As Texas leaders work to update the state’s social studies curriculum standards, known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, one of the proposed changes is the approval of a high school elective in Asian American Studies.

Academics, activists, and nonprofit leaders are looking to build on national momentum for such a course. States including Illinois and New Jersey have passed laws requiring Asian American history to be taught in K-12 schools, said Mohit Mehta, associate director of the Center for Asian American Studies and a doctoral student in curriculum and teaching at the University of Texas at Austin.

(Texas already offers Mexican American and African American Studies as electives, and a Native American course is also being considered for approval this year.)

Mehta is among those writing the framework for the proposed course. And while other states are more advanced in supporting Asian American Studies, their course frameworks have not yet been made public, so Mehta and others are mostly developing the framework from scratch, he said. he declares.

Mehta spoke with Education Week about what Asian American Studies would cover, why the course is needed at a time of anti-Asian violence is on the rise, and the unique challenges involved in its creation and implementation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How is Asian American history taught in Texas schools today?

This is fairly standard in any state curriculum: if there is any mention of Asian American history, it occurs in two areas. One mentions the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the second is the mention of the incarceration of Japanese Americans. And most social studies standards still call it Japanese American internment, which is a false term because internment occurs in the context of war against an enemy population. But of the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated, two-thirds of them were US citizens. They were therefore imprisoned against their will by an executive order passed by [President Franklin D. Roosevelt].

What would an Asian American Studies course in Texas cover?

What we have tried to do is structure the course as if it were an introductory college-level Asian American studies course, which is usually structured chronologically in the following periods. The first is the earliest period of arrival of Asians, before the Chinese Exclusion Act was put in place in 1882. The second period we are thinking of is from 1882 until the Second World War, which is the period exclusion. The United States passes a series of laws that restrict immigration for one group after another. Then we move on to the Cold War and the changing configurations of how Asian Americans are viewed. They are suddenly seen from outsiders to loyal, patriotic citizens.

Because of the Immigration Act of 1965, there is a demographic restructuring in the United States. The doors are open to selected emigration of professionals from certain countries. And so the population has grown from less than a million in 1960 to 22 million today. We focus on these periods and the contributions of Asian Americans to the civil rights movement, the arrival of American refugees from Southeast Asia following the American intervention in Southeast Asia, and then we come to the present moment which covers history after 9/11. And up to the present day, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have tried to ensure that reference is made, of course, to the major groups of Asian Americans. And the six major groups are Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, and Japanese Americans. And then also making sure that we included other stories that are marginalized, like Hmong Americans, Cambodian Americans, Lao Americans. If one has the opportunity to revise, there are still missing histories from there.

And part of the challenge is to develop a product that will be adopted by the State Board of Education. And they’re not going to say, “That’s too wordy.” There is too much language. There are too many goals here. It’s a thing. And then Texas also passed these restrictive laws, the so-called anti-CRT laws. Talking to a lot of people who work on committees, there is almost self-censorship. You have to talk about race when you talk about ethnic stories, and there’s uncertainty about what you can say and what you can’t say in Texas classrooms.

How is Asian American history part of Texas history?

One thing that we try to fit into the 8th grade social studies TEKS is a contribution from what is called Pershing’s Chinese. This is a group of Chinese Mexicans, approximately 530 men, who, due to United States exclusion laws, immigrated from China to Mexico. And in Mexico, they were hired by General John Pershing during the Mexican Revolution, to sort of help the US military search for Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata in northern Mexico. So this group of Chinese Mexican cooks, then laborers, set up camp for the US military and followed them on their mission at a time when Chinese were not allowed to enter the United States. As a result of their service, General John Pershing advocates for their entry and residence in the United States.

And so, what are historically called the Pershing Chinese, come to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, and they get permanent residency. Many descendants of Pershing’s Chinese become illustrious people, including opening restaurants here in Austin along Congress Avenue. Some historic restaurants started in the 1920s and 1930s and served the Texas Legislature for many, many years. It’s an example.

Second, during World War II, Japanese Peruvians were deported from Peru and brought to the United States where they were incarcerated in Crystal City, Texas. And when the war is over, they’re kind of stateless because Peru won’t take them back and the United States took away their citizenship. So these Japanese Peruvians are represented by an ACLU attorney who is fighting to give them residency in the United States. And many Japanese who are in Crystal City later move to cities in Texas. The Austin Botanical Gardens are created by one of the descendants of these Japanese Peruvians.

Finally, our second largest Asian American community in Texas is made up of Vietnamese Americans and Vietnamese Americans have a history of colonization after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Many of them travel to Gulf Coast cities like Seadrift, like Beaumont, so that they can practice fishing, because many of them come from economic and working-class fishing backgrounds. They settle and contribute to the cities and economies of these places. In the early 1980s we had a horrific incident of a Ku Klux Klan member who targeted a Vietnamese-American and set fishing boats on fire. And so these are just three of many examples of the interface between Texas history and Asian American history.

Why work to get Asian American Studies approved for Texas?

Asian Americans are the fastest growing demographic in many states across the country, including Texas. This is the easiest entry point for many people. But if you dig a little deeper, part of that is the story of US imperialism and the colonization of the Pacific islands of Hawaii, the Philippines, military intervention in Korea and Southeast Asia . This idea of ​​US Manifest Destiny, which in the 20th century extends to the Pacific sphere, is a major reason why so many Asian bands come to the United States.

But it’s not always salable to sell Asian American studies in this way. Usually we focus on the first argument, not the second.

The third reason is that there is a complete “invisibilization”. Asian Americans, due to the absence of our stories there is still a huge misconception of why we are here in this country, how we have become and how our stories are also a reflection of larger processes like America’s Cold War competition with the Soviet Union and the recruitment of engineers, scientists, doctors, etc. highly professional, in order to compete with foreign powers, communist powers or otherwise.

There are just bigger ideological processes at play. Once you see this critical history, which goes beyond festivals and let’s celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year, you get students to critically understand their place and their family history in this country today.

What are the consequences of not approving the course?

I was a class teacher for seven years, I am a graduate student in education. And I’m still an idealist in many ways and I still have to believe that our public schools are the democratic foundation of our country, and what’s taught in our schools has a big impact on students and their families. When you have absences from certain stories, you’re basically sending a message to students about who’s important, who’s not.

And so, if you have a lack of understanding of certain groups of people, then they are easily disposable, or easily targets of violence, or easily consumable in multiple ways.