[Donna Jamshidnejad]

Professor Miyake mentioned feminist movements in Japan from both the 1870s and 1980s. Although she did not cover these periods in her lecture, she did speak to me about these movements before her presentation. In World History, I end the year with a 2 week unit on a topic of interest or current events. My discussion with Professor Miyake inspired me to change this last unit to a historical overview of feminist movements with case studies around the world. I’d like to read into the 1870s and 1980s in Japan and include this in the unit. In addition to Japan, I can include China during Mao’s rise to power through today, and women’s strikes in South Korea. I am brainstorming how to organize this unit. I may want to start with an overview of vocabulary and introduction to feminism, and then organize stations for students to dive into different countries. I can also teach students about one feminist movement, then create a “data dump” of primary and secondary sources for a handful of regions/movements, and allow students to select a region of choice to focus on.

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

In 10th grade World History, my students write a Document Based Essay on women’s roles in the Industrial Revolution. I frame the assignment as an academic controversy, and provide primary sources for students to analyze and use in their essays. Today I learned about women’s roles in factories in South Korea and there were many parallels with factory life in Industrial Europe and the United States. I’d like to find primary sources on factory life in 1970s Korea and add them to this essay.

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

James White’s article on the new marriage laws in China is a great source to use in class in combination with other documents on the new laws. I would like to also use an article written by a Chinese author for a Chinese audience, and a segment of the Chinese laws translated into English. Students can analyze the documents and study the bias in the news articles and understand the different perspectives from each document.

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

The tradition of familism in China and the rise of the individual is connected to an AP history theme of continuity and change over time. Using primary sources from Confucian scholars over time, combined with documents from the Cultural Revolution and today, students can analyze the continuities and changes over time in Chinese social/familial hierarchies. Leaving the AP guidelines aside, I think a more controversial question regarding women’s power can be posed. Did communism destroy the patriarchy in China? Or... How did women’s roles shift after the Cultural Revolution?

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

Hi everyone, my name is Donna and I teach high school World History and Restorative Justice at Maywood Academy High School. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I recently listened to an interview with the author of the book, Crazy Rich Asians. I thought I should share what he said about the female Chinese-American protagonist. The author said that he was previously contacted by a film producer who wanted to create the film, but only if he was willing to make the protagonist a white American character in the movie. I was not surprised to hear this, but happy to know that the author did not even respond to the producer because he would never consider changing the race of the main characters. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I also enjoyed the information about "everyday" life. It was such a unique lesson and felt like a story. After reflecting on this portion of the day, I wonder how we can teach in a similar style. Maybe design a history lesson through the lense of everyday life in whatever region we are studying. This might be an interesting way to introduce art, culture, and study a particular society. Creating a gallery walk focused on everyday life might be a way to make it a more interactive lesson. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I was unsure what to expect from this seminar. Were we studying history? Was in an art history type course? Would we analyze media? It turned out to be such a unique mix of lectures, field trips, and media analysis. I have had very little exposure to East Asian visual culture, and this one week seminar taught me more than I could have anticipated. I credit the USC East Asia Institute for teaching me most of my East Asian history through previous seminars. Now, I also feel comfortable bringing art and film into my curriculum. 

While I plan to analyze art and film clips with my classes, I also feel that the seminar has helped me understand my students better. I work with many Korean students and families, and understanding their culture and interests is important to me. Many of my students love K-pop, and as I mentioned in class, one of my students even moved to Korea to purse a career in K-pop. Previously, I really had no idea what my students were talking about. This year, I have already had a few conversations with students about Korean script, K-pop, and even films. For the film review, I asked a few students if they had a favorite Korean film. This sparked a whole conversation about cinema, TV, and history. 

 

I plan to use many of the documents and some of the film clips from class. For example, when studying philosophy I hope to find clips from films reflecting Chinese philosophies played out in daily practice. I also would like to create a homework lesson and possibly ask students to watch a film and connect it to a topic for the AP exam.

 

Overall, I personally learned a lot in this seminar, and I hope that I can use what I learned to add to and build my curriculum.

 

 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I had no idea that we had a Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Around 20% of my students are Korean, I'm sure they would love to take a field trip there. The most interesting part of the tour for me was learning about the Korean alphabet. The mechanics of the alphabet are fascinating. However, I also appreciated the lesson because I am guilty of being unfamiliar with all East Asian script. After our quick lesson, I can now easily see the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean script. I also want to stop by the Korean language class in my school now that I now how easily one can memorize/learn this alphabet. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

You bring up an interesting point about currency. Images of the currency can be a great primary source to use and could spark an interesting discussion. We can even discuss US currency and current debates for changing the images on our bills. Regarding materials to present that are authentic, I recommend checking jackdaw online for their primary source kits. They are a bit expensive, but I order a few every year with any leftover department funds. The kits have primary documents that are made to look realistic. For example, the newspaper articles look like newspaper sheets and fold up. The students really enjoy working with the materials. You can check and see if they have any Chinese history kits. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

Natali, 

I was also connecting Chinese cinema to other regions such as Latin America and the Middle East. Similar to films and TV in Latin America, Middle Eastern cinema is influenced by western beauty standards. You find the actors with the lightest skin and most European features are cast in films more often. You bring up a good point, maybe we are projecting issues that don't apply to East Asia. However, I would not be surprised if western beauty standards also impact East Asians. While I know skin color was related to status and income, I wonder why eyelid and other surgeries are popular. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

I was also really shocked after studying the map of Chinatown. I wonder what that alley is currently like and what it is called now. The map would be a great document to study in class. While I don't teach US history, I am going to try and find a copy of the map and share it (or maybe use the photo I took of it) with my colleague. I think it can spark an interesting discussion about immigration, xenophobia, and race in Los Angeles. The US history teacher also teaches Geography so I think he can use this map in multiple ways. Maybe even study change over time by using DTLA as a case study. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

As I mentioned in class, I feel that the discussion of imperialism was left out when discussing American soft power. While Professor Dube mentioned East Asia does not view whiteness as superior, it is still viewed as superior in much of the world. Our culture is not powerful simply because of Hollywood and current popular culture. European and U.S. ideologies such as Social Darwinism in the past helped build our "soft power" earlier than was discussed in class. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

Thanks for the Austria sources! Maybe this lesson can be expanded to include even more perspectives. If I can find excerpts from historians or maybe textbooks from more countries, I can create a larger assignment and students jigsaw each region in groups. For example, the Nanking Massacre from the Japanese, Chinese, U.S., and German textbooks. Similarly, nazi activities depicted in U.S., German, Austrian, Japanese, Polish etc. textbooks. The reason I would prefer textbooks is that I notice students are much more fascinated when looking at what other students are reading, and it also reflects what a government is setting as the standards for history in a country. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

This is a great idea! I once had AP Government students create New Yorker covers and they turned out really creative. When looking at the Economist covers in class, I noticed a trend of continuties and changes over time depending on the historical context of the period. "Continuities and changes" is one of the main themes of AP World History, so I wonder how I can use these magazine covers or an equivalent media source in class. Students are expected to analyze sources and find/analyze the themes of the course. Maybe I can provide magazines, images, etc. and ask students to connect them to one of the themes with an analysis using the documents. 

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