized book off the shelf. She checked the index and turned over to a page about early Chinese immigrants in California. That was all there was in my entire school library in San Francisco, home of the nation's first Chinatown. That was it.
I finally had the opportunity to learn about Asian Americans like myself, and how we became part of the fabric of the United States when I took an introductory class on Asian-American history in college. The class was a revelation. I realized how much had been missing in my textbooks as I grew up. My identity had been shaped by years of never reading, seeing, hearing, or learning about people who had a similar background as me. Why, I wondered, weren't the stories, histories, and contributions of Asian Americans taught in K-12 schools, especially in the elementary schools? Why are they still not taught?
Our students—Asian, Latino, African American, Native American, and, yes, white—stand to gain from a multicultural curriculum. Students of color are more engaged and earn better grades when they see themselves in their studies. Research has also found that white students benefit by being challenged and exposed to new perspectives.
For decades, activists have called for schools to offer anti-racism or multicultural curricula. Yet a traditional American K-12 curriculum continues to be taught from a Eurocentric point of view. Being multicultural often falls back on weaving children of color into photographs, or creating a few supporting characters that happen to be ethnic—an improvement, but superficial nonetheless. Elementary school classrooms celebrate cultural holidays—Lunar New Year! Red envelopes! Lion dancers!—but they're quick to gloss over(掩饰) the challenges and injustices that Asian Americans have faced. Most students don't, for example, learn about the laws that for years excluded Asians from immigrating to the U.S. They don't hear the narratives of how and why Southeast Asian refugees(难民) had to rebuild their lives here.
Research into what students learn in school has found just how much is missing in their studies. In an analysis, Christine Sleeter, a professor in the College of Professional Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay, reviewed California's history and social studies framework, the curriculum determined by state educators that influences what is taught in K-12 classrooms. Of the nearly 100 Americans recommended to be studied, 77% were white, 18% were African American, 4% were Native American, and 1% were Latino. None were Asian American.
Worse, when Asian Americans do make an appearance in lesson books, it is often laced with problems. "There hasn't been much progress," says Nicholas Hartlep, an assistant professor at Metropolitan State University. His 2016 study of K-12 social studies textbooks and teacher manuals found that Asian Americans were poorly represented at best, and subjected to racist caricatures(拙劣的模仿) at worst. The wide diversity of Asian Americans was overlooked; there was very little mention of South Asians or Pacific Islanders, for example. And chances were, in the images, Asian Americans appeared in stereotypical(模式化的) roles, such as engineers.
Teachers with a multicultural background or training could perhaps overcome such curriculum challenges, but they're few and far between. In California, 65% of K-12 teachers are white, compared with a student population that is 75% students of color. Nationwide, the gap is even greater. It isn't a requirement that teachers share the same racial or ethnic background as their students, but the imbalance poses challenges, from the potential for unconscious bias to a lack of knowledge or comfort in discussing race and culture.
How race and ethnicity is taught is crucial, says Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, an Asian-American studies professor at San Francisco State University. She added that it's not so much about the teacher's background, but about training. "You can have a great curriculum but if you don't have teachers dedicated(专注于) to teaching it well," she says, "it won't work as well as you want it to."
Some teachers are finding ways to expose students to Asian-American issues — if not during school hours, then outside of them. This summer, Wilson Wong will lead a class of rising fifth-graders at a day camp dedicated to Chinese culture and the Chinese-American community in Oakland, California. His students, for instance, will learn about how Chinese immigrants built the railroads in California, and even have a chance to "experience" it themselves: They will race each other to build a railroad model on the playground, with some students being forced to "work" longer and faster and at cheaper wages. Wong, a middle school teacher during the school year, hopes he's exposing the students to how Chinese Americans contributed to the U.S., something that he didn't get as a student growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. "I planted the seeds early," he says. "That's what I'm hoping for."
And, despite setbacks, the tide may finally be turning. California legislators passed a bill last year that will bring ethnic studies to all its public high schools. Some school districts, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, already offer ethnic studies at their high schools. High schools in Portland, Chicago, and elsewhere have either implemented or will soon introduce ethnic studies classes. And, as more high schools begin teaching it, the door could crack open for middle schools, and, perhaps inevitably, elementary schools, to incorporate a truly more multicultural curriculum. Doing so will send an important message to the nation's youngest citizens: Whatever your race or ethnicity, you matter. Your history matters. Your story matters.