Miscellaneous Topics on Indian History

[acharya]

http://www.aasianst.org/EAA/interview.htm


Integrating Asia into World History

World history is increasingly being included in numerous state and district curriculum standards. The EAA guest editors invited three teachers to discuss their experiences and insights on how best to integrate Asia in a world history course. Alison Kaminsky, who holds a master’s degree in Asian Studies, teaches at a middle school in Long Beach, California and is also a mentor teacher in her district. Her school follows the California frameworks where world history is taught in the sixth, seventh and tenth grades. Colleen Kelly is a veteran Connecticut high school teacher who holds a Ph.D. in International Education and an M.A. in Teaching Asian Studies. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to India, and has traveled extensively in Asia. She has also written numerous curriculum materials and is an active member of the Association of Asian Studies Committee on Teaching About Asia. Colleen’s school has not implemented a world history course. Gwen Johnson is a veteran teacher in New York State who has earned graduate degrees in Teaching Asian Studies and has studied in Asia. Her school is in the middle of a two-year transition from Western Civilization and area studies to world history. As Gwen remarks: "It’s not easy." Here are their responses to our questions that focus on teaching about Asia in world history.




DON JOHNSON: How do you try to fit Asia into the major world history themes such as cross-cultural borrowing, the spread of universal religions, and world trade?

ALISON: Asia is inseparable from these major world history themes. Cross-cultural borrowing, or diffusion, is a great thematic approach to the topic of world history. Certainly the Silk Road is an ideal "vehicle" as there was trade occurring from the Han to the Mongol eras. Integrating Southeast Asia into the curriculum, as Long Beach has done, flows nicely following units on India and/or China. One can see how migration and trade brought about the intermingling of rich traditions in the strategically placed region of Southeast Asia.

COLLEEN: How could you teach these concepts and not teach Asia? Think of all of the scientific inventions from both India and China, think of the Silk Route, think of the great philosophies and religions of Asia!

GWEN: Asia is vital throughout a world history course and must be seen as an equal partner in world history. Putting Asia in a world history context offers you the opportunity to view this area of the world, not as one where poverty-stricken developing countries exist (the stereotype many students have), but one where nations with incredibly rich histories and philosophies existed long before Western Civilization as we know it developed.

Likewise, the notion that Asian nations are not exotic places of traditionalism that should be held in time and space (capture the native) for all to view, but are vital societies that are important on the world stage. Furthermore, a world history course must view Asia not as one entity, but as many individual societies all interacting with each other and the rest of the world. Focusing on the idea of interaction throughout history may be a way to help eliminate the idea of initiator and responder that becomes such an unequal equation between the West and the rest of the world in the modern era. Asia has been intimately involved from the earliest of times when trade routes brought people into contact with one another and established the process of cross-cultural borrowing as peoples, religions, and goods met without reference to the East or West dominating this exchange.