We are a founding member of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), a multi-year initiative funded by the Freeman Foundation that facilitates teaching and learning about Asia in middle and high school world history, geography, social studies, and literature courses. Launched in 1998, this nationwide program is a collaboration of the East Asian studies programs of seven national institutions:
- Columbia University
- Five College Center for East Asian Studies
- Indiana University
- University of Colorado
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Southern California
- University of Washington
Our center currently coordinates seminars for teachers in Indiana as well as national programming which is open to educators from all 50 states.
National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA)
Description of the video:
We have an amazing track records. Yeah, and, and when you hink that, tha, um, before Iraq, our three major wars were, were all in Asia and each time in a differen country. Mm-Hmm. That there's a disconnect somehow. Anyway, so that's the purpose, main purpose of the, of the foundation is to, uh, teach Americans something about, about Asia and you know, about our programs, our major porgrams with Asia, which is really teacher training. 'Cause if you're gonna teach the nationa something about another country or teach 'em anything, you're gonna have teachers.
A technique that ou might find a little bit more interesting is experimenting with the, where you're pulling the, the fabric, the geometic pattern. Um, I just made a bunch of squares.
I just started meeting people and teaching subjects and paying more attention to the fact that I knew nothing about Asia, um, which makes it harder to teach it. And it just, that I think, spiked my interest. It was like, oh, here's this whole new place and I can keep learning. I'm teaching high school, but that doesn't mean that I stop learning. It's one of the first things I talk about when I talk to people about teaching high school with a Ph.D or without a Ph.D. I'm always telling them, you know, there are these great courses you can take. You can keep learning. And it's just been phenomenal.
It's been my most beloved and, and cherished source of professional development. I cannot thank NCTA enough for all that it's done to enhance my teaching craft and especially, um, in providing professional development
I wasn't officially supposed to be a Japanese teacher. I was supposed to be an English eacher. And so having support about Asia was critical to me.
Having that opportunity to, to introduce book and literature from, from other countries is just, you know, it's, it's amazing. If you don't see yourself in in the room, you know you're not represented. And this is one way to represent so many of our kids.
When I felt like I was the only one to go do an NCTA thing. And there were other people that that taught about Asia too. So that was my, my support system.
I've been with this program for 23 year. This has enourmously shaped my curiculum, my teaching, and certainly my understand and my students' understanding of Japan. I quite honestly would not be the teacher I am today without this program. And certainly everything I teach about Japan is a direct result of this program.
All of these pieces are actually displayed. So rememebr, our goal was to find a couple things that really made us go, wow, this makes me go wow It's not just the objects themselves but the way the curator has decided to make us look at these objects.
NCTA has given me so many great things to think about and research and opportunities, um , for, for reading and for travel. And several years ago, Dr. Jordan asked me to start doing a litle teaching, uh, gave me an opportunity to. to. to train, um, to teach other teachers. And so when I say it changed my life, I mean that it changed my life. Um, my perspective, um, and, and just my um, intellectual and, um, academic world and change.
I've always found something new invariably to add to my work or add to or change what I teach in East Asian Studies. And so, in many way, experiences I've had through seminars and in the in-person, um, travel experiences have really oftentimes like pushed me in directions that I would not have thought about because I've learned something new. There's probably at least now, you know, 2005, about 18 years worth of students that have come through my class and have probably benefited in some way or another from what I've learned in NCTA.
My favorite memory of working with NCTA is that, that you're not just hearing information, but you're actually doing something with that information and participating in a hands-on way. And so it's just allowed me to have more stories to enrich my classroom, um, and made me a much more confident person when going out into the world and dealing with people who have an East Asian background.
Finding out about NCTA, it was kind of like a dream come true. I had no idea that such an organization existed that really focused on Asian studies. I'm able to help students formulate good research questions and focus on maybe not so well known topics, but very, very interesting topics.
One of the things I absolutely love about NCTA is that I do have a graduate degree in history and so when I take professional development courses, I want them to be of that kind of caliber. All of the instructors are extremely knowledgable in their content. Um, and I also think that the rigor that they provide is a really good balance. So all of the information has been super helpful in my teaching. It makes me want to learn more from my students. It makes me wanna make more connections from my students.
They followed what I loved learning about, which was East Asia, and I was just passionate about it and passionate about it and I thought wow, I'm kind of being rewarded for following, following what I love, love to do, and love to learn about. Now it's created this community of people that kind of are excited about the same things that, that I'm excited about. And it's really nice to be with those people.
The ideas and ways to teach about Asia, um, have just been amazing. And it's neat because teachers hear from other teachers and then they share. I would just like to add to thank the Freeman family for their investment, not only in, um, NCTA, but in the teachers who then teach the students. Uh, it is invaluable what you have done to share your love for East Asia with the United States, our teachers, and our future, our future generations. So thank you.