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Editor's Notes

Editor's Notes: Asian American Narratives in U.S. History and Contemporary Society

By Noreen Naseem Rodríguez, Sohyun An

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Finding Light among Uncertainty

By Lin Wu, Hui-Chen Hsiung, Tina Bogucharova

Since the mainstream U.S. history curriculum often excludes Asian Americans’ struggles and resilience, many educators in the United States struggle to teach this subject. In particular, few studies explore how elementary social studies teachers use culturally relevant pedagogy to help Asian American students analyze and critique anti-Asian violence. This article addresses the gap.

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Reading Diverse Books Is Not Enough: Challenging Racist Assumptions Using Asian American Children’s Literature

By Joanne Yi

This article draws on my reflections from a year-long study in a first-grade classroom in a Midwestern public elementary school during which the author read and discussed a total of fourteen Asian American picture books with the class. In this article, she discusses the children’s interactions with Asian American stories and provides suggestions for using children’s literature to teach about Asian American history and culture.

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Not Your Model Minority: An Inquiry on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

By Esther June Kim, Anna Falkner

The realities of COVID-19 have clearly revealed the myth of the model minority, a stereotype in which Asian Americans are seen as successful and high achieving in contrast to other Communities of Color. An ever-present, but sometimes seemingly dormant, anti- Asian racism in the United States is reflective of patterns in U.S. immigration history. Yet, neither is often taught in PK-12 education. In this article, the authors briefly outline the history of two major policies in Asian American immigration history and share an inquiry designed to help students explore the institutionalized racism that has defined who is a “good” immigrant.

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Handouts: Not Your Model Minority: An Inquiry on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

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Using Digital Archives to Teach Early South Asian American Histories

By Mohit P. Mehta

In this article, the author considers the use of Asian American digital archives as sources of critical inquiry for the elementary social studies classroom.It includes a brief overview of early South Asian American history, focusing on Punjabi and Bengali migrations, then orients educators to two note-worthy community archives, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) and the Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive. A sample lesson on Bhagat Singh Thind, a South Asian pioneer who challenged exclusionary citizenship laws in the twentieth century, is provided. 

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We Are Here: Civic Education through Southeast Asian Deportation Community Defense

By Van Anh Tran

In elementary classrooms, teaching immigration often begins and ends at Ellis Island—without discussions of racist migration policies or engagement with current issues.This exploration of Southeast Asian (SEA) deportation community defense provides opportunities for young people to understand the relationship between power, migration, and citizenship.