Southeast Asia at the Crossroads of World War II

FAIN: ES-50342-10

Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc. (Honolulu, HI 96848-1601)
Namji Steinemann (Project Director: March 2010 to April 2016)

Funding details:
Original grant (2010) $180,900.00
Supplement (2011) $5,624.00

A three-week institute at the East-West Center for thirty school teachers to study the antecedents and consequences of World War II in Southeast Asia.

Organized by the East-West Center, this three-week institute brings together 30 secondary schoolteachers from across the U.S. to engage in a study of Southeast Asia during WWII. Designed to capture both perspective and strategic aspects of WWII in Southeast Asia, the program examines the events and mindsets that turned the region into a major theater of WWII, transforming it and setting in motion historical processes that continue to be crucial today. By exploring a familiar topic (WWII) from a new vantage point (Southeast Asia), the institute models effective teaching by connecting content to prior knowledge, teaching both content and concepts, and developing critical thinking skills, such as evaluating past knowledge and assumptions and building analysis. In so doing, the institute aims to help learners-teachers and ultimately their students construct a more nuanced understanding of the evolution of contemporary international relationships and how the world became what it is today.