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When Johanna Lohr, a ������ý���� Valley high school teacher, first visited the (TEA) offices on the CU ������ý���� campus in 2001, she was looking for some guidance for teaching the Asia unit of her world history course. Twenty-five years later, Lohr is one of more than 10,000 TEA program alumni who have studied in China, Japan or Taiwan on summer study tours, completed multiple TEA summer institutes or online courses, and developed her own elective courses on East Asia for her school.

Today, a visitor to TEA offices on the second floor of the Center for Asian Studies in the Denison Building is greeted by a visual archive of photos of TEA alumni in East Asia and here on the ������ý���� campus—showcasing the community and collaboration of educators and academics that are the hallmark of this program, which marks its 25th year on campus.

TEA conducts national, regional and state programs for teachers and students to fulfill its mission of bridging the gap between cutting-edge scholarship in East Asian studies and best practices in education to enhance K-12 curriculum and instruction about East Asia. TEA offers programs that help teachers in all K-12 disciplines integrate Asian content, from literature and the arts to history and STEM.

One factor in its continuing success with educators over 25 years is that TEA has reinvented its programming to meet the changing educational environment and educator needs. As examples, in 2007, TEA developed and implemented its first online course offerings. In 2008, it added Korea as an area of focus.��

‘You've gotta have teachers’

In 1997, Freeman Foundation President Houghton Freeman brought together leading national Asian education programs from around the country, many at university National Resource Centers, but also those at private nonprofits. He challenged them to conceptualize a national effort to improve teaching and learning about East Asia at the K-12 level. In his words, “If you’re going to teach the nation something about another country, or teach them anything, you’ve gotta have teachers.”

Parisi and four colleagues pitched an idea for a national campaign that would reach 100 teachers in 17 states in its initial year through seminars about East Asian history and culture and then expand annually to reach all 50 states within 10 years. It took vision to see teachers as the main actors in a project that is now in its 28th year of funding.

The was thus established. It is now based in seven universities—including TEA at CU ������ý����—and six partner sites, which the Freeman Foundation has funded since its inception. NCTA’s “feet on the ground” approach demanded coordinated, behind-the-scenes work.

TEA staff trained classroom teachers and academic specialists as seminar coordinators, who managed evening and weekend programs primarily in 13 states, including Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. When TEA created hybrid and fully online courses that teachers could access from anywhere in the country, its reach increased. In its first year, TEA recruited 93 teachers from 21 school districts. Last year, in 2025, TEA reached 967 teachers from across the nation.

While the Freeman Foundation-funded NCTA is TEA’s biggest program, grants from other sources have enabled TEA to offer diverse programs and new initiatives, including a robust curriculum development program and several Fulbright Hays group projects abroad for K-12 teachers.

Most recently, with funding from the CU Office of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, TEA’s current director Lynn Kalinauskas and TEA staff have developed programming focused on Teaching East Asia through Picture Books. This includes an in-person workshop for teachers, online courses and a community service program bringing CU undergraduate interns into elementary classrooms on the Front Range. In March 2026, TEA staff will bring their in-person workshop, Teaching Biography through East Asian Picture Books, to teachers in Tucson, through a collaboration with the University of Arizona.��

Faculty research goes beyond the campus

During its time at CU, TEA has worked closely with its faculty members, drawing on their expertise to deliver cutting-edge scholarship to program participants. They have given countless presentations in person and online, accompanied TEA staff on study tours to China, Japan and Taiwan, and have been crucial components of on-campus summer institutes and local workshops.

In 2002, Tim Oakes, professor of geography, brought TEA teachers to Guizhou, China, to share his fieldwork. Reflecting on his experience, he noted, “It always felt like a really unique opportunity to see if I could translate or distill the kind of work that I do in a way that could be useful for teachers and ultimately young learners.”�� He adds, “A large part of what TEA workshops can inculcate in young learners is a curiosity about the world that they can then carry forward to the university. To me, that’s a central thing that universities need to be doing for their communities.”

As faculty worked with TEA, they were also thinking of the long-term impact of their efforts. Helping K-12 teachers with the latest scholarship or specific research, Oakes says, is one of the most important things scholars can do at a university. One scholar, Tim Weston, was influenced by such a teacher when he was a high school student in Iowa City. This teacher later became a consultant for TEA, coordinating seminars in Iowa. Weston is now a professor of history here at CU ������ý����.

Faculty interviewed for this article also noted the importance TEA has had on their careers. Lauren Collins, now Asian studies program director and teaching assistant professor at CU, worked for TEA early in her career. She explains: “I first began working with TEA in 2008 after completing my MA in China studies from the University of Washington in Seattle.” At Collins’ very first TEA summer institute,�� one of the keynote speakers was the legendary historian John Dower. She says, “Learning from Dower, along with several other experts on Japanese history and digital humanities, and being exposed to this incredible resource, completely reshaped how I thought about teaching and studying Asia.”

Sungyun Lim, associate professor of history, says, “I consider myself very fortunate to have met TEA as I began my career…because I learned to think about the pedagogical impact of my research and teaching from early on. From engaging with the teachers in the program, I came to better understand where my students were coming from—what they learn about Korea and East Asia, as well as where Korea and East Asian contents fit into the secondary education curriculum in the U.S.”

She continues to note a synergy created between faculty: “Being part of the TEA program also gave me the valuable opportunity to meet other scholars in the field and learn from them about how they approach teaching in general and teaching about Korea in particular. As they were coming from different disciplines and different kinds of institutions with varying length of teaching experiences, it gave me exposure to a diverse array of teaching approaches, perspectives and content focus, which all enriched my own teaching. I think the program really puts CU on the map for scholars who are interested in pedagogy and gives our faculty an invaluable opportunity to engage with many scholars in the field in a meaningful and unique way.”

Tom Zeiler, professor of history, echoes these sentiments on his work as lead faculty on a summer institute: “I remember teaming up with Marcia Yonemoto, with Lynn Parisi supervising, on lectures on the Pacific War.��The high school teachers were just wonderful, and every time we did it, there was somebody with a “hook”—a teacher, for example, who was writing a book based on the memoirs of her great uncle who fought in that conflict on some island now long memorialized but being forgotten.��Honestly, I learned more from the students, and from my colleagues like Marcia and Lynn, than I likely taught others!”

Marcia Yonemoto, professor of history, says, “I came to CU in 1995 as an assistant professor of Japanese history and began participating in TEA programs almost immediately. I have continued��to work with TEA almost every year since. Over the course of these decades, I have learned so much from the TEA staff and from the participating teachers from all over the country. Being a faculty consultant and instructor for TEA means I am always trying to figure out what��is essential for high school students to know about Japan and East Asia, and how to convey that content clearly and concisely to teachers who will turn the information into lesson plans and activities. I have consistently been impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm of the teachers who participate in TEA programs, and I have learned so much from their responses to the readings and lectures I and other instructors provide.”��

A lasting impact on teachers

Through hand-written letters, cards and emails, teachers have expressed their gratitude for TEA’s professional development opportunities.��

Catherine Ishida, TEA assistant director for Japan and Korea projects, who has been with the program since 2005, emphasizes that, “The lasting impact of TEA’s work in K-16 exchange is the enhancement and enrichment of the study of Chinese, Japanese and Korean culture and history in secondary and elementary classroom instruction and the university’s expanded reach of international education opportunities to communities of teachers and students beyond campus boundaries.”

Ishida also notes TEA’s role in informing the movement to shift secondary western civilization courses to world history by providing current scholarship and resources for teachers. Parisi expands on this, noting, “TEA has had an impact on how area studies ‘outreach’ was conceptualized and programmed. Our program began working at a time in the mid-1980s when there was a focus on global education and an effort to move professional development for teachers beyond basic introductions to other countries and cultures. I think our work in the early years of TEA, along with our colleagues at other Asia-focused programs, changed ‘outreach’ into in-depth professional development for teachers, bringing them into conversation with scholars and specialists about new scholarship that went beyond textbooks to enrich and complicate their own teaching and student learning.

“TEA's biggest contribution,” she says, “has been as a co-founder and as a national site of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. As collaborating members of a national program, TEA and our colleagues at the six other national NCTA sites have offered hundreds of seminars, workshops, study tours and other programming for teachers. NCTA has developed curriculum and curriculum resources. It has established a national book award for children and young adult literature about Asia. NCTA has raised awareness of education about East Asia. At the same time, it has established a program that recognizes teachers’ accomplishments for in-depth study of East Asia and in so doing, has motivated teachers across the country to study and teach about East Asia and to become involved in a professional community of educators.”��