2021–22 Applications Now Open: Stanford/SPICE East Asia Seminars for Teachers in Hawaii

Stanford/SPICE East Asia Seminars for Teachers in Hawaii (“Stanford SEAS Hawaii”) is a teacher professional development opportunity for educators who wish to enhance their teaching of East Asia. Offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) with the generous support of the Freeman Foundation, Stanford SEAS Hawaii will select 25 teachers to participate in a nine-month fellowship from November 2021 to July 2022. This program is managed by Rylan Sekiguchi and coordinated by Sabrina Ishimatsu.

The application deadline for Stanford SEAS Hawaii is October 15, 2021.

The 2021–22 program is open to all public, charter, and private high school teachers on Kauai, Lanai, Maui, Molokai, Niihau, and the island of Hawaii. Selected teachers—Stanford/Freeman SEAS Hawaii Fellows—will build their content knowledge of East Asia by learning from a combination of experts based at Stanford University and other institutions. Fellows will also receive extensive curricula, teaching resources, and training from SPICE to support their teaching of East Asia in the high school classroom.

The 2021–22 program will consist of two parts:

1. A series of four private virtual seminars with scholars during the 2021–22 academic year (November 15, January 13, March 22, and May 3; to be confirmed), each exploring a different aspect of East Asia.
2. A three-day in-person teacher institute in Honolulu in the summer of 2022 (July 12–14; to be confirmed) that will highlight the geography, cultures, politics, and history of East Asia, including a special focus on U.S.–Asia relations and the Asian diaspora in the United States. Teachers will be joined by the 2020–21 Stanford/Freeman SEAS Hawaii Fellows from Oahu. (Note: The institute will be subject to local health and safety guidelines at the time. Participants will be notified in advance if plans must be changed.)

Twenty-four teachers from Oahu participated in the inaugural year (2020–21) of Stanford SEAS Hawaii. In their reflections, many commented on the rich subject matter content that was delivered by the Stanford scholars. Dr. Robert Straton (Punahou School) commented, “To my mind, the Stanford SEAS Hawaii program is spot-on! In a nutshell, you get down-to-earth professors who provide extremely interesting talks, then do their best afterwards to answer all questions in clear, straightforward language… Each session includes a shortlist of further readings, useful primary source documents, and more.” Shawna Poitra (Kapolei High School) noted “The Stanford SEAS Hawaii program was a great opportunity for educators to learn about multiple aspects of history. The presenters were engaging and knowledgeable; the depth in their content area made it a rich experience. The SPICE coordinators did a fantastic job creating meetings that were useful and manageable as working teachers. This experience was well worth my time.”

To apply for this opportunity, visit this webpage.

To be notified of other professional development opportunities, join SPICE’s email list and follow SPICE on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

In addition to Stanford SEAS Hawaii, SPICE offers teacher PD opportunities virtually to teachers nationwide and locally in California to middle school teachers, high school teachers, and community college instructors. For more information on those programs, please visit the webpages below.

• East Asia Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers
• East Asia Summer Institute for High School Teachers
• Community College Programs