Teaching About Asia

The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), funded by the Freeman Foundation, is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about China, Japan, and Korea in world history, geography, social studies, and literature courses. Launched in 1998, this nationwide program is a collaboration of the East Asian Studies Programs of five national institutions: Columbia University, the Five College Center for East Asian Studies, Indiana University, and the University of Colorado. In 2003, Princeton joined the Columbia branch of the initiative and began hosting 4 to 5 Saturday seminars each semester. Each day-long seminar includes a morning session taught by a faculty member from Princeton, Columbia, or University of Pennsylvania on his or her area of expertise, and the afternoon session is led by a faculty member of a New Jersey high school. The program is intented to prepare teachers to teach about Asia, the enrich the content of Asia in classrooms, and to work toward creating a more long-term presence for Asia in American schools. Each high school faculty member who attends all of the sessions for the year receives for their school library a $300 stipend to purchase East Asia-related books, professional development credit, and qualify for a Study Tour of two East Asian countries.