Teaching
East Asia
A Seminar for Teachers
The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), funded by the Freeman Foundation in 1998, is a multi-year initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools nationwide. NCTA is a premier provider of professional development on East Asia.
NCTA seminars serve more than 1,000 teachers yearly. Participants interact with East Asia specialists, receive extensive readings and other materials, and discuss effective strategies for bringing East Asia into their classrooms. Each seminar leader or team facilitates a seminar on East Asia that incorporates primary-source selections from the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean traditions.
NCTA targets teachers of world history, world geography, other social studies courses, and language arts/world literature as the primary audience of its programs. Teachers of Asian languages, media specialists, librarians, and art teachers who play a key role in teaching Asian studies content also are eligible for NCTA programs. NCTA seeks to develop a community of inquiry among educators interested in East Asian studies that serves as a forum for collegial discussion of issues relevant to the teaching of East Asia.
NCTA provides advanced study for selected NCTA seminar alumni by organizing study tours in East Asia. In addition, NCTA hosts yearly summer institutes in the U.S. for NCTA alumni and other interested teachers.