Asian American Representation in US History Textbooks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v11i3.2978Keywords:
Asian American, Minority Representation, U.S. History, TextbookAbstract
The US history curriculum is an indispensable part of American education and taught throughout all high schools. Though educational resources have diversified over the years, the most important tool used to inform the curriculum remains to be the textbook. Debates about the content and administration of the US history curriculum and textbook have been continuing for decades; a particularly popular debate is the portrayal of minorities within US history textbooks. Though the deficiency of representation is well documented within Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans history, the representation of Asian Americans is severely lacking. Our paper will examine two US history textbooks, both used widely across the country in public school curriculums, and identify the patterns of Asian American representation. Our results show that Asian American representation is quite limited and passive. Accomplishments are stated vaguely, and important historical Asian American figures are completely absent. Textbook authors and history teachers throughout the US should recognize these limitations and work to reform the curriculum to create a more inclusive US history class.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Appleby, Joyce. The American Vision. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Armstrong, Amanda LaTasha. “Why Representation of Black and African Americans in Educational Materials Matter.” New America, 23 Feb. 2022, https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/representation-of-black-and-african-americans-in-educational-materials/.
Batalova, J., & Harjanto , L. (2021, October 15). Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. migrationpolicy.org. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/vietnamese-immigrants-united-states#:~:text=The%201.4%20million%20Vietnamese%20immigrants,U.S.%20immigrants%20as%20of%202019.
Burstein, Rachel. “The Problem with How We Teach History - Edsurge News.” EdSurge, EdSurge, 30 Jan. 2020, https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-11-04-the-problem-with-how-we-teach-history.
College Board. AP United States History Course. AP Central, 2021, August 3.https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-united-states-history/course
Conway, Michael. “The Problem with History Classes.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Mar. 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-problem-with-history-classes/387823/.
Diaz, Rasmin. “Tofa's 10th Year Lauds 100 Most Influential Filipinos in US.” INQUIRER.net USA, 11 Sept. 2020, https://usa.inquirer.net/58358/tofas-10th-year-lauds-100-most-influential-filipinos-in-us.
“'Erased from the History Books': Why Asian American History Is Missing in Texas Schools.” KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station, 6 July 2021, https://www.kut.org/education/2021-07-05/erased-from-the-history-books-why-asian-american-history-is-missing-in-texas-schools.
Foster, Stuart J. “The Struggle for American Identity: Treatment of Ethnic Groups in United States History Textbooks.” History of Education, 30 Nov. 1998, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ636247.
Giarrizzo, Taylor. “History Losing Its Value: Representation of Minorities within High School History Texts.” Fisher Digital Publications, 2012, https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/education_ETD_masters/213/.
Goldstein, Dana. “I Read 4,800 Pages of American History Textbooks.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/reader-center/american-history-textbooks-journalism.html.
Goldstein, Dana. “Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html.
Harada, Violet H. “The Treatment of Asian Americans in U.S. History Textbooks Published 1994-1996.” ERIC, 30 Nov. 1999, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED448072.
Harada, Violet H. “The Treatment of Asian Americans in U.S. History Textbooks Published 1994-1996.” ERIC, 30 Nov. 1999, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED448072.
Henretta, James A., et al. America's History. 8th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.
"Hirabayashi v. United States." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/320us81. Accessed 30 May. 2022.
Joselyn, Eric. (n.d.). “Asian Americans in the People's History of the United States.” Zinn Education Project, 20 May 2022, https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/asian-americans-and-moments-in-peoples-history/#Yuri_Kochiyama.
"Korematsu v. United States." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/323us214. Accessed 30 May. 2022.
Le, C.N. “The First Asian Americans : Asian-Nation :: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues.” Asian, http://www.asian-nation.org/first.shtml#sthash.oQZ7Jeq1.dpbs.
Limited, Kore. “Korean-Americans Who've Made Their Mark on History.” KORELIMITED, KORELIMITED, 12 Jan. 2022, https://korelimited.com/blogs/korelimited/korean-americans-who-ve-made-their-mark-on-history.
“LÊ Xuân Nhuận.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 May 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_Xu%C3%A2n_Nhu%E1%BA%ADn.
“March 28, 1898: Wong Kim Ark Wins Citizenship Case.” Zinn Education Project, 6 Apr. 2022, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/wong-kim-ark-case/.
Myers, Kevin. “Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the History of Education.” Exaly Search Engine, 4 Dec. 2009, https://exaly.com/paper/45750195/.
Office of Minority Health. (n.d.). Profile: Asian American . HHS.gov. Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=63#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202019%20Census,percent%20of%20the%20nation's%20population.
Q&A: Cengage/McGraw-Hill merger. SPARC, 2020, May 2, https://sparcopen.org/news/2019/qa-cengage-mcgraw-hill-merger/
Romanowski, Michael H. “Problems of Bias in History Textbooks.” Problems of Bias in History Textbooks, Mar. 1996, https://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6003/600310.html.
Sanchez, Tony R . “The Social Studies Teacher's Lament: How Powerful Is the Textbook in Dealing with Knowledge of Ethnic Diversity and Attitude Change?”, 1 Mar. 1997, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1043659620941578.
Strauss, Valerie. “Perspective | Why History Is Hard - and Dangerous - to Teach and How to Get Kids to Stop Thinking It Is 'Boring and Useless'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Apr. 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/27/why-history-is-hard-dangerous-teach-how-get-kids-stop-thinking-it-is-boring-useless/.
Wills, John S. “Who Needs Multicultural Education? White Students, U.S. History, and the Construction of a Usable Past.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 30 Nov. 1995, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ578711.
Wolf, Alvin. “Jstor Home.” Minorities in U.S. History Textbooks, 1945-1985, Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1992, https://www.jstor.org/.
Rodriguez, J. A., & Ruiz, V. L. At loose ends: Twentieth-century Latinos in current United States history textbooks. The Journal of American History, 86(4), 1689. 2000, https://doi.org/10.2307/2567584
Suh, Y., An, S., & Forest, D. Immigration, imagined communities, and collective memories of Asian American experiences: A content analysis of asian American experiences in Virginia U.S. history textbooks. The Journal of Social Studies Research, 39(1), 39–51, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2014.05.002
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2022 Jacob Lee; Harrison Cho, John Orrego
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
