Stanford University

SPICE - Useful Links for Teaching about Asia

  • ABC-CLIO: The online presence of this publisher of educational and reference products. ABC-CLIO focuses on history and social studies resources for the scholar,student, teacher, and librarian in universities and secondary schools. Explore their resources section for middle and secondary schools, as well as their series of Global Studies Handbooks on Asia.
  • American Forum for Global Education: The American Forum is a non-profit organization promoting the education of American youth for responsible citizenship. The website features a searchable database of teaching materials, as well as information on a number of travel and study programs to Asia and elsewhere in the world.
  • Asia for Educators: A resource site for teachers developed by Columbia University's East Asian Curriculum Project (EACP), a national initiative devoted to supporting education on Asia at the secondary and elementary levels. Focusing primarily on China and Japan, the site features teaching units, lesson plans, primary-source readings, resource lists, bibliographies, and more.
  • AskAsia: The Asia Society's online clearinghouse for K-12 Asian and Asian American studies.
  • Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Offering a searchable database of audio-visual resources on China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, as well as a catalog of selected resources for K-12 education, reviews of new and significant resources, and links to related Web sites.
  • ASIANetwork: A consortium of more than 150 North American colleges working to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of liberal arts education.
  • Asian Studies Development Program (ASDP), University of Hawaii: A full-text database of Asian studies instructional materials containing course syllabi, bibliographies, and other documents.
  • AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools, East-West Center, Hawaii: The program works to increase K-12 educators' knowledge and exposure to the
    Asia Pacific region and to strengthen networks of educators across the
    United States who teach and promote Asia Pacific studies in elementary
    and secondary schools.
  • The Association for Asian Studies (AAS): The AAS is the largest society of its kind in the world - a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia. The AAS Web site offers information on the organization's publications,conferences, and meetings, as well as listings of study programs, grants and fellowships, and other Asian Studies links and resources.
  • China Institute: A nonprofit, non-partisan educational and cultural institution that promotes the understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of traditional and contemporary Chinese civilization, culture and heritage, and provides the cultural and historical context for understanding contemporary China. Go to Programs for Educators for curriculum materials, information on courses and study tours, and visits to the China Institute Gallery in New York City.
  • CIVNET: A Website of Civitas International: An online resource and service for civic education practitioners (teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers), as well as scholars, policymakers, civic-minded journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) promoting civic education all over the world. Go to Resources for Teachers and Students for curricular materials and primary-source documents.
  • Columbia Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum: Teaching Guides: The Project has created three comprehensive teaching guides on Asia: Asia in Western and World History; Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective; Asia: Case Studies in the Social Sciences. Though the entire text of the guides is not available online, the comprehensive tables of contents given at this site provides one with a good overview of what each guide covers.
  • The Digital Classroom at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration): Featuring primary-sources documents, classroom activities, and information on professional development for educators. To encourage teachers of students at all levels to use archival documents in the classroom, the Digital Classroom provides materials from the NationalArchives and methods for teaching with primary sources.
  • East Asian Studies Center, Indiana University: The Resource and Publications section has links to a variety of sources for teaching about China, Japan, Korea, and Asia in general.
  • Education About Asia (EAA) Magazine: Now in its sixth year, Education About Asia is designed to be a tool for K-16 teachers who wish to bring information on Asia to their classrooms. Featuring articles on all areas of Asia, with subjects ranging from ancient cultures and literature to current events; extensive guides to resources for use in the classroom, including films, books, videos, curriculum guides, websites, software, and other useful educational tools; plus thematic issues on topics of particular interest.
  • Five College Center for East Asian Studies, Smith College: The FCCEAS's Resource Center Library offers items on loan to teachers and has an online catalogue. The Updates & Links section of the website is also an excellent resource.
  • Foreign Press Center of Japan: The FPCJ is an independent, private and non-profit foundation with the basic fund provided by the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association and Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) as an institution to support members of the foreign press in their work in Japan by helping them to overcome such barriers as differences in customs and language and to get "accurate information, gathered quickly and without waste."
  • HistoryChannel.com: The cable network's online presence. See especially the Classroom section, which includes study guides, teaching ideas, online exhibitions, and more.
  • Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Collections of public-domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented without advertising for educational use. See especially, the Internet East Asian History Sourcebook.
  • JGuide: Stanford Guide to Japan Information Resources: This "'Virtual Library" of resource links is organized into categories, much like the search engine Yahoo!. Featuring twelve categories, ranging from "Languge, Literature & History" to "Travel & Daily Living."
  • Korea Academy for Educators: The Korea Academy provides opportunities for educators to learn about Korean history and culture and the Korean American experience in order to promote cross-cultural understanding.
  • The Library of Congress: Featuring an online exhibitions section and a special Learning Page for K-12 educators.
  • National Center for History in the Schools, UCLA: Featuring complete lesson plans, unit objectives matched to the national history standards, and primary-source documents. See especially the National Standards for World History (1996 Edition) and List of World History Teaching Units.
  • NationalGeographic.com: The National Geographic Society's online "portal." See especially the For Teachers section.
  • National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA): Funded by the Freeman Foundation, NCTA is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools nationwide. NCTA is a premier provider of professional development on East Asia.
  • Programs in International Educational Resources (PIER), Yale University: Among the many offerings of PIER's East Asian Studies division are an intensive summer institute, travel and field study opportunities in East Asia, professional development workshops, on-site training programs, curriculum development and evaluation, online lesson plans,resource services, consulting and clearinghouse services, and language enrichment opportunities for high school students.
  • Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies: "Interprets the collective knowledge of the Smithsonian and serves as a gateway to its educational resources." Featuring Lesson Plans, Field Trips, and Resource Bank sections.
  • SocialStudies.org, National Council for the Social Studies: An information service for educators. See especially the Teaching Resources section.
  • U.S. Department of Education: The official site. See especially History & Social Studies Education Resources.