Explore a curated collection of resources designed specifically for educators teaching about East Asia and Asian America. Below, you’ll find links to primary sources, structured curriculums, comprehensive resource collections, and other classroom materials to enrich your lessons. In addition to general resources on Southeast Asia, we offer Resource Guides by Region for country-specific content. Our Special Topics section includes thematic materials, such as the Lunar New Year and the Silk Road, along with resource guides from past workshops. For even more valuable content, visit the Resources page at NCTA's website. Additionally, don’t miss the excellent content available through NCTA's Partner Sites, tailored to support K-12 educators in bringing East Asia into the classroom.
China Japan Korea Vietnam Southeast Asia Asian America
The materials in this section were shared during previous ARNCTA events and workshops, created in collaboration with our expert speakers and partners. These resources are designed to be easily implemented into your classroom curriculum, offering practical tools and insights on topics such as the Lunar New Year, the Silk Road, and more. As we continue to host events, this collection will be updated to provide you with even more valuable content, all tailored to support your teaching about East Asia and Asian America.
Lunar New Year The Uyghur Crisis | March 2021 Chinese Religiophilosophies | February 2022 Silk Road | June 2022
Asia Across the Curriculum | October 2022 Contextualizing Chinese Protest Teaching Women's History in Asia | March 2023
Teaching Modern Vietnam | June 2023 Teaching Modern China | June 2024 Teaching Korea in a Global World | July 2024
Asia for Educators
An initiative of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.
Education About Asia | Association for Asian Studies
From EAA: "An invaluable and unique resource for teachers, students and anyone with an interest in Asia. Articles and reviews cover a wide range of topics and time periods—from ancient to modern history, language, literature, geography, religion, youth and popular culture."
Lesson Plans | Asia Society
Learn about Asia and the world through these free lesson plans. Each lesson includes rich material resources, and are typically short formative activities that take no longer than one to three class periods.
MIT Visualizing Cultures 
Visualizing Cultures was launched at MIT in 2002 to explore the potential of the web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world.
The Center for East Asian Studies | University of Chicago
The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago has a great list of digital resources for educators and learners. Included in this list are links to engaging lesson plans and classroom materials, as well as professional development organizations. Educators can reference this resource compilation for subjects ranging from contemporary issues to ancient history.
Compiled by students from Dr. Zach Smith's HIST 2310: Introduction to Asian History at the University of Central Arkansas, these resource guides explore colonial encounters across Asia. Each guide includes contextual overviews, timelines, historical biographies, key texts, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading. These thoroughly researched guides are designed to support educators in bringing the complexities of colonial history into the classroom.
The Tibetan Uprising
In October 1950, the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet, which had for decades been independent. After 8 years of Chinese occupation, Tibet staged an uprising in March 1959. The invasion and the responding uprising began a bloody and politically complicated conflict that has resulted in the exile of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government, as well as remaining tensions between Tibet and the PRC.