A new resource from UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, “Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook,” covers more than 50 years of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies in one convenient, online portal that high school educators can access.
The multimedia textbook, released May 9 during AAPI Heritage Month, houses a comprehensive archive of videos, photos, audio clips, poems and interviews as well as lesson plans for high school and college students. Examples of subject matter include foundational information; background on more than 20 ethnic communities such Pakistani, Laotian, Korean, Filipino and Indian Americans and Pacific Islander peoples; and a look at landmark movements, moments and key historical figures as well as the realities of everyday life.
Over 100 leading scholars, journalists, organizers and community historians contributed to its creation, according to the center, which stated in a press release that the publication is “the most comprehensive collection of Asian American and Pacific Islander histories ever made available online and freely accessible.”
The project took six years to produce and “provides schools, districts and communities with a scholar-informed, classroom-tested resource,” according to the press release.
In a statement to the university, UCLA Asian American Studies Center Director Karen Umemoto shared her hope that people of all backgrounds could learn from the textbook and build understanding of the contributions, both past and ongoing, of AAPI people in the U.S.
“The histories featured in the textbook expand our understanding of the world in transformative ways. It helps grow our understanding of who we are and build mutual respect across differences,” Umemoto said. “It deepens knowledge about growing societal problems and shares intergenerational wisdom to make positive change in the world.”
Significance
The textbook comes at a time where interest in requiring ethnic studies has gained momentum in public education across the nation, including in California where Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 signed Assembly Bill 101, making California the first state to require ethnic studies to graduate high school. The year prior, he signed AB 1468 mandating that California State University students take coursework in Native American Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies or Latina and Latino Studies.
The state recently oversaw the development the Cambodian American Studies Model Curriculum, Hmong History and Cultural Studies Model Curriculum and Vietnamese American Experiences Model Curriculum as well as the Native American Studies Model Curriculum.
In the U.S., roughly 25 million people identify as Asian, according to Pew Research Center data cited by UCLA. However, research shows that some adults lack personal connections to those in AAPI communities and fail to see their influence on American culture.
The hub can help expand users’ knowledge of U.S. history “through the lens of AAPI experiences,” according to the press release, which notes that the textbook “was also created as a response to the hate faced by Asians in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, includes the story of Vincent Chin, a victim of anti-Asian violence in the 1980s, whose death sparked a movement for justice.”
In a statement to UCLA, project co-director Kelly Fong reiterated the importance of the resource.
“It’s transformative for youth to see themselves and their families centered in curriculum instead of in a paragraph, sentence, footnote or not at all,” Fong said. “In centering Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences, the textbook opens possibilities for students to feel valued and learn more about the communities they belong to as well as communities they may not know much about.”
