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Donna JamshidnejadWhile East Asia is already a topic embedded into my 10th grade World History and AP World History curriculum, women are often left out of the discussion. This seminar has inspired me not only to include more discussions, sources, and perspectives on women in my classroom, but also to create a new unit. I plan to end the year with a unit on women in world history. This unit will focus on women’s roles and legacies in different regions. We will begin with a discussion of gender, and students understand the creation of hierarchies after early humans settled into civilizations. From there, we will dive into examples from Latin America, East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. I’ve left out the US because this topic will be covered in 11th grade. For my curriculum project, I created the learning segment on East Asia. I’ve checked out two books on women in East Asia, and am trying to learn more about women in region in order to better teach East Asian history.
The women in East Asia that I included in my lesson plan are: Ban Zhao, Sin Saimdang (1504-1555), Queen Sondok of Silla r. 632-647 was a queen, Qiu Jin, and He Zhen. I also plan to use He Zhen’s work in my Cold War unit because we spend around 10 days on China in the Cold War and I’ve realized that I do not use many sources from women at this time. I also will incorporate some of the propaganda focused on women, and have a lesson on feminism in Mao era China.
As we discussed in class, women should not be a topic we force into our lessons because they have always existed in history. It is difficult to include women’s history in any other way because it is left out of our curriculum. However, the more I study and know women’s history, the better it will find a way into my classroom.
Donna JamshidnejadHi Joy, thank you for sharing your student's experiences. I can only imagine how many young women go through plastic surgery due to pressure from parents. I am glad to hear that your student is able to stand her ground, but I keep wondering what this would do to a teenage girls self-esteem! In Iran, plastic surgery is also very popular, and parents will often encourage or support their children in getting plastic surgery. Though it is not as common as in South Korea, and not allowed in children under 18, many parents pay for a nose job as soon as their child graduates high school. My parents sent my sister to visit family and get plastic surgery in the summer after high school as well.
Donna JamshidnejadI agree that this article can be used with high school students to discuss fitting in and what it means to look "normal." I did not see how I could use this article with my students until I read your post. Now I realize I can use it in my restorative justice elective to discuss peer pressure and beauty standards. I also think we can use social media such as IG in addition to this article to discuss our extreme standards online through the use of editing photos and using makeup and poses to "fit in" online.
Donna JamshidnejadThank you for sharing the link on Japanese internment. I use similar sources for a lesson on the Holocaust, and have found that students are much more empathetic and connected to the lesson when we introduce oral histories through survivors. I think I can use these audio clips along with videos from storycorps.org on internment in additon to videos on Islamophobia and immigration or ICE raids today.
Here's one video on internment: https://storycorps.org/stories/roy-and-aiko-ebihara-170217/
Donna JamshidnejadHi Anthony, I am glad you brought up the groups of students (at least I think they were students) at the musem. It also caught my attention as we were leaving that a large group of Japanese tourists or students were in the museum. In Japan, they teach WWII with a very biased perspective and leave out much of Japan's role in the war. Seeing the tour group made me wonder if they also censor the US actions in WWII as we battled Japan in the Pacific front, and imprisoned our Japanese Americans at home.
Donna JamshidnejadI like your idea of comparing households and I think this is something I can expand and use in my history class. We have a tendency to "other" whatever region or perspective we study in history. However, when we analyze our own society through an anthropological lens, we begin to see that we can make ourselves look just as foreign and alien. When studying women's roles, students are often judgmental when they read about patriarchal societies. It may be interesting to study women's roles in multiple regions including the US and censor the names of the places and maybe even the time period, then have students analyze text etc. before revealing where the documents originate.
Donna JamshidnejadIn a high school Ap World History history class, I think we can read parts of "Being the Right Woman for Mr. Right." I can either take out segments of the article, or assign the text for homework in an AP course. Then, we can use the text to analyze continuities and changes over time in China. Students study hundreds of years of Chinese history, and should be able to relate the modern Chinese women's roles to that of the past. I would probably want to start such a lesson with a review of what students learned/remember about Confucianism and women's roles in China.
Donna JamshidnejadI have visited the Japanese concentration camps in Manzanar through the UTLA free PD on Japanese internment. I wish I had visited this museum before taking that class. I appreciated the story told through from the perspective of our tour guide's personal experiences along with the visual displays in the museum. I don't teach US history and this topic is not part of my curriculum, but I try to at least briefly mention the existence of these camps when teaching the Holocaust so that students understand that we also targetted citizens based on race. We often demonize Germany, but it's important to see that stereotyping, racism, and hate can lead to discrimination anywhere around the world at any point in history.
Donna JamshidnejadThe Korean Cultural Center seemed to be pushing a message for us to travel to Korea. The focus was on the beautiful sites and culture of Korea. I have to say that it worked! I hadn't ever considered traveling to South Korea, but now I am putting it on my bucket lists of places to see.
Donna JamshidnejadI was also glad to see the primary sources attached. I often struggle to create concrete lesson plans from lectures because I can't find sources to bring to the students. Much of what I learn becomes background information and helps me better understand history, but I need primary documents for high school students to analyze and use in class. The attached writings can be used in a number of lessons. I'm sure I can take small pieces from different documents to create a DBQ essay. This is a great resource.
Donna JamshidnejadI agree that by current standards Liu Xiang's standards for women are unfair. However, I also find it unfair to apply the standards written thousands of years ago to today. I'm unsure if anyone tries to embody the Confucian ideology to this degree today. As a history teacher, I always find it necessary to contextualize for students by comparing different regions within the same time period. Women in many cultures (Europe, most of Asia, some parts of Africa) were defined by their relationship to men.
Donna JamshidnejadI agree that the film clips have great potential in a history class. I think I can use clips from some of the films we discussed in class as "documents" for students to study and incorporate in their document based essays. We often analyze images, and I use video clips to get students' attention or introduce a topic. However, short clips such as the image of the Coca Cola sign, or generational differences between characters displayed in Late Spring can also be used as documents depicting a moment in history.
Donna JamshidnejadWhile I do not think I can use the short story, Pets, in my World History curriculum, I can use it in my Restorative Justice (RJ) class. The students in my RJ class must learn to be teachers themselves as they lesson plan and run RJ circles and run conflict mediations for students. The cycle of Wen Li's Chinese language teachers abusing her in class leads to her both giving up on the subject and stereotyping Chinese language teachers. This cycle is common with many students who give up in high school after years of failing classes, or ridicule and mistreatment by teachers. I think some students will immediately connect with Wen Li’s story, and others may empathize more with students who they perceive as “lazy” or “dumb.” Pets can spark a great discussion about achievement and how to connect with students.
Donna JamshidnejadIn Folding Beijing the first, second, and third space reflect our social class systems, lack of social mobility, and interdependence on labor. After our discussion today, I realized that I can use science fiction movies, TV shows, and books to reflect social classes, oppression, resistance, and economic systems in class. Science fiction often includes these themes of class struggle and resistance, but I have never brought this into the classroom. Movie clips and short stories in this genre would be appropriate during the World History periods of Industrialization, Imperialism, and the Cold War.
Donna JamshidnejadWhile reading The Wandering Earth, I was reminded of the mobilization of China during Mao’s Long March, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. While factions exist in the story, I was surprised by the portrayal of the teacher as having a strong political opinion. She not only expresses her personal beliefs, but argues with her young student and states, “You must believe in the Coalition.” I find this idea of massive mobilization behind a project to move the Earth unrealistic. This is most likely due to my experiences in the U.S., where we have many factions and debates over natural disasters, and are very slow to take action. This aspect of the story is very Chinese in my opinion, due to its history of massive mobilization behind government sponsored movements.
