Skip to Navigation
University of Pittsburgh
Print This Page Print this pages

January 20, 2000

Asian Studies/AIU seminar targets pre-college teachers

Three weeks into what has been trumpeted as the Asian Century, U.S. high schools and middle schools still tend to teach history, geography, economics and world culture from a Western point of view, many educators agree.

To help swing pre-college curricula in a more easterly direction, Pitt's Asian studies program is joining with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU) to offer an eight-week seminar, "East Asia: Yesterday and Today," for local teachers.

The Pitt-AIU seminar is one of 50 across the country being funded this year by The Freeman Foundation. The family-based charity specializes in supporting educational programs to increase understanding of China and other Asian nations.

From Feb. 26 through May 13, some 20 teachers will meet in Pitt's Posvar Hall and an AIU Downtown classroom to study Asian history, philosophy, literature and politics.

After the seminar, teachers will be expected to submit plans for implementing Asian components in courses at their schools. Teachers will each receive $1,000 for their own books as well as teaching materials for their schools. For extra fees, participants can earn three graduate credits from Pitt's education school plus AIU in-service credits.

Diane M. Wood, associate director of the Asian studies program, said school curricula in Pennsylvania tend to focus disproportionately on the United States and Europe.

"There are pockets in our school systems where teachers are working very hard to deal with non-Western parts of the world," she allowed. "But in the typical world cultures course that's taught in Pennsylvania at around the 10th grade level, maybe three-quarters of the time will be devoted to the West and only one-quarter to Eastern countries.

"I think that's partly because teachers don't feel comfortable teaching about Asia. They don't feel knowledgeable about that part of the world."

It is projected that, by the year 2025, China's middle class will outnumber the entire U.S. population; that, by 2050, Asia will account for more than half of the world's population, 40 percent of the global economy and more than half of the world's information technology industry.

"These are realities that we have to come to terms with in the classroom, and not bury our heads in the sand," Wood said.

— Bruce Steele


Leave a Reply