In Search of Theory as Practice: Teaching for intercultural understanding, 1930s-1950s
Yoon Pak
About the research
Award
NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship
Award Year
2002
Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Primary Discipline
History
Educational historian William Reese recently revealed how scholars have missed a pattern of opportunities: “In comparison with their writings on a host of educational topics, historians have unfortunately written very little on the relationship between research and practice.” Continuing on, he adds: “there are far more histories of ideas about education or schools than actual school practices.” His disclosure tells of the current state of research in the history of education and thus points to what is needed in closing the gap between theory and practice. My study, which focuses on the intercultural education movement from the 1930s to the 1950s, begins to close that gap. Specifically, I ask: how did educators in different parts of the United States with different needs and social climates interpret the progressive intercultural agenda in the 1930s to the 1950s? My work advances research in the history of education by investigating how education for tolerance transformed and influenced classroom curricula. Moreover it adds significantly to the study of multicultural education by providing a historical context for intercultural understanding before, during, and after World War II – a time period ripe for research and very relevant given current events.
About Yoon Pak
Yoon Pak is an Assistant Professor in Educational Policy Studies and a core faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She teaches graduate courses in the history of American education from a multicultural perspective and undergraduate courses in issues and developments in Asian American education. Professor Pak’s research interests include the history of intercultural education and democratic citizenship education between the world wars. Her most recent publication is entitled, “Wherever I go l will always be a loyal American:” Schooling Seattle’s Japanese Americans during World War II (New York: RoutledgeFalmer Press, 2002).