Азиялық американдықтар тарихы мен тәжірибесінің академиялық зерттеуі

Academic study of Asian American history and experiences

Asian American Studies is an academic field originating in the 1960s, which critically examines the history, issues, sociology, religion, experiences, culture, and policies relevant to Asian Americans. It is closely related to other Ethnic Studies fields, such as African American Studies, Latino Studies, and Native American Studies. Since the 2020s, Asian American Studies has begun to be taught at as part of the K 12 curriculum of a number of American states.

Asian American Studies appeared as a field of intellectual inquiry in the late 1960s as a result of strikes by the Third World Liberation Front, a group of ethnic minority students at San Francisco State University and at the University of California, Berkeley. The students demanded that college classroom instruction include the histories of people of color in the United States as told from their perspectives, create an Ethnic Studies program, expand the Black Studies department, admitting more students of color, and hiring more faculty of color in tenure track positions. The demand for Ethnic Studies was originally a reaction against the Eurocentric bias in university curricula. As a result of the 1968 strike, a College of Ethnic Studies (the only U. S. university academic department of its kind at the time) was established at San Francisco State University with American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Africana Studies, and Latino/a Studies as its four units, and a new Department of Ethnic Studies was established at the University of California, Berkeley, consisting of comparative ethnic studies, Asian American and Asian diaspora studies, Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, and Native American studies. The demand for Asian American Studies resulted in the creation of new departments throughout in colleges and universities across the country since the 1970s. By 1979, the Association for Asian American Studies, a professional organization designed to promote teaching and academic research in the field, was established in 1979. Then in 1991, twenty three college and universities formed an “East of California” caucus of the Association for Asian American Studies, to move away from a California centered understanding of the field, to speak of the many origins and points of departure in the history of Asian American Studies, and to include research on less studied communities like Filipino Americans and South Asian Americans into the field. As of today, according to The Asian American Foundation, only 1.6% of colleges and universities in the United States offer an Asian American Studies program. Organizations such as Asian American Studies Collaborative are working with students and professors to add more programs to institutions of higher education across the country.

Drawing from numerous disciplines such as sociology, history, literature, political science, and gender studies, Asian American Studies scholars consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical tools in their work. Asian American Studies focuses on the identities, historical and contemporary experiences of individuals and groups in the United States. Concepts and issues that are crucial to this interdisciplinary curriculum include: Orientalism, settler colonialism, diaspora and transnationalism, gender and sexuality, cultural politics, and media representation.

While Asian American Studies programs at colleges and universities have become more common, Asian Americans remain largely absent from K 12 curriculum in the US. Studies dating back as far as 1969 have consistently found that Asian American history is not included in US history textbooks. State level social studies standards have also neglected to include Asian American historical figures in historical curricula.

In July 2021, the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act was signed into law, making Illinois the first state in the US to require all public schools to teach a unit of Asian American history. The legislation went into effect starting with the 2022 2023 school year. According to the bill, the curriculum should include the contributions of Asian Americans toward civil rights, the contributions of Asian American individuals in government, arts, humanities, and sciences, and the contributions of Asian American communities to the US. Public elementary and high schools in Illinois are also required to include content on the history of Asian Americans in Illinois and the Midwest. The TEAACH Act was primarily authored by Representative Jennifer Gong Gershowitz and received great support from Asian American representatives in the Illinois legislature, including representatives Teresa Mah and Ram Villivalam. The bill was primarily authored by state senator Vin Gopal. On the same day, Governor Murphy also signed another law (S3764/A3369) that will establish a Commission for Asian American Heritage within the state’s Department of Education to help develop curriculum guidelines for public and nonpublic schools in the state. These legislative acts were led by the New Jersey chapter of Make Us Visible (MUV NJ), which has advocated for the teaching of Asian American history and worked to create state resources.

In 2022, Connecticut passed legislation mandating the teaching of AAPI history in public schools, which takes effect in 2025. Notably, Connecticut is the first state to pass this mandate with state funding, allocating more than $140,000 to developing curricula on Asian American history.

In 2022, Rhode Island governor Dan McKee signed legislation mandating public elementary and secondary schools to include a unit of Asian American, Native Hawaii, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) history in their curriculum. This legislation was led by Rhode Island's chapter of Make Us Visible and introduced by Representative Barbara Ann Fenton Fung. The curriculum will also include AA and NHPI history in Rhode Island and the Northeast as well as the contributions of AA and NHPIs to civil rights. This legislation is also the first in the country to specifically require instruction on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The bipartisan bill was introduced by Cuban American legislators Representative Susan Plasencia and Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez. The bill unanimously passed through the Floor of the House of Representatives and was co sponsored by Black, Latino, and Jewish legislators. The state has convened a working group to align state standards with the new law.

Make Us Visible has chapters in 24 total states in the US, which have continued to work towards the integration of Asian American experiences into K 12 curriculum. In New York, state senator John Liu and assembly member Grace Lee have introduced a bill requiring Asian American history to be included in the state curriculum. In Arizona, state senator John Kavanagh has introduced a bill requiring Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history in K 12 public schools. In Washington, state senator T'wina Nobles has introduced a bill requiring Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history in K 12 public schools. In Virginia, House Delegate Marty Martinez has introduced a bill establishing an Asian American and Pacific Islander History Education Commission to oversee and advise educational standards changes.