Upcoming ‘Foundations and Futures’ textbook seeks to represent AAPI voices

A new textbook is weaving together overlooked stories that make up the fabric of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, from Vietnamese American oral histories to the rise of Samoan athletes on the football field.

The free multimedia textbook, titled “Foundations and Futures,” is set to come out in early 2026 and contains 50 chapters on Asian American and Pacific Islander communities written by over 85 scholars from across the country. The textbook – created by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center – will also include 1,500 multimedia elements and 250 lesson plans developed by curriculum specialists, according to the project’s information sheet.

The resource – which has been in the works since 2021 – encourages the implementation of ethnic studies courses in high school and college curriculums.

Thuy Vo Dang, an assistant professor of Asian American studies and information studies, said she wrote about Vietnamese American refugee experiences in the textbook, with a focus on addressing gaps in archives and history. Vo Dang, an oral historian, added that her module includes interview clips of elders speaking in Vietnamese because she believes in the power of multimedia to connect readers to the past.

Vo Dang also said she wanted to contribute to the multimedia textbook because she believes there is a shortage of “freely accessible” resources in Asian American studies.

“I have three kids, and I always think about what kind of future I want to build for them and what kind of education they should have access to,” she said. “I want them to say, ‘There are stories about me reflected in what I’m learning in school.’”

Ethnic studies faculty across the UC have been pushing for a first-year ethnic studies admissions requirement for the past five years – a proposal that was expected to take one year, according to EdSource. The requirement would impact over 200,000 students applying to the UC and California State University systems by adding an area “H” to the A-G requirements, which list the subjects applicants must complete during high school.

[Related: UC faculty delay proposal for ethnic studies requirement for incoming students]

Representation was the reason Lisa Uperesa, an associate professor of Asian American studies, said she contributed a passage on the increasing participation of Samoans in football to the textbook. She drew from her family’s background in college and professional football in the module, reflecting on Pacific Islander visibility in popular culture through the sport, she added.

Uperesa also noticed a lack of educational content about Pacific Islanders when she was an undergraduate student studying sociology and ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, she said.

“It’s very in line with UCLA’s commitment to public education and have it as an open resource for teachers is really going to be a positive thing and hopefully makes teachers’ lives a lot easier for having resources to be able to grab,” she said.

Young people’s experience of anti-Asian hatred inspired Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, a professor of Asian American studies and history at UC Irvine, to contribute to the textbook in hopes of understanding and overcoming the hatred during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. That may have been some people’s first time experiencing “that intensity of anti-Asian hate,” Wu added.

Hate crimes against Asian Americans increased 145% across 18 cities – including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City – in 2020, according to the California State University San Bernardino Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism.

Vo Dang said the textbook aims to address injustices and violence through awareness and education.

“I’m really hoping that through this route of education, through teaching Asian American experiences early on, that we can avoid things like the anti-Asian violence that we witnessed not too long ago during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Vo Dang said.

Recently, UCLA was the site of over a dozen hate incidents, where the posters and bulletin boards outside its ethnic studies centers were targeted by vandalism starting in April.

Lauren Daus, a doctoral student in education and curriculum coordinator for “Foundations and Futures,” said she ensured lesson plans in each chapter’s modules reflected certain values – such as a foundational understanding of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, literacy skills and critical thinking.

“How are they learning through these lesson plans?” Daus said. “How is it contributing to their well-being and then also allowing them to grow their wisdom and agency and recognizing their power in disrupting inequities in the world?”

Wu said she wrote a chapter on Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color elected to the United States Congress, in the textbook. As a Chinese American immigrant, she added that she resonated with Mink’s story because of their shared experiences with intersectionality and exclusion.

Amid current trends of rising hate against minority groups in the U.S., “Foundations and Futures” uplifts the stories and aspirations of people from different backgrounds, Wu said.

“That’s why it’s even more important now to have a resource that focuses on Asian American Pacific Islander communities and to make that accessible to students, to educators, to community members who really want to understand what our existing society is about,” she said. “It’s the foundations, right? Then the future part is, ‘What is it that we want to create together?’”