Workshop taps into sports to energize history, social studies education

Title image: Participants of the SSEWA 2024 Summer Workshop organized by the Center for Asian Studies. 

The Olympic rings are now hanging from the Eiffel Tower, the flame is heading to Paris, and soon all eyes will be on the French capital as it hosts the 2024 Olympic Games.

The excitement surrounding the summer Olympics provided an ideal opportunity for the inaugural summer workshop of the South, Southeast, and West Asia Outreach Program (SSEWA) of the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at CU Boulder.

From June 10 to 12, secondary and community college social sciences instructors gathered on campus to attend “Power Plays: Colonialism, Imperialism, and the Making of National Sports in South and Southeast Asia” and learn about colonialism, imperialism and various historical and social issues through the lens of sports from CU Boulder faculty and scholars.

“We all know how sports teach discipline and develop character and teamwork, but we seldom consider the role of sports in developing national identities. The SSEWA 2024 Summer Workshop looked into that and more,” said Hannah Palustre, SSEWA outreach coordinator. “By the end of the workshop, we hoped participating teachers would have gained a deeper understanding of how different sports contributed to the formation of diverse cultural identities in South and Southeast Asia.”

Sports and social sciences

The theme resonated strongly with teachers, many of whom noted traditional textbooks often emphasize politics and economics when teaching about colonialism. By incorporating sports as a way to analyze colonialism and national identity into their curriculum, participating educators saw new opportunities for making history, geography and social studies more engaging and relatable for their students.

“I learned that sports can be used to discuss concepts such as nationalism, globalization and civil rights. I can use tournaments and sports teams to teach geography. I am not a huge sports fan, but I now realize the importance of using sports as examples in my classroom,” said Kristi Jeffers, who teaches U.S. history at Denver Public Schools and Northeast Early College. She said the workshop also provided a space to collaborate with other professionals teaching the same curriculum.

Derek Lan, a history professor at Red Rocks Community College, said the workshop provided information he could use to bolster his course, from lecture materials and discussion prompts to potential avenues for student projects. “Many of the presentations discussed the way sports dovetails with the economic, social, political and cultural, which is a great way for students to get into these larger discussions,” he said.

The workshop focused on three themes: “Divide and Conquer,” “Empires to Enterprises” and “Resistance and Revival.” The first two days covered sports introduced to South and Southeast Asia by colonial powers, such as baseball, basketball and cricket. The final day focused on the export of Indigenous sports and disciplines, examining muay Thai from Thailand and yoga from India, now both practiced globally.

“Sports serve as a common experience among nations with colonial histories, where power dynamics continue to influence contemporary life,” said Asian Studies Program Director Lauren Collins, who served as lead faculty of the SSEWA 2024 Summer Workshop. Her lecture, “Asia, a Place and an Idea: Colonialism and Metageography,” encouraged participants to reconsider their perceptions of “Asia” and emphasized the continent’s enduring power as an idea shaped by both external and internal forces.

Other speakers from CU Boulder included Jared Browsh, assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies; Raza Ali Hasan, associate teaching professor in the English department; and Matthew Gee, a doctoral student focused on critical sports studies. Ben Williams, assistant professor of Hinduism and yoga studies at Naropa University, also delivered a lecture. 

“Participating educators were required to submit a curriculum implementation plan at the conclusion of the program to demonstrate how their participation in the workshop will impact their teaching and their students. It was exciting and gratifying to see the innovative ways the teachers will incorporate content and insights from the workshop. Each participant has the potential to bring new perspectives to 50 or more students in their home schools,” said Lynn Parisi, SSEWA consultant and former director of the Program for Teaching East Asia at the Center for Asian Studies.

Participants will incorporate workshop content into various courses, including U.S. community college history and world history, secondary AP world history and social studies courses, and districtwide professional development offerings.

Expanded outreach program

Since 2001, community and educational outreach has been a cornerstone of CAS programming as home to the Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA) and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), both of which conduct K-12 professional development and curriculum development programs about East Asia. From 2006 to 2014, CAS also ran the SSEWA outreach program.

Through National Resource Center (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies grants from the U.S. Department of Education in the amount of $2.2 million, CAS relaunched SSEWA in 2022 to broaden its outreach initiatives to encompass all of Asia and serve an expanded K-14 audience. According to CAS Executive Director Danielle Rocheleau Salaz, “CAS is excited to bring the SSEWA program back to the CU-Boulder campus. It fits the grant theme of ‘Infusing Asia Across Campus,’ helping make Asia more accessible and less intimidating for students, teachers and members of the broader community.”

The Power Plays summer workshop is the third professional development program organized by CAS since the relaunch of SSEWA. Earlier this spring, SSEWA conducted Southeast Asia in a Backpack: Expert Guides and Maps for Teaching Geography and Conservation, and last fall, it hosted This Barbie is a Teacher: Exploring Race, Culture, and Geopolitics in the Barbie Movie and Beyond.

SSEWA programs cover a total of 35 countries: seven in South Asia, 10 in Southeast Asia and 18 in West Asia. Each country represents diverse cultures and rich histories, providing a wealth of potential course material for teachers to incorporate into their curriculum.

Over the next few years, SSEWA aims to offer a variety of professional development courses and teacher training, both in person and online, to help K-14 teachers enhance their knowledge and critical thinking about Asia and integrate Asian studies into their teaching. For the 2024–25 academic year, offerings will include a series of Saturday workshops, an online course for teachers of grades 9–14, a summer workshop and virtually accessible resources related to SSEWA.

For more information about SSEWA programs, email the SSEWA outreach coordinator at hannah.palustre@colorado.edu, or visit their website.