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Research Article

Illuminating Asia in the Early Modern Period: A Case Study from the U.S.

Kyung Hee Shin

서강대학교 동아연구소

Published: January 2010 · Vol. 58, No. 0 · pp. 91-120

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33334/sieas.2010..58.91

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Abstract

The history curriculum of U.S. education has set the Western subject as the dominant frame, especially for the early modern period, which covers the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century. Knowledge of the non-West constitutes the margins of the history curriculum, which revolves around the entity of Europe. My research aims at illuminating Asian history, which is placed at the periphery. To this aim, my research examines the history curriculum in U.S. education, which has traditionally been associated with a Eurocentric character. I surveyed what world history teachers at American high schools teach for Asian history in the early modern period. I surveyed their history curriculum with a questionnaire and follow-up interview. Seven teachers from seven local high schools in Spring County participated in the survey. For the theoretical framework, I review the scholarly works of postcolonialists, including Stuart Hall, Ella Shohat, and Dipesh Chakrabarty, who seek to deconstruct Eurocentrism embedded in history discourses.
Keywords: 아시아 역사미국 교육유럽 중심 세계관탈식민주의