00:00.000 Sara Schwebel: Good afternoon everyone. My name is Sara Schwebel. I'm the Director of the Center for Children's Books, and a professor here at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois. Thank you for joining the CCB's 2023 Gryphon lecture. It's a pleasure to culminate our year-long virtual program on the TEAACH Act with this final, in-person signature event. Nothing tops sharing good conversation and company in person. Had a lovely breakfast this morning. But I also want to extend a warm welcome to those of us gathered from near and far on Zoom. Please watch the chat for details on how to participate fully in this afternoon's discussion. We're very glad you're here. 00:38.890 Sara Schwebel: The Gryphon Lecture takes its inspiration from the mythical creature that boasts a lion's body and bird's head. As one former director of the CCB has stated, it suggests both the mystery and pleasure of story. The Gryphon logo associated with the CCB eas designed by Trina Hyman, a Caldecott- and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator, known in particular for her many illustrations of fairy tales and legends. Since 2005 the University of Illinois iSchool has hosted an annual Gryphon Lecture which features a leading scholar in the field of youth literature, media, and/or culture. 01:12.980 Sara Schwebel: I'm honored to introduce this year's speaker, Dr. Sohyun An. She is a professor of Social Studies Education and Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Kennesaw State University, and a former high school teacher. A leading scholar of curriculum and pedagogy, Professor An was the recipient of a 2022 Distinguished Researcher Award from AERA (the American Education Research Association). Her research centers on anti-racist curriculum and pedagogy, and the teaching of Asian American history. In addition to her academic scholarship, she's deeply engaged in public history, having contributed to curriculum projects on Asian American history at both the Smithsonian and PBS. A central interest to the center for children's books. She's also deeply attuned to the value of children's literature and doing her work to transform K-12 U.S. History curriculum. 02:02.290 Sara Schwebel: Her Gryphon lecture today is titled, "Implementing the TEAACH Act: Using Asian American Children’s Literature as a Tool to Resist America’s Long History of Anti-Asian Violence." Please join me in welcoming our 2023 Gryphon speaker, Dr. An. 03:04.270 Dr. Sohyun An: You can see alright? Sara, thank you so much for your introduction. Hi, everybody! Thank you for joining me, and also having me into this space. It's such an honor to be here meeting you today. The talk that today I'm going to talk about is like somehow I'm going to weave through the TEAACH Act into Asian violence and children's literature. 03:27.970 Dr. Sohyun An: Before I start, briefly about myself more personally: I'm currently a non-disabled, middle class woman, an Asian migrant from South Korea. In 2003 I came to Madison, Wisconsin as an international doctoral student, and I lived on the stolen Ho-Chunk territory for about 6 years. In 2009 I came down to Atlanta, Georgia, which is stolen Cherokee and Muscogee territory. I live there since then as a Social Studies professor at Kennesaw State University. Because of my positionality and privilege, I'm constantly in the process of taking my own anti-Black racism, Asian [unintelligible] colonialism and all other oppression. As a social studies teacher, educator, and also mother-scholar, I engage with my children, my students, and also larger teacher education committees to transform our schools, so that all children's humanity and their safety are acknowledged and celebrated. 04:25.660 Dr. Sohyun An: Today's talk, let's go back to about 2 years ago around this time. A really tragic event happened, right? That was March 16, 2021. A 21-year-old white man whose name was Adam Long. He traveled to 3 different spots/locations in Metro Atlanta area, and he killed 6 Asian immigrant women with 2 others. And I myself, as an Asian immigrant woman living 10 minutes away from the shooting site, I was devastated. At night, I couldn't go to bed. Yet, I was devastated, but I was not surprised. Since the beginning of the pandemic, by that time it was about a year after the pandemic began in the United States, so I've seen one case after another. Asian Americans were targeted and bullied. Being basically accused as the COVID-19 cause. For example, this is February 2020, which means just a month after the U.S. Covid first case was identified. A 16-year-old high school kid, he went to school, and he's bullied. It's like, they bullied him, like he has go to the emergency room. And the bullies said "Well, you know, he brought the Coronoavirus to this country." 05:35.950 Dr. Sohyun An: Another month later, this is March 2020 in Minnesota. An Asian American family, they came home. They found this hateful note taped to their front door. The note said that "We are watching you, FC. Take your Chinese virus back to China. We don't want you here infecting us with this disease." 05:52.140 Dr. Sohyun An: Another month later, this is Texas, April, 2020, a Burmese-American man with his 2 children, they went to Sam's club for grocery shopping, and a 19-year-old guy approached them, and this is what he did to them. And to the policemen he exactly said, I quote, "Chinese are infecting people with the Coronavirus. 06:11.750 Dr. Sohyun An: So it's frustrating, right? According to the FBI: in 2018 there was 148 reported anti-Asian hate crimes. But when you compare it to 2018, in 2020 it skyrocketed, right? 2,808 cases. 2020-2021: The 2-year total since the pandemic began, there were more than 10,000 crimes, hate crimes and harassment against the Asian American community. But this is a lot. I know we really need to grapple with why this thing is happening, although it's not hard to guess, right? Also, history has told us that, actually, don't be surprised. You know, it's going to tell us that blaming a racially-marginalized group for introducing and spreading disease is nothing new in the United States. 06:56.890 Dr. Sohyun An: So this is the capture. This diagram kind of captures America's long history of racializing disease. Back in the day, 1832, when the colonials were like spreading out, the Irish new immigrants were targeted. 1900 with tuberculosis, it was Jewish immigrants. 1960, with polio, it was Italian immigrants. Fast forward to 1980s, some of us are old enough to live through the 1980s AIDS epidemic. Gay community, along with the gay community, Asian immigrants were targeted. 2009 H1N1, it was Mexican immigrants. 2014 ebola, we've seen these hate crimes against West Africans. But then I took like a few cases of like anti-Asian hate crimes during the public health crisis. So that means COVID-19 is not the first time. Way back, 1876 smallpox or the 1900 bubonic plague. More recent cases: 2003 SARS, when we see start to see a similar pattern. When there is a public health crisis, Asian immigrants become easy targets, for this, you know, this outbreak. 07:56.600 Dr. Sohyun An: So why is it like Asia that becomes often the easy target during public health crises? Well, when the Asians started to come into the United States, the dominant society racialized us as a dirty, diseased race. So, for example, the one on the [left], the last of these magazine photos, it came about 1880s. Three crazy looking, scary looking ghosts are hovering over somewhere, right? Underneath it is San Francisco Chinatown, and these ghosts, if you see their dresses: in the middle smallpox, left Malaria, right Leprosy. The message says, "Hey people, watch out! The Chinese people in Chinatown is where this dirty disease started and is spreading out. Similarly like around 1900, when you see this like a regular form of the advertisement, you see how the dominance of placing these Asian migrants, right? They are these dirty, diseased people that eat these horrible things. 08:51.760 Dr. Sohyun An: So then, when the bubonic plague started to spread in Hawaii. In 1899, the city government right away [said], "Well, this is a Chinese problem." So they locked up 10,000 Chinese people in the Chinatown. They burned down their houses. And also one thing, one horrible thing they did, the government order was the fumigation shower. All the men and women, young and old, they needed to, in a public place, they needed to strip naked and get the fumigation showers so to clean up their body before moving on to the quarantine station. In these, people can walk by. You can see the naked body, right? It's truly dehumanizing their residents. 09:28.510 Dr. Sohyun An: One year later, the bubonic plague that started in Honolulu, Hawaii, spread to California, San Francisco. By the way, San Francisco city government did like a similar measure, right? Locked up 14,000 Chinese people in the Chinatown. One thing that Hawaii didn't do but California did, was forced vaccination of them. But then the vaccine was not even tested if safe to use it. The scientists in the laboratory [were] still experimenting whether or not it's going to work for the bubonic plague. But the government [said], "Nu-uh, we don't have time to wait." They order this, mandated the vaccine, but only for the Chinese people. 10:03.790 Dr. Sohyun An: Fast forward, right? 2003: like we should be better, right? Oh, back in the day, better now... But 2003, when the SARS was spreading globally. But in the United States it wasn't even a huge pandemic at all. Nobody died of SARS in the United States. Only 76 (possibly) of SARS cases. But like this political cartoon shows, we know what this means, right? The message that, "Hey people, don't go patronize Chinatown, Chinese restaurants. Chinese restaurant is where the SARS like is spreading out" right? So yeah, we didn't learn from history. The similar thing we see during the 2020, 2019 with the COVID. Like this one: "Kung Flu, Commie, Hope you die, Ramen Noodle Flu, Go back to China." 10:44.830 Dr. Sohyun An: So yeah, history repeats. The problem is, though also, Asians, we are racialized as a dirty, diseased people, like a public health threat. But also we were racialized as an economic threat or military threat. So during military and economy crises, Asians, there's anti, a huge upsurge of anti-Asian violence and discrimination. So one of the examples: during the late 1800s economy crisis. There's a record of a series of white mob violence against the Asians, especially the Chinese community. 100 years later, 1980 right? We should be better. But since, like not, during the economic like meltdown during this time period, Vincent Chin, he was killed. But he was a Chinese American man. But then these two, in the eyes of two white men who were laid off, and for their anger, they channeled their anger towards Japan because they are being unemployed as auto workers. That means that Japan or a Japanese car is our enemy. Then, when they see Vincent Chin it doesn't matter whether he's Japanese or not. In his eye, he is, he's their enemy, the Japanese. So they killed Vincent Chin with a baseball bat. It's a horrible hate crime, continues right? 11:58.270 Dr. Sohyun An: During the military crisis also, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. FDR announced the executive order, which put the 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry because these people are like dangerous right. The idea that something is happening in Asia, between the United States and Asia. Then anybody who has an Asian face, we, our life is not okay. We become the military threat. Similar military threats in D.C. during the September 11th, when the September 11th terrorist attacks. Anybody who looked like Osama bin Laden, then become, you guys deserve hate crimes. Which included the South Asian Americans. Their struggle. So the history, it's brief right? But this brief overview of the history just tells us: Well, Asians [have] been in the United States so long right? Only 1800, they start to come here. That means in parallel, we have a long history of anti-Asian violence and discrimination. And why? Because our country is built upon the idea that America belongs to white people, right? [unintelligible] For their eyes, the Asian immigrants are always, like somehow we are a dangerous, foreign threat, whether it's the economic threat or the military threat or the public health. 13:11.000 Dr. Sohyun An: So as a curriculum scholar and teacher-educator, I truly believe that there is a power in education. If we, we...the problem is because we didn't teach well, and that means that there is a solution we can find in education. Because really, what we teach or not teach at school, that matters. It is not an academic debate. When you know the Black, the police killing of a black body, it's happening. Scholars Cridland-Highes and King directly said, I quote, "While violence on unarmed Black bodies occurs on the streets, the idea of violance against Black bodies begins in the classroom." This literally sums up, right? Like, you know, we see the violence on the street, but actually, in the classroom, if the school text or the teachers enacting a lesson listen continue to you know, promote the idea that these folks' lives don't matter, then people have this courage to do harm on the people, the Others. 14:05.620 Dr. Sohyun An: So then with anger, because after the Atlanta spa shooting, then I was, like, you know devastated and also as a curriculum scholar because of my anger, the rage. So then I embarked on a study. I collected all 50 states' K-to-12 U.S. History curriculum standards with my research question: what we as a nation are teaching about Asian American history to our nation's children, right? If we teach about the long history of Asian migration to the United States and long history of Asian American struggle, as well as long history of Asian contributions to our racial progress, I don't think, you know, 21-year-old white men could just go and kill the six Asian immigrant women. Because my logic is if he learned about Asian American history, if he knew that, he learned the humanity of Asian immigrant women, he wouldn't go and kill the six women, right? Within like a three-hour [unintelligible]. 15:00.490 Dr. Sohyun An: So I collected all the 50 states' U.S. History curriculum standards to analyze. Yeah, I have. Although I knew it as a curriculum scholar. But here's the data, right? You want data, here's data. Among the 50 states, 18 states have zero Asian American history content. Most of the states, one or two even. As you might guess, most of the events that get included: the Japanese American incarceration and Chinese Exclusion Act. After that, barely. Like a state, barely has. So yeah, we barely teach you about Asian American history. When, with those included events in the textbook, when I analyzed it, the message to our nation's children: either Asians are a victim of native racism, so they are powerless victims, or Asians are like a new immigrant, they just barely got here, right? Asians barely seen as a contributor to our nation building, or the Asians are the change makers. We have the agency as a historical civic agent. So again, the idea that Asians are new, and Asians are like a powerless victim. We don't have agency, or the contributions for our racial and civil rights progress. 16:06.340 Dr. Sohyun An: So what I'm doing as a mother-scholar, because I have two children growing up in the Georgia public school system, and, unlike Illinois, and many other states, Georgia, one of the states that has their standards really specific. It's really content-based. They literally write out every single thing that a teacher needs to cover. In first grade in Georgia, culture studies is all about American heroes, right? But you know, young kiddos, you need to be proud of America. So kindergarten we start with national holidays. Students all learn about Christmas, Columbus Day (yes Goergia, we celebrate Columbus Day). We teach them Thanksgiving so kindergarten is all about holidays, American holidays. When they move to the first grade, it's about American heroes, and these are the hand-picked heroes by the Georgia powers-that-be. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington Carver, and Ruby Bridges. Pretty much like great white men, right? Like Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark. I'm sure you know, if we don't teach about Lewis and Clark, I don't think they will include Sacagawea. They just put it there, because it was related to two men. Only two, the other two persons of color, George Washinton Carver and Ruby Bridges. We barely see Asian American historical figures, we barely see the Latinx historical figures. Pretty much great white men. So as a mother, I'm pissed off [at] this. I want my kids to have like, you know, better than this, right? So I worked with my second child, when my second she was in first grade, I worked with her classroom teacher. Hey Miss King, can you join me? Can I come to you and talk about this Ruby Bridges unit? Because in first grade in Georgia, kids need to learn about Ruby Bridges. She is the one of the story of a school segregation and desegregation history in America. 17:49.960 Dr. Sohyun An: So, hey, you know, when you teach about Ruby Bridges there, we can also using the Ruby Bridges unit as an entry point to learn about other badass girls. So I introduced the teachers about Alice Piper, Mamie Tape, and Sylvia Mendes, so that I worked with the first grade team to reinvent, the traditional 2-week long Ruby Bridges unit to become more inclusive, the Ruby Bridges unit. So here's a badass 3 girls that [were] added to the Ruby Bridges unit. So Mamie Tape, some of you may know, some of you or sort of about it. Mamie is right in the middle. She is a Chinese-American girl, born in the United States, growing up in San Francisco, California around 1880. So as a U.S.-born citizen, and according to [unintelligible] member, she has an equal right to attend the public school, right? Their parents are paying the taxes, but then, during that time in San Francisco School district, they have a segregated school for the white and Black. But there's no school, not even segregated school for the Asian American children. So then, Mamie, now it's for her to start the kindergarten. But there's, okay there's a white school, there's a Black school. Where should I go? So parents brought Mamie to their neighborhood school, which is a white-only school. As you might guess, right, that principal said, "Uh-uh, Mamie maybe you cannot come to my school. This is a white-only school." Then the parents said, "Where should my kids go? There's no school for us." And the principal said, "Well that's not my business." So then, Mamie Tape's family, they sue the school district. That is Tape versus Hurley of 1885. 19:20.620 Dr. Sohyun An: Wow, right? When we think about school segregation, we only think about Brown. Brown versus Board of Education, everybody should know right? Because you know if you go through U.S. education, the only court case, if you remember, may be the Brown. So Brown is not the single case right? And also Brown came up 1950. Well the fight against the court, the legal fight against the segregated school system, started even well before 1951. 1885. And also it wasn't just like the South. California right? So there's so many of these court cases really helping students to break down a misconception about the school segregation and desegregation history. And again, oh another thing, Asians are badass right? They were demanding what they deserved. So this Mamie Tape, by the way, do you know who [won]? Is it Mamie Tape's family who won or the school district Hurley winning? Yes! It's Tape! 20:14.450 Dr. Sohyun An: This is Alice Piper. It's again, it's happening in California. Alice Piper, she's a Native American girl growing up California, 1920. She survived Indian boarding school. The Indian boarding school in itself is a problem. It's not only a segregated school, it's a cultural genocide, but on top of that, the Indian boarding school doesn't teach kids to be prepared for to go to college right? Alice Piper, she wanted to go to high school. She wanted to go to college. She wanted to be a lawyer. She wanted to fight for her tribal nation. But then, after Indian boarding school, there's no school for her to prepare her to go to college. So she went to register at a local, white-only high school. Of course the principal said, "Uh-uh, you are Indian. You cannot come to my school." Then poor Alice [said], "Where should I go then? I need to go to college. I need a high school education." So she sued the school history. That is Piper versus Big Pine school district. It went all the way to Supreme Court in California. That decision came about 1924. Who [won] the case? Yes! Piper [won]. What it is, the judge liked her (or not, it doesn't matter). But he said, "The equal protection of the law. She is, although she's a tribal, the citizen of a tribal nation, she is also U.S. citizen. She has the right to attend the public school. So Alice Piper won. 21:32.740 Dr. Sohyun An: Another thing many of us in this room now know right, and this is the Sylvia Mendez case. We even have a children's book. Sylvia said separate is never equal, right? Separate isn't equal, a separate body is B.S. So, Sylvia, she was a Mexican American girl, growing up in California 1940. Although during that time the Mexican Americans, they are legally, they are white, legally they are allowed to attend the white school, but in San Francisco and the California in general they use the lame excuse, right? "Well, yeah, you are legally white but you speak, you know Spanish, so you need special treatment. So then you can learn better. So then there's Mexican students and they need to go to the Mexican-only school." So they use this like lame excuse, right? Separate, but equal, but it's never equal. So then, Sylvia along with other Mexican American community, the family they sued the Westminster school district. That is Mendez versus Westminster 1947. Again Mendez [won], right? So again, we have these successful legal cases prior to the Brown. And also three amazing badass girls. 22:38.730 Dr. Sohyun An: This map really showing the legal historians, their research. It's showing the school segregation fight is not only in the South problem. The school segregation vote was in California, West coast, East coast, even somewhere in the midwest. I see in Illinois there's four court cases against school segregation. So it's another misconception, right? The school segregation was not just a Southern problem. Another misconception is that we only think of school segegration around the 1950s and 1960s problem. No, the legal fight, the first court case actually challenging the separate but equal system was 1849. The first court case Roberts versus Boston 1849. We have a beautiful picture book about this girl. Her name is Sarah Roberts. She was a 5 year old. She had to walk like past how many white-only schools to go to a Black segregated school. Like Linda Brown, this Sarah Roberts also had to go through that struggle. So her family sued the school district, Boston school district. Although this court case lost but it historically, it's significant. The first recorded legal case against school segregation. And these tables showing 1849 to 1896, we have this many court cases. Again the idea that well, as if students oftentimes, if they only learn about Brown case, they think there's only one single court case. But actually not, right? There's 101 court cases prior to Brown, that families of color went to the court to demand the equal rights for their children. 24:15.060 Dr. Sohyun An: So with those understandings, I did a talk in the first grade team. So all the teachers bite, "Yeah, I think we we can do better." So then, our teachers...the traditional unit was a 2-week long lesson on Ruby Bridges only, but we spent about two days to the kids learning about Ruby Bridges, and then we included Alice Piper, Mamie Tape, and Sylvia Mendez. So then of course, read to learn about these four badass girls, and then one day I came in as a visitor reader, and as you might guess, right? Here are first graders, who love to share what they've been learning. When I asked, "Hey, who's this?" Of course they love to share, and my daughter is sitting over there. She was excited. "Mom, why you're here?" Because she didn't know I was behind all this unit. And I read, I'm Not a Number, because Sylvia Mendez has a children's book made, but Mamie Tape and Alice Piper, we don't have any books yet. But this was about 3-4 years ago. We didn't have it. So I read, I'm Not a Number, which is about the Indian Boarding School. One of the children's books about the Indian Boarding School. I read that book. 25:17.030 Dr. Sohyun An: So after students are learning about all these four girls, to assess them afterwards, we asked them to do the Venn diagram. In Georgia math curriculum, we introduce Venn diagrams [for the] first time in first grade. So students already know about what Venn diagram means. So they choose one girl from the four, and then they compare with themselves. It's about me and the history, right? The girl from the history. So this is my daughter Terrie. So Terrie, like a first grader, come home and she unpacked all the things, unpacked her backpack. "So mommy this is what I did today." So I said to her, "Oh you did a good job. So okay, so you chose Mamie out of the four, and you compared with yourself. So it's all, you think both Mamie and Terrie in the [unintelligible], they both have black hair. They both have the same eye color. Believe in herself and they are brave. But then Terrie, unlike Mamie, Terrie go to fair school. She's Korean. She's 6-years-old. She lives in Georgia. Her family is somehow, looks like this round shaped family. That's how she [unintelligible] about our family members. And this is Mamie. In the eyes of Terrie, Mamie went to an unfair school. She was Chinese, 8-years-old. She lived in California, and this is her family portrait. Again, like first grade level understanding. She cannot do the larger, you know, historical context of it, but at least she can see some similarities of the historical figure and herself, and difference kind of thing, right? That's why Terrie, so I asked Terrie, "Oh Terrie, you did a good job. But, by the way, why you chose Mamie out of the four?" And Terrie said, "Well mommy, I liked all the four girls' stories. They are amazing girls, but I like Mamie the best because she looked like me." 26:58.800 Dr. Sohyun An: So I think that this is the power of multicultural education, right? That all kids love to see themselves reflected in the school text. So I, by the way, this is my little one, Terrie. She's so cute. That's Terrie. So I wrote about this story. "First Graders' Inquiry into Multicolored Stories of School (De)segregation." Although I preferred "multiracial" but some of the general editors were all, "Uh, let's avoid the 'R' words." So it's a sugarcoated title. But then I published this one to highlight characters, stories, and the amazing Miss King and the first grade team, the teachers who took the risk and the bravery to teach, engaging first graders learning about this true history, the truth. With the hope that other teachers who read this journal article, that they can reflect on their teaching. It's easy, right? Like if you're teaching about certain historical figures, it's easy to incorporate the silenced histories. 28:57.001 Dr. Sohyun An: So I'm so happy for Illinois. Because Georgia, we have a long away to go. Our standards are so content-specific there's only three events of Asian American history included throughout the whole K-12 standard. So barely we are now, and also it's a conservative dominant Congress. We don't see any deal like a TEAACH Act gonna have in our situation. So when I saw that Illinois, the TEAACH Act passed, I was crying, "Oh my gosh, good for them." But I was so jealous. So yeah, amazing. I think what happened in Illinois and after that, like in New Jersey, Connecticut, and then recently, Rhode Island also passed a similar bill that requires teaching Asian American stories. I think that that is also part of the larger K-12 ethnic studies and movement. Back in the day we needed like more of an ethnic studies movement in higher ed, like in 1960s/70s. We see these days, you know, another movement, right? But it's at the K-12 level. So it's so like inspiring that you know, in the midst of like anti-CRT movements in the midst of the Divisive Content Bill, like many of those in southern states. But also the other places in America we see totally the opposite movement, right? That there are states where people, students of color, communities of color are asking, you know, the school to teach ethnic studies, Black studies, Asian American studies. So it's so amazing. 29:20.210 Dr. Sohyun An: But as a teacher-educator and curriculum scholar, what our worries are, are our teachers ready? To teach, right? That enacting the TEAACH Act or any other educational bill, that now that's required for them to teach Asian American history. Which most of them didn't learn during their teacher training. Our teachers, do they have the content pedagogy knowledge to teach Asian American history critically? So that they are not just continuing superficial way of teaching, right? The food, fun, and festivals approach. What's wrong with the food, fun, and festivals? Well, you know, I'm sure Aaron Long, the 21-year-old white man who killed an Asian American woman, maybe he loves Korean food, but he can go and kill the Korean woman, right? Food, fun, and festivals...it doesn't help with our not getting along. Really, truly trusting and believing in other people's humanity. So we need to go deeper than just having fun right? With our lesson plan. What we can do? 30:18.940 Dr. Sohyun An: And so with that, like you know, the burning question with my beloved colleague, Dr. Noreen Naseem Rodriguez and I, we developed a framework for the K-12 Asian American studies. This framework really guides through, a conception of the curriculum framework that lists out important themes, major themes in Asian American history. So it's not just about, you know, identity, not just about the fun, but also it's about the power and oppression. Not just about power and oppression, but also about Asian American solidarity and resistance, right? The fight against that power and impression. Along with that, we also include the theme of reclaiming history and joy, right? Because history is not always depressing. There is a people, there's a joy right? In the midst of this violence, in this struggle. So we need this type of framework to guide the teachers to move beyond the food, fun, festivals approach. Also, I'm so proud it's going to be on the way soon. We wrote, recently we wrote Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms. So this book is for the elementary school teachers in particular, how to teach Asian American history, you know, going beyond like a Lunar New Year craft or the one, you know, read aloud lesson. How you can infuse Asian America, critical Asian American narratives and history into your regular curriculum, whether it's math, art, or ELA, or social studies. So this book is in press, not in press but on the way! Actually, it's in the printing machine, I believe. 31:48.970 Dr. Sohyun An: In that book, we really highlight one of the tools, because I'm anelementary social studies teacher-educator. So children's books for us, it's the most important tool for elementary teachers to easily incorporate Asian American narratives into their regular daily practice. So we highlight critical selection and critical use of children's literature as one of the pedagogies in elementary classrooms. One example in the book we highlighted, I'm going to share with you today. This book, anyone read this book? [Coolies by Yin, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet] Yeah, this book, Coolies, it's an amazing, amazing book. Although even the title right, Coolies, is a term, a derogatory term, that historically, right, during that time. So this book is about a Chinese railroad worker who built the transcontinental railroad. So if we bring, if teachers bring this book, read aloud, then students learn about, hey Asians have been in the United States for a long [time], right? They start to come in like 18, mid-1800s. That means these Chinese are earlier than many of the European immigrants to enter through the Ellis Island. So then they, you cannot say, "Go back to your country." Well, your great-grandparents came through, you know, after these folks. So Asians have been in this space quite a long [time]. And then not only that, this book highlights also as long as they've been here always, there is always anti-Asian discrimination--violence and racism. So students also learn about the theme of anti-Asian racism. So not only that they are not like a powerless victim, they are, they are resisting about the, you know, the oppressive conditions. So then, this book highlighted many of these themes. Doing so, it reclaims the history. So this book is awesome, right? Because it's highlighting the silenced story of a Chinese migrant who built the transcontinental railroad. But in our collective memory like this, the photo, the transcontinental railroad completion ceremony photo. This is in Utah and promontory around that time when these two railroads finally meet and is complete. So it's a really historic time, right? It's a really historically significant moment, so that they wanted to capture this moment to tell the American story. But in the historical photos seen, the Chinese are missing. The people there who made this historical event happen, possible, they are not invited to the celebration ceremony as well as the photo seen. So this book is so great. Like when I said, reclaiming history, one of the, this is the page that is highlighting this photo ceremony scene. The Chinese folks are, they are not invited. They are looking at what's happening, all the party over there, and in the text here it says, the two brothers, "'We know,' Shek said to Wong. [The big brother talked to the younger brother.] 'Call us what you will, it is our hands that helped build the railroad.'" 34:30.350 Dr. Sohyun An: So this, even the page written, as we still teach teachers, the guided reading. The students can [be asked], "What's going on? What's happening here, right? Why? They built the railroad, but why they are not included?" So teachers can engage students and talk about those politics. And then over here. Yeah, these folks are reclaiming their history. So this book is amazing. So then that's where our teachers can use the power of these children's books. But then also, teachers can use this book to go a little deeper than that. Something is missing, though in this book. So what's missing in this children's book? So teachers can use the primary sources. For example, right, Dr. Manu Karuka, his recent book, Empire's Tracks. This history book really showing the entangled history of the Chinese railroad workers and the indigenous people whose land was taken away to build the white settlers' homes. And why, like their business of money-making by building the railroad. So then you cannot tell the complete story about transcontinental railroad without telling about not only Chinese railroad workers, but also the indigenous peoples, right? The railroad is built on the stolen land. So then, Coolies, that children's book doesn't say anything about this entangled history of the indigenous families, their community. 35:55.340 Dr. Sohyun An: So what teachers can do is, reading that book and guide them, "Who's missing?" Then, like guiding students to do historical inquiry, like using the primary source photo scene about the indigenous people. Some painting during that time. So the student can say, "Oh, this is who's missing, right?" So the students can learn more deeper than that, and then one activity that teachers can do, we suggest in the book, is that after they learn about all of this, create a page that can be inserted into Coolies. So the storyline will include the interconnected story with Chinese and indigenous people. So, of course, we did this activity with the fourth and fifth graders. Students can definitely can do it. They had so much, like a fun time. A lot of, a bubble, like a discussion going on [of] what that one page would look like, what the text will be like, what the storyline will be like, what illustrating do we need to do. So it was so fun to see this, the students were so great. Some people put it in like almost at the beginning of the page. Some kids put it in almost the last of the page. So it was so fun, although we didn't include... Another activity in the book we suggest for the more older child is showing them the Corky Lee photo--although I didn't put it in this slide--the Corky Lee photo. That is a re-enactment of the transcontinental railroad completion ceremony, because the original photo, it doesn't include the Chinese railroad workers, right? Corky Lee, like 80 years later, or 100 years later, he created like a scene inviting those descendants of the Chinese railroad workers, and they re-enacted the photo. So then, of course, in the photo, most of them are the Chinese descendants, like grandchildren, and great grandchildren. So we show that photo and we had the fifth graders learn about it, but the that photo doesn't include, even Corky Lee's photo doesn't include the indigenous people, right? So we asked the students, "Now imagine you are the photographer. You are going to tell a more inclusive story, a more full story of the transcontinental railroad completion, and create a photo scene. What does your photo scene look like? And give it a title. And then you know, design the photo: who's gonna be invited, what they will be doing, kind of thing. So again, for a fifth grader having such a like amazing, but not just fun-for-fun kind of thing. Really like an academically fun time to rethink through what would be the most responsible and ethical, you know, how can you say, things that current, our generation can do to accurately remember our history. 38:28.460 Dr. Sohyun An: So that is Coolies. Another way that in the book, we also highlight for the teachers is that, because oftentimes we could, also as a person from the, who lived, my family through the Korean War, right? As a mother also see that my kids learn about the Korean War in an American school, when she also learned about the Vietnam War, I mean I get pissed off, right? Because at the school, we cannot blame the teachers too. Teachers are teaching the way that they've been taught. So when they teach about the Korean War, it's about for the fourth/fifth grade. Well, America went to Korea to rescue poor Koreans, poor South Koreans who were attacked by the evil Communist North Korea. Again, right? America went there as a super hero to rescue, again. American war, especially for the elementary, it's all about...American war is rescue and liberation mission. And it'll continue amplified [in] middle and high school unless you have a critical teacher to engage through. So U.S. militarism and like nationalism, in the face of like patriotism is horrible, right? So then I think what we are asking our teachers to do is use the children's books about the U.S. War, but we took from those like Asian refugee perspectives. So whether it's the Korean War or Vietnam War, or the U.S. Imperialism in Philippines. But if you can use the children's book from the refugee point of view, you can see that, like more honestly about what America has done to Asia. America didn't go to Asia only to like, liberate, or civilize, or rescue. 39:53.860 Dr. Sohyun An: So amazing books are out there, actually. But another thing that also, we suggested, based on our research. Well, most of the children's books, many of the children's books, actually doesn't say much about what America has actually done to it. Some books they tell you, age appropriately, but many of the books actually doesn't mention anything about what America has done to Asia. It's just says America was like, you know, after the horrible war. War just happened. And then they have a hard time to come to United States. Finally they found, you know, peace and safety. Then America becomes a good refuge for the refugee people, right? So then teachers can use this book to like critically, to engage students critically on what's missing, what the stories are missing. So yeah, these days we have so many amazing children's books out there. Like you know, I'm An American: the Wong Kim Ark Story, or Today Is Different. This is about the Hmong-American girl. She was 7-years-old. I think this is Minnesota too. Doua along with her Black friends, they are participating in the Black Lives Matter. So again showeing that children's agency, resistance against about the power and oppression. So it's so good compared to like 10 years ago, when I was a searching for a good book, compared to today. It's more, there's more options out there, so I'm so thankful for all the children's book writers and illustrators. Those who research about this work. Makes my life a lot easier by using those books, right? 41:23.010 Dr. Sohyun An: Not only I'm talking about today focused on Asia American studies, but you know, also about the Black studies or the Latinx, Indigenous studies. If we can use this amazing critical children's literature, you know, our students can say, "Hey, Asians are not a virus. Hispanics are not illegal. Black people are not threats. Muslims are not terrorists. Native Americans are not savages." I hope that we all can work together so that our kids can say outloud when they hear a horrible message. 41:55.430 Dr. Sohyun An: So that's what I have for you today. Thank you so much. 42:05.680 Sara Schwebel: Thank you so much. We have time for questions. 42:11.810 Audience Member 1: Alright, thank you so much. This is wonderful. So my research is doing similar things, but move from archive perspective. I use Asian American related archives to bring to the local community members, and we study the Chinese-American history together, so I've studied it more from a critical archival perspective. So in my classroom--I'm not teaching at school, but local communities, right?--in my classroom there was a case, a girl came to the school, to my classroom with her parents, and a few weeks ago she was told by another student at school, "You don't belong here." And in the classroom, in my classroom we design a small exhibition. The students tell the history about Chinese railroad workers and that's the affirmation for them, like their ancestors came in the 19th century. So they were here, they are here, and here we are having a community here. So that's a confirmation for her that you belong here. But the case at the school was, the teacher knew what happened. Suspended the student, who said you don't belong here, but they didn't tell the parents. [Audio and Transcription data is not available from 43:26 to 44:34] 44:34:01 Dr. Sohyun An: And the reason why I love my job as a teacher, elementary teacher-educator and also the message that I've kept telling to my students is that, "Well, at least we can change the world by, you know, providing good education for the young ones. Our young children will grow up and make our world a better place." Because we cannot change my grandpa or my uncle, so they don't, they'll always just be the way that they are. That is what I'm saying, right? But use that. But the kids when I teach all the things in the classroom, but then, when they go home, they hear about this like, you know, message from their parents, grandparents, they're coming with. So I think it needs to be a "both work together" kind of thing. So one of the things that I like as a teacher, elementary teacher, one thing I'm doing is, let's help our kids to teach their parents. So, for example, one of the things recently, what I'm doing with my students is that we learn about, you know, because in Georgia fourth grade we teach about the women's suffrage movement. So women's suffrage in Georgia, it'll be two, two women of course, right? It's Susan B. Anthony and then Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Only the two, that is the women's suffrage movement. So there's this misconception that all the women's suffrage movement was all about the white middle-class women, their agency and their contribution to American progress. So then, what's missing is about all this, like, you know, the Black women, indigenous women, Latinx women, Asian American women, also part of this, the struggle, and their struggle was different compared to the white woman. For maybe white middle-class women, it's all about, "Why my husband go to vote? Why can't I? Why I can't?" right? But for those like Black, Latinx, Asian American people, it's not voting, right? It's not just about, "It's unfair. You know my husband and my brother." It's also about needing to protect their lives, right? Because their lives, they are being mentioned, they are becoming like discriminated against, so they need voting rights to change the system. So that different women, different groups have a different reason why they need the voting rights. 46:37.820 Dr. Sohyun An: So all these different stories, so then what we've been doing is, how can we change the narrative, the dominant narrative of there were only two women, right? Susan B. Anthony and then Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Amazing women! But then there's other stories to be told in elementary in these elementary teachers' curriculum. How we can do it doable, but then, also like accurate. So there'll be with kids a lot, there were two women, but we brought the four women. One's Zitkala-Sa, a Native American woman suffragist. Black woman Ida B Wells. Latinx woman Jovita Idár. And then one Chinese American lady. Her name is Mabel Lee. She's a Chinese suffragist who we believe was one of the participants of the New York [unintelligible]. So then give these the fourth grade to the [unintelligible] student teacher in their room. So then they brought these four women, so they study about, that is like six women instead of the two, and then they have each student in fourth grade research about one woman, and they create like a big poster. Poster tripod, and four people did the poster. And then they put that during the women's history month, actually a few weeks ago, they put them in their school hallway as a gallery walk. And then their class invited their parents to the space. So actually, kids are teaching their parents. All the parents were like, "Oh, who's Zitkala-Sa?" right? And the kids are explaining, "Well Zitkala-Sa was, da da da..." So it's in a way that we give the agency, that we give the power to the children. And children are teaching their parents. 48:03.660 Dr. Sohyun An: So it's a more, you know, there's a way, how to do like, work for both. Like students and parents and community. And for me, as a public scholar, these days what we enjoy is like, of course in the classroom with young kiddos, but then how can we educate our community? One thing that our Asian American grassroots group, what we've been doing is like, we are making a heritage month box. So we are preparing for Asian American Heritage Month. How can we do it, grassroots beyond kind of thing? So we are creating the heritage month box with the Very Asian foundation. We put like three books, so it is three books along with a discussion guide, with some of the craft ideas that's not just food/fun of course, so then that heritage box we are going to deliver it to each elementary school classroom. So then that the teachers can use it. Also we are not giving only to the school too. We are giving out to the local community, the parents, so the parents, they can do that activity with their students kind of thing. So there is, this is just one example, right? There's a, I'm sure we are so creative, we could come up with so many different ways. So they, of course, the committee, education, public education, the actually K-12 in the school building. It's a long answer! To your short question, it's a long answer, but yeah. 49:25.550 Audience Member 2: Libraries play a complimentary role in education. So I'm wondering in terms of your work, what partnerships or what collaborations do you have with libraries? 49:34.001 Dr. Sohyun An: So we, because I'm part of, our grassroots name is Asian American Voices for Education. Our grassroots collective, think about Georgia, it's not like California, so we didn't have... But after the spa shootings, it happened right there in our backyard, so many of the Asian parents and Asian American community, we need something, so we got together. We knew what we wanted, we cannot do the TEAACH Act. It's Georgia Congress, not ready for 100 years, so then we decided it's not just a change. We need, like a bottom-up change, like classroom, teachers, or any school district who are willing to work with us. So then one of the other things that we've been doing, the heritage box, of course, right? We are sending over to the school librarian so that they can do activities here together. We, the Very Asian, one of the leaders of the Very Asian Foundation, one of the key leaders is actually housed in Atlanta. So also we are getting their free books for our school library teacher, school librarian. That's how, so far, we are working on it. I'm not a librarian, so I need a lot of your help! With better ideas to reach out to them. 50:46.620 Audience Member 3: I don't know if you're aware. But the Spurlock Museum is currently doing an exhibit on Japanese Americans, maybe some of it is focused on some of the parts you say you don't like, or we want to try change the focus away from. It's also focused on the Japanese American Internment experience. It's also focused on kind of providing and putting people [unintelligible] history of Japanese Americans in the United States, and the history outside and beyond that, that episode. So I'm wondering if, I know that an exhbibit like that is probably a bit above an elementary school level, especially because it does include some images [unintelligible] they've been seeing. But at what point, do you have sort of the same question as the libraries? Do you have any plans or ideas on how one can navigate like putting museum exhibits or museum experiences into this kind of curriculum? For example, in San Francisco there's Asian art museums. So I can imagine that, you know, like facilitating this is like, that would be helpful for Asian students. 52:13.040 Dr. Sohyun An: Yes, of course, like one activity I'm doing in my class, and also my students are doing, I was lucky to get a person, [unintelligible] who's a Smithsonian Asia Pacific Center education specialist. So I got like a packet, a packet of the photos, a poster of the Japanese American Incarceration. So whenever I'm teaching, the week that I'm teaching, how to teach World War II, from the marginalized peoples' point of view. One point of view is about the Japanese Americans. So that week, I put those photos, the historical scene photos. So we do a gallery walk and we talk and do the inquiry and actual do the gallery. And also my students are using that idea right? They're teaching fifth grade, of course, right? Fourth and fifth. Because everybody is...I don't know, English isn't my first language. A photo is...thousand dollar image? Photo...? 53:03.110 Sarah Park Dahlen: A photo says a thousand words. 53:06.001 Dr. Sohyun An: Yes, that thing. Yeah. Yeah. So instead of like, reading books, it's boring. The photo, the images tell, it talks to our heart, right? Not the mind. So yeah, we are using the gallery walk but if teachers can actually take the kids to the museum, why not? Because as a parent, also I'm pissed off. Like our teachers, my kids, the second one. Terrie, now she's a fifth graders, so they do the graduation trip already. But they went to the aquarium. It's Atlanta, Georgia. So they went to the aquarium, good, fun. They went to the Coca-Cola Museum. I wish we had those Black history museums, or like Asian American history museum or gallery. So the students can see, right? And also, being that it's school time. For teachers, it's a lot of work. To field trip, so how do we make accessible for like, so then the museum trip or the gallery. Talking about the private sector or the parents. Then what about the parents who don't have access to it, right? Time-wise, money-wise. So how can we make it accessible and equitable? How to get the school community and museum community to work together? 54:39.750 Sarah Park Dahlen: The Smithsonian Asian American Pacific Center is leveling up with all of their resources, right now there's legislation to build a museum, a physical space. And Sohyun An is going to be involved with a lot of the work that Andrea [unintelligible] is doing, and has been doing for a very long time. But yeah, it's very important to make sure that physical spaces, and also that these physical spaces have online, digital materials, digital [unintelligible] so that people who don't have access or who cannot travel all the way to D.C. can still learn from it. So yeah, the Smithsonian has a lot of plans right now to double up and expand. It's a really exciting time, actually, to be doing this kind of work. 55:05.100 Dr. Sohyun An: Before I finish, one thing I wanted, because I'm also still, like learning as I'm teaching and doing this work. I don't know everything. So recently I'm also really grappling with like Asian American... We cannot teach like Black studies, not only like Black studies, right? Black studies IS Asian American studies, white studies, indigenous studies. In the end, bottom line it's we are like living on indigenous peoples' land, that we are building on that place. And all the buildings are, you know, built by these slaves of labor. So our history is, everything is like intertwined, entangled. Where oftentimes, teachers, you know, I'm worried about the TEAACH Act. Some of the teachers without like support, maybe only teaching Japanese American Incarceration, as if it's only this one. But teachers, if they really know about the bigger picture, then doing Japanese American Incarceration. Where the Incarceration camps were built on? Whose tribal nation did it belong to? And during that time, what was going on to the Japanese American Incarceration? What happened to the Black community? What happened to the Latinx community? I think it's so, we need to really ask it. Like true ethnic studies, our stories are intertwined. As I shared with the school segregation, Mamie Tape is as part of the larger story about the Ruby Bridges story, larger story of the indigenous boarding school history. So how can we bring? I think the true Asian American studies is about not just how Asians dealt with white supremacy, how the Asians settled and dealt with racism, but all these other stories within our history. So if our teachers have like a larger picture, and that's what, I hope for that in Illinois with the TEAACH Act amendment. And also more children's books really highlighting this interconnection, entanglement. I hope those books [unintelligible]. Thank you so much.