Welcome to the professional development series for the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act, sponsored by the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and approved by the Illinois State Board of Education. This series is funded by a grant from the Asian American Foundation.
This professional development series has three modules, each broken into three sections and includes an introduction. Though participants can pick and choose which modules and sections to complete, we highly recommend completing modules in their entireties, when possible. Similarly, we recommend beginning with Module 1.
Module 1 provides an introduction to the Asian American population and the social construction of race in the United States. It also provides an overview of Asian American issues and history/herstory. In this module, you'll be asked to consider your personal and professional identity, your relationship with Asian American students, and your knowledge of (Asian) American history. You will be asked to construct essential questions, analyze existing curricular materials, and reflect on your learning. This module will take approximately 12 hours to complete.
Module 2 discusses the history of Asian immigration to the United States and the ways US legislation, court cases, and policies restricted immigration, citizenship, and equal access to schooling. In this module, you'll be asked to interrogate your awareness of (Asian) American history, how histories/herstories are reproduced, and how Asian Americans are racialized in US society. You will be asked to construct essential questions, develop potential resources, create a lesson plan, and reflect on your learning. This module will take approximately 12 hours to complete.
Module 3 explores complexities of Asian American experiences after WWII, the Civil Rights Movement(s), Asian American identity, anti-Asian violence, and representation in K-12 curricula. You will be asked to begin contextualizing content from all three modules while considering the current sociopolitical trends facing Asian Americans. In this module, you will construct essential questions, evaluate curricular materials, create original curricular materials, and reflect on your learning. This module will take approximately 12 hours to complete.
Passed in April 2021, the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act amended the Illinois School Code, ensuring that every public elementary and high school student in Illinois learns about the contributions of Asian Americans to the economic, cultural, social, and political development of the United States.
Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, every public elementary school and high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of Asian American history, including the history of Asian Americans in Illinois and the Midwest, as well as the contributions of Asian Americans toward advancing civil rights from the 19th century onward.
This professional development series has three modules. Completion of all three modules can earn teachers up to 36 professional development credits in the state of Illinois. However, to accommodate teachers’ busy lives, the modules are customizable, and you may complete any of the modules (1, 2, or 3) to receive individualized professional development hours. Though participants can pick and choose which modules and sections to complete, we highly recommend completing modules in their entireties and beginning with Module 1. Please contact us at teaach@education.illinois.edu for more information.
Our approach is completely asynchronous, and it is customizable! If you want to go through all three modules, you can receive 12 hours of professional development credit in the state of Illinois. However, you can choose modules (and sections within them) to meet your liking for a customizable amount of professional development points.
More about our approach: