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AAPI History & Culture: Representation in the LPS Curriculum

Curriculum Presentation

History & Social Studies focus

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Tonight’s Agenda

Identifying our goals
Broader curricular context
A look at LPS curriculum
Looking forward - goals and plans
Questions & Comments

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We All Belong

We are inclusive of all people, and we embrace and serve one another. We are dedicated to working toward mutual understanding of all cultures, backgrounds, identities, ideas, beliefs, learning styles, and abilities that are different from our own. In our community, we all bring unique skills, perspectives, and experiences. We create a safe and supportive learning environment when we work to ensure that everyone is honored and respected.

Do Your Part

As members of communities, both small and large, we are united in many purposes. When we encounter challenges or conflicts, we work together with confidence and humility. None of humanity’s great accomplishments were done in isolation. Members of our community meet each other where they are and are invested in one another’s success.

(CHRIS)

For the past several years, LPS has been making a concerted effort to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of what we do, including curriculum and instruction. Our Strategic Plan speaks to this, and that Plan drives everything we do. We strive to reflect our Core Values and Vision in our work and we hope this presentation helps to highlight this in several ways.

Tonight we are pleased to address concerns that were brought to us recently by students in our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. They were both concerned and curious as to how and to what extent their histories and cultures are represented in the LPS curriculum at all grade levels. Their questions, and the discussion tonight, aim to begin a conversation that demonstrates not only what we do in the curriculum and what we still need to do, but also that we are focussed on our Core Values of We All Belong and Do Your Part, and committed to Students as Active Agents and Community Partnerships.

To that end, my colleagues from the K - 12 history and social studies department and I will briefly set the broader context for curriculum, speak specifically to the K-12 curriculum as it relates to AAPI histories and cultures, and share our plans for our continued growth. We also are happy to answer any questions you may have as well.

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Identifying our guiding questions

The focus of tonight’s discussion

How can we (continue to)

Build students’ critical consciousness, so they can recognize the many histories and contributions of diverse peoples, make connections and critically analyze dominant narratives?
Improve the representation of AAPI history and culture in the LPS history and social studies curriculum?
Include the perspectives and voices of the AAPI community?

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Broader curricular context

Curriculum development

Ongoing process
Impact of the pandemic
DEI focus
Increased professional learning
Bringing in student and community voices more consistently going forward

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(CHRIS)

It is important to note that being reflective of multiple histories, cultures and perspectives is part of the curriculum development process on a regular basis and remains a work in progress for us. Our focus tonight is specifically on the history and culture of our AAPI community, but also know that what we discuss tonight is true for other members of our community as well and multiple subject areas.

Just a quick note regarding the term ‘curriculum’. It denotes not only the content of a particular subject area, but also the instructional and pedagogical strategies used and the materials, activities, and resources included as well. In terms of history and social studies, it goes far beyond dates, names and timelines of events. You will hear all about that in just a moment from our department heads.

Another note about the impact of COVID on our curriculum development process this year. Typically, curriculum development is an ongoing process with adjustments made to accommodate changes as needed. This past year, we paused that usual process and shifted to addressing curricular and instructional needs as they pertained to making changes that allowed us to focus on the most essential bits of learning in a compressed time frame and using very different instructional delivery models. Despite those adjustments, you will hear tonight how we continued to be responsive to needs in the curriculum. The typical process is picking up again, and will be in full swing this summer and into next year. As we move forward, that process will grow to include increased professional learning as well as more actively including community voices in the process.

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K - 12 Curriculum Shifts Towards Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

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Where we want to be

Robust representation incorporated broadly that centers multiple perspectives
Strong and varied connections with the entire LPS community
All staff demonstrating deep content knowledge paired with culturally proficient and responsive pedagogy

Expectations

Be reflective
Make connections
Be proactive
Build knowledge and skill sets
Embrace multiple perspectives
Encourage open communication and discussion

Where we are

Intentional focus on increasing representation and perspectives
Connecting with community, students, and supporting organizations
Increasing professional learning around content and cultural competency

(CHRIS)

This graphic provides a quick overview of what our overarching expectations are as we develop curriculum across the board, and describes where we are in meeting those expectations, and where we still have room to grow.

In terms of community involvement, our department heads are having ongoing conversations with community members and groups to hear feedback and engage in discussion around history and culture. We heartily welcome these conversations, and look forward to being able to increase them as we come out of pandemic mode. Our Director of Equity and Student Supports, Mr. Johnny Cole, has also created a student DEI Advisory committee comprised of middle and high school students who also function as a sounding board for curriculum and we are thrilled to have them as part of the process.

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What does the curriculum currently look like in regard to AAPI history and culture?

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Elementary: Focus on AAPI history & culture

K-5: Books & read-alouds

Grades K-1: Holidays & celebrations

Grade 1: Compare/contrast families and various ways of life, using the study of China as an example

Grade 2: Examine similarities and differences within and between communities, using the study of India as an example

National Geo Big Map of Asia

Shifting our lens: How can we be more inclusive in every facet of content?

Interviewing students and incorporating their feedback

Grades K-1: Explore identities (including family, ethnicity, culture, and race)

Grade 2: Explore cultural identity; end year with country research project

Grades 3-5: Identity exploration is connected to and considered within the context of the content studied. Broader inclusion of AAPI contributions and people in existing units.

Grade 4: New unit on history and role of AAPI immigrants in the US

Teach both the challenges/discrimination and the resistance, contributions, and celebrations
Explore themes of citizenship and belonging
Contributions of AAPI community and connection to today

Ongoing

Present: 2020-21

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(ALEX)

Ongoing

As curriculum is ever-evolving, we’ve built upon units and resources that existed to make them stronger. The emphasis has been on shifting both the content and teaching practices (way we frame content). For example, when studying other countries, it is important students learn that not only are there similarities and differences between how we live and others live, but that there are also many similarities and differences among people who share a common culture or national identity. Additionally, books with representation of the AAPI community are being prioritized in the budget and purchased for classroom read-alouds. Professional learning for elementary educators is ongoing due to the fluidity of staff assignments and movement.

Present: 2020-21

There was actually a lot of revision and change that happened this year, despite the pause of the Curriculum Review process.

Grades K-1: Students spend time examining their identities (likes/dislikes, race, gender, ethnicity & culture, language, family), learning about the identities of others in their class, and considering the ways our identities are reflected in our communities. As we start the year and build classroom community, this focus helps students develop a positive self-identity and learn about their classmates’ identities. We are explicitly talking about race, ethnicity, and culture. This understanding and exploration builds through the grade levels and is continued in grades 3-5 but is typically included in SEL instruction, whereas it is an explicit part of the social studies curriculum at K-2.

Traditionally would have taught and acknowledged American holidays. Want to acknowledge, celebrate, and learn about holidays from diverse cultures and help students understand that all these holidays are equally important.

Grade 2: Started year by exploring own cultural identity, in support of one year-long theme that cultural identity influences who we are and how we see the world. Students study India as one example of how we can learn about and appreciate other countries and cultures. The major shift this year was being explicit about the similarities found within Indian culture and the incredible diversity of culture represented in the country. We use the language of "some, not all" to avoid making stereotypes and assumptions. For example, while learning about rangoli, students learned that this is a common national practice and that people in different regions design and use rangoli in different ways.

Grade 4: Students examined the region of the U.S. West through the lens of migration and the history and role of Asian immigrants to the region and our country. As with each unit in fourth grade that focuses on regions and migration, we are careful to include an honest history (which includes challenges and oppression) and balance that with examples of resistance, contributions, and celebration. Students learn about a variety of ways Asian immigrants shaped the region and country, from building the Transcontinental Railroad to developing communities within cities that still exist today. They learn about several court cases that illuminate themes of citizenship and belonging and highlight resistance from the AAPI community. Students research influential members of the AAPI community, which tied perfectly to the CAAL project! The unit ends by connecting to today, placing this history within our current context, and examining ways we can all support the AAPI community.

Content touchpoints in this unit include (but are not limited to):

Vibrancy and importance of Asian American neighborhoods in cities, especially along the West coast
History of Chinese immigrants to the West in the 1800s including work on Transcontinental Railroad, gold mines, setting up Chinese laundries, forming Chinatowns, examples of discrimination, resisting discrimination, Chinese Exclusion Act
Court cases: Tape v. Hurley (school segregation), United States v. Ozawa (citizenship), United States v. Thind (citizenship), Gong Lum v. Rice (school segregation)
Books, lessons, and research resources highlighting many important AAPI community members
Connection to today: How can we show support for the AAPI community?

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Grades 6 - 8: Focus on AAPI history & culture

Ongoing

Building Our Instructional Strategies

2019 Facing History Workshop: Learned, practiced, and incorporated instructional strategies which use the lessons of history to confront bigotry and hate

Pedagogy

Danger of a Single Story: We teach through the lens of multiple perspectives. We use historical thinking skills such as contextualization and corroboration

Curriculum Snapshots

6th Grade: Early Humans, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Greece

7th Grade World Geography: Content focus includes the study of culture, geography, government, and economy for each geographic region. Teacher created unit: South China Sea

8th Grade: Civics and Early United States History including a Civic Action Project

Present: 2020-21

Current Events Drive Our Instruction

Grades 6-8 taught U.S. elections to give students a context for the highly contested national stage. We also focused on the social and emotional well being of students

Reflection and Change: Work with Lexington AAPI groups and students to include authentic voices

6th Grade: Added Ancient China unit pilot and will review in summer 2021

7th Grade World Geography: Added a pilot unit which centered on this essential question: What Made Gandhi’s Nonviolent Movement Work?

8th Grade: Expand upon our state standards around social change and social justice. Including but not limited to the Chinese Exclusion Act and Korematsu v. United States

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Ongoing: Building Our Instructional Strategies

2019 Facing History Workshop: Learned, practiced, and incorporated instructional strategies which use the lessons of history to confront bigotry and hate. The focus of the work involved learning instructional strategies that build teacher capacity for using the lessons of history to challenge ourselves and our students to be active participants in addressing issues that impact all of us. The staff discussed the challenges and opportunities of facilitating difficult conversations and fostering civil discourse among middle school students. We also engaged in and reflected upon strategies that can be used to navigate challenging and complex conversations. Example: Four Corners teaching strategy for the following prompts: All views matter in a democracy discussion, All views matter in my classroom, How would your students respond to this activity?, What are my own views which might get in the way of teaching this?

Pedagogy

Danger of a Single Story: We teach through the lens of multiple perspectives. We use historical thinking skills such as contextualization and corroboration. The historical thinking skills are derived from the Stanford History Education Group. Through the historical thinking skills (close reading, sourcing, contextualization and corroboration) students learn how to investigate historical questions instead of memorizing historical facts. Students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues and learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

Curriculum Snapshots

6th Grade: Early Humans, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Greece

7th Grade World Geography: Content focus includes the study of culture, geography, government, and economy for each geographic region. Teacher created unit: South China Sea

8th Grade Civics and Early United States History-Our focus has been on including the voices of enslaved Africans, African Americans, and Native Americans

Present

Current Events Drive Our Instruction: The teachers focused on social and emotional lessons while teaching skills such as close reading for the first four weeks of school. We felt that this was needed due to the impact of the pandemic on student learning and their emotional health. Additionally, each grade level focused on the U.S. elections in October and November to give students a context for the highly contested national stage as well as to provide them a civic context at the state level. These thoughtful curriculum decisions, along with the cohorted bi-weekly schedule, impacted the breadth and depth of our traditional units.

Reflection and Change

6th Grade: Pilot Ancient China will review as part of summer curriculum work as well as other ways we can connect the AAPI experience to our units

7th Grade World Geography: Added a pilot unit which centered on this essential question: What Made Gandhi’s Nonviolent Movement Work?. Ongoing conversations with IAL about the South Asia curriculum

8th Grade: Social Change and Social Justice is a new theme which we will continue to expand upon. This is where we will add more representation of AAPI histories and experiences including the Chinese Exclusion Act. Research and utilize Supreme Court cases which demonstrate the history and impact of Asian Americans in the 8th Grade course. For example, Korematsu v. United States

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Grades 9 - 11: Focus on AAPI history & culture

Chinese and South Asian history - first two quarters of the year

Conscious choice to begin the year with Asian history taught from a non-western stance to decouple the study of World History from Euro-centric viewpoints

Trade networks and spread of Buddhism

Research papers at each grade level : allow for greater depth in topics on Asia and AAPI issues

Facing History: Coronavirus: Protect Yourself & Stand Against Racism

Summer Reading: novel Lost Names, by Richard Kim. Entry-point for discussing themes of identity and power

Topics: Imperialism and Decolonization, Chinese Civil War/ Communist Revolution, World War II

Historical Thinking: Looking at issues in history through the lens of differing perspectives using primary source documents at each grade level.

Quarterly Research Projects: Research topics allow students to select topics broadly related to current issues and Civil Rights, including AAPI issues. These include research papers, letters to government officials and persuasive speeches.

Quarter 2: Immigration Project:

Interviews (Oral History), analysis of interviews, and presentations on findings.

Case studies throughout the curriculum include a variety of Asian American perspectives, including biographies and primary sources.

Ongoing - Gr 9

Ongoing - Gr 10

Ongoing - Gr 11

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(ROB)

Grade 9: Chinese and South Asian history is taught during the first two units of the year, Power and Politics (empires, dynasties, leaders, legitimacy…) and Ideas and Beliefs (Chinese Philosophy, Hinduism). We make a conscious choice to begin the year with Asian history taught from a non-western stance in an attempt to decouple the study of World History with Euro-centric viewpoints. Asia is also a part of our examination of trade networks (Q3) including the Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade network. This includes how Buddhism spread along trade networks. We make use of a collection of Buddhist art in the LHS Library collection to help students see how Buddhist beliefs are communicated visually.

Summer Reading: Student choice of a biography of a leader. This summer/next year will likely participate in the school -wide read across the board.

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Grade 10:

Content: See slide above

Summer Reading: novel Lost Names, by Richard Kim. Teachers used the novel as an entry-point for discussing themes of identity and power which ran throughout the class. This summer/next year will likely participate in the school -wide read across the board.

Grade 11

Topics:

Mid-1800s - Chinese Immigration; 14th Amendment; Lin Sing v. Washburn; Chinese Exclusion Act; United States v. Wong Kim Ark; Phillippine Revolution; Phillippine-American War; Race Riots - Bellingham, Watsonville, Denver; Bhagat Singh Thind v. U.S.; Japanese Internment; Chinese Civil War; Korean War; Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965; Asian American civil rights movement

Immigrantion Project:

Each student Identify and interview two immigrants to the United States to find out more about them and their experience as an immigrant.

Create a presentation with a small group that draws conclusions about immigration to the United States in the modern era using information from all of the interviews

Case studies throughout the curriculum include a variety of Asian American perspectives. This includes many topics not directly named as Asian American history within their title.

Electives

Additional electives with related content: Race and Gender, Facing History, Conflict in the Modern World, Media Studies, and Law.

Elective on East Asian Studies that was cancelled due to low enrollment.

Debate: For going on 15 years competitive interscholastic debate has been addressing a range of identity arguments. We have dealt with race, gender and gender identity in very specific, and varied ways, during all of that time, and have dealt with class and religion for even longer, and with ableism more recently. Since all of these issues are substantial parts of our ongoing conversations

Department-wide Current Events:

This year there was a focus on the US Presidential Elections & attack on the capital.

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Professional Development PK - 12

Various DEI courses and workshops through the Professional Learning Program, and at the building/ department level.

Specific courses/workshops on cross-cultural communication focused on Asian cultures, bi-culturalism and our Asian students, supporting Asian students and families, and more.

Summer Workshops to connect with AAPI community groups, and AAPI community groups presenting in schools and districtwide workshops.

Mandatory DEI strand in New Educator Induction Program

Increased DEI professional learning programming for all staff, including mandatory August 2020 training.

Continued partnerships with Primary Source, NCTA and Teachers as Scholars, offering history, social studies, and multicultural education courses for educators.

DEI Facilitators Cohort, building capacity of teacher-leaders to lead professional learning for colleagues.

LLT 2022 with mandatory DEI programming for all staff.

Developing pathways to cultural proficiency for educators through PL

Past

Present

Next Steps

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(CHRIS)

PRESENT

Increased DEI programming - differentiated. Offering opportunities specifically for BIPOC staff, Unit C and D staff, more advanced options, and more opportunities to hear from student and community voices.

Summer workshops from 2020 and looking ahead to 2021 continue to support the integration of DEI work into curriculum and instruction. Districtwide Equity Team alignment work happening this summer with expert Karen Suyemoto (UMass Boston Professor in Depts of Psychology, Transnational Cultural and Community Studies, and Asian American Studies) and representatives and administrators from each school.

FUTURE

DEI Facilitators Cohort - building capacity for more folks to have the tools and practice leading DEI conversations and professional learning.

Mindful Facilitation for Social Transformation - summer course offering BIPOC-centered approach to facilitation of PL.

DEI LLT - past LLTs had DEI strand that you could take advantage of; this year it will be a mandatory part of the day.

Overall, being more strategic about incorporating AAPI lens to professional learning - our past PL has tended to focus more on Black and African-American perspectives. We will continue to work to widen our approach and incorporate diverse perspectives.

A little further in the future - pathways to cultural proficiency. A series of courses and experiences that could lead to a “badge” of cultural proficiency for educators.

LHS specific

Staff members accessed districtwide courses and those offered by Primary Source, TAS (Teachers as Scholars), NCTA (National Consortium for Teaching about Asia) and local colleges. Workshops topics included themes on multiculturalism, racism , inequality and implicit bias, linguistic diversity, and celebrating religious diversity:

Strategies for teaching Multicultural Students
Difficult Conversations: Talking about Race and Racism with Students
Engaging Culturally-Linguistically Diverse Students & Families
Impact of Implicit Bias - workshop
Race Inequality Through the Lens of Legislation (Before the 1954 Brown Decision) - workshop
A New Conversation about "Race?"
Engaging Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Students & Families in Secondary Schools
TAS - Diversity Within the Ummah: Islam & Muslims 2016
Religions of the World Celebrating Diversity
Diversity and Equity Issues in Education
Teaching Social Justice through the Lens of the Holocaust - Umass Amherst
Religions of the World Celebrating Diversity

Facing History Workshop cancelled, Spring 20

Kristin Strobel, LHS teacher, led a NCTA workshop on Swahili Coast and Indian Ocean Trade in Feb ‘21

LHS hosted the national consortium for teaching about Asia 6-week seminar of 6-hour classes on modern East Asia last spring, 2 meetings were remote

Social Studies Department Meetings: 10 department based workshops/ meetings on DEI in the classroom over the past several years using 2 texts: Race Talk by Derald Wing Sue and Race Dialogues by Kaplowitz, Griffin, and Seyka.

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Immediate next steps and beyond

By June 2022, develop a comprehensive PK-12 DEI curriculum framework, ensuring all students (a) understand their identities and celebrate one another’s personal journeys; and (b) demonstrate what it means to be culturally proficient by the time they graduate from Lexington High School. Students will have opportunities throughout their PK-12 experience to explore our diverse community and appreciate and value our differences. These differences can include but are not limited to the following: abilities, age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status or class.

Continue working to include content and a “deeper look at anti-Asian discrimination...milestones in U.S. history achieved by people of Asian descent...and go beyond the boundaries of the United States.”

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Immediate next steps and beyond

Continue to invite students, community members, families, and staff who represent a variety of perspectives into the curriculum review process

Build students’ critical consciousness so they can recognize the many histories and contributions of diverse peoples, make connections and critically analyze dominant narratives.
Continue to grow professional learning opportunities

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Questions & Comments

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Tonight’s presenters

Alex Kuschel, K-5 Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator

Jane Hundley, 6 - 8 Social Studies Department Head

Rob Collins, 9 - 12 Social Studies Department Head

Dr. Christine Lyons, Assistant Superintendent for CIAPL

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References

The LPS Community

Waxman, O. B. (2021, March 30). A History of Exclusion, of Erasure, of Invisibility. TIME Magazine , p. retrieved from internet.

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