Teaching East Asia: Japan

Teaching East Asia: Japan has been providing services to K-12 educators and schools since 1985 through grant-funded projects that sponsor summer institutes, study tours, one-day workshops, and classroom visits. Current grants funding Teaching East Asia: Japan activities are "Augmenting Japan Studies for K-12 Teachers" funded by The Japan Foundation, New York and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, funded by the Freeman Foundation.

With grant support from the Japan Foundation, New York, across the 2023-2024 academic year, the Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) will showcase Japan-related professional development and outreach programming for K-12 teachers in Colorado and across the United States in order to: 1) enhance TEA programming centered on Japan in world history and teaching Japan through children’s literature; 2) develop new directions of Japan-related programming in terms of the disciplines of poetry, natural sciences, and women’s studies; and 3) foster local to international connections among K-12 and higher education for exchange between K-12 teachers and Japan studies specialists and undergraduates and K-8 classroom students.

Built with support from the Japanese Consulate, the US-Japan Foundation, the Freeman Foundation, and contributions from teachers and publishers, TEA’s Japan Resource Center offers teachers in the western United States an extensive collection of curriculum resources on Japan. Most materials are lent free of charge to teachers within commuting distance of the TEA offices; artifact trunks rent for a nominal fee. Please see our Japan Resource Center page for full details.

TEA offers a collection of 30 late-Edo period (1800-1850s) woodblock prints for instructional use to educators at all levels. See sample prints and learn how to borrow the collection for use in your own classroom.