Scholars have long drawn a bright line between what is taught in K-12 about marginalized groups and how they are regarded in society. In, college professor Sohyun An found that Asian Americans barely registered outside of anti-Chinese immigration laws and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII, leading to the perception of Asian Americans “as an oppressed group lacking civic agency or new immigrants with little contribution to the building of the nation.
In just the past year or so, efforts to write Asian American curricula and advocate for its inclusion in school districts have exploded, matching a growing audience.which has launched eight chapters since January, 2021. Some state chapters, such as Florida’s, are focused on passing bills to require the instruction of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. By contrast, Pennsylvania’s chapter has been supporting Asian Americans candidates for local school boards.
Nguyen, a U.S. history teacher at Portola High School in Irvine, has long been aware of the omission of Asian American narratives in history curriculum. The child of Vietnamese refugees, Nguyen took special note of how her community only came up during a unit on the Vietnam War.“It was told from the point that Vietnamese people came because America felt ashamed of what happened and this was their way of making it right,” Nguyen said. “That was how I felt America felt about the Vietnamese.