- Center for Southeast Asian Studies
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- Resources for Educators
Resources for Educators

We provide resources and support on Southeast Asian studies to K-16 educators and students, businesses, community groups, organizations and individuals throughout the northern Illinois region and beyond.
Lesson Plans and Curriculum
The following lesson plans and teaching resources have been developed by K-12 teachers, pre-service education students, students of Southeast Asia, faculty and other Southeast Asian experts
Southeast Asia-General
- Teaching Activities for Southeast Asia: Crossroads of the World textbook (PDF)
- Origins of Religion in Southeast Asia (PDF)
- Southeast Asia Unit for Middle School (PDF)
- Population Diversity in Southeast Asia (PDF)
- Southeast Asian Local Customs (PDF)
- Southeast Asia Introduction/Review (PDF)
- Southeast Asian Food and Culture (PDF)
- What is Southeast Asia? (PDF)
- Coral Reefs in Insular Southeast Asia and Their Inhabitants (PDF)
Cambodia
- Cambodian Genocide Literature Circles (PDF)
- Middle School Unit on Human Rights and the Cambodian Genocide (PDF)
- The Khmer Rouge and Survival Stories from Cambodia (PDF)
- Nine Cambodia Lessons Using the book, Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia (PDF)
- The Khmer Rouge (PDF)
Indonesia
- The Three Worlds of Bali Listening Guide (PDF)
- Performance Art: Wayang Golek and the Ramayana (PDF)
- Wayang (PDF)
Vietnam
This set of global and human rights lesson plans are grounded in the rich history and contemporary diversity of the Philippines and developed as a result of a four-week Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Short-Term Seminar in the summer of 2015. The seminar examined the tension between ethno-religious diversity and civil society's efforts to improve the country's record in response to ethnic conflict, rebuilding democratic institutions such as a free press and free election, and advocating respect for human rights and a dismantling of a culture of impunity for political, economic and military elites. The participants were exposed to a wide range of perceptions of how various sectors of developing nations instantiate and understand the relationship between the state, local authority and human rights.
Agriculture
Contract Farming and Rural Development in the Philippines (PDF) (Community College: 200 level)
Paul R. Edleman, Sauk Valley Community College
Economics
Emerging Economies: The Philippines (PDF) (Community College: 100-200 level)
Sowjanya Dharmasankar, Waubonsee Community College
Fine Arts
Filipina Artists and Feminist Art (PDF) (Community College)
Jennifer Rose Hasso, Harold Washington College/Triton College
Poverty and Migration in Art (PDF) (Community College)
Jennifer Rose Hasso, Harold Washington College/Triton College
Social Protest in Art (PDF) (Community College)
Jennifer Rose Hasso, Harold Washington College/Triton College
Geography
Philippine Migration, Remittances, and Overseas Filipino Workers (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Anne Sharkey, Huntley High School
History
Arab Spring (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Michael Fauerbach, St. Anne Community High School
Comparison of Spanish Colonization: Latin America and the Philippines (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Anne Sharkey, Huntley High School
Ferdinand Marcos and Nicolae Ceausescu (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Doug Kotlarczyk, Lake Forest High School
Did the Actions of the United States during the American-Philippine War Reflect the Ideas of Benevolent Assimilations? (PDF) (11th Grade)
Clayton Henricksen, Huntley High School
Jose Rizal and the Construction of National Identity: Colonialism and Nationalism (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Doug Kotlarczyk, Lake Forest High School
Responsibility to Protect-R2P (PDF) (Community College: 200 level)
Paul R. Edleman, Sauk Valley Community College
Should the United States Annex the Philippines? (PDF) (11th Grade)
Clayton Henricksen, Huntley High School
The Philippine American War (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Doug Kotlarczyk, Lake Forest High School
Human Rights
Application of Human Rights Principles to Philippine Corruption (PDF) (Community College)
Kathy Westman, Waubonsee Community College
Conceptually Understanding Human Rights (PDF) (9th Grade)
Clayton Henricksen, Huntley High School
Corruption in the Philippines: A Human Rights Problem (PDF) (Community College: 100-200 level)
Sowjanya Dharmasankar, Waubonsee Community College
Have the Philippines fulfilled their Responsibility to Protect Human Rights? (PDF) (9th Grade)
Clayton Henricksen, Huntley High School
Human and Civil Rights: A Comparison between the Philippines and America's Struggle for Rights through Modern Times (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Michael Fauerbach, St. Anne Community High School
Human Rights and Exhibit Space (PDF) (Community College)
Jennifer Rose Hasso, Harold Washington College/Triton College
Human Rights in the Philippines and the US: An Examination of the Prison Industrial Complex (PDF) (Community College: 100-200 level)
Edward C. Davis IV, Malcolm X College
Human Rights Issues in Conflict Zones (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Anne Sharkey, Huntley High School
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Michael Fauerbach, St. Anne Community High School
Indigenous Peoples Debates (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Doug Kotlarczyk, Lake Forest High School
Indigenous People's Rights in the Philippines (PDF) (Community College: 100-200 level)
Edward C. Davis IV, Malcolm X College
Poverty in the Philippines: A Human Rights Problem (PDF) (Community College: 100-200 level)
Sowjanya Dharmasankar, Waubonsee Community College
Using Photo Images to Teach the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Philippine Human Rights (PDF) (Community College: 200 level)
Paul R. Edleman, Sauk Valley Community College
The United Nations and Human Rights (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Michael Fauerbach, St. Anne Community High School
Language
Language in the Philippines (Community College: 100-200 level)
Edward C. Davis IV, Malcolm X College
Politics
Philippine Government Structure with a Focus on the Philippine Barangay (PDF) (Community College: 100 level)
Paul R. Edleman, Sauk Valley Community College
The Role of the Cold War in Martial Law Politics (PDF) (9-12th Grade)
Anne Sharkey, Huntley High School
Religious Diversity
Religious Diversity in the Philippines: Examining the Rizalistas (PDF) (Community College: 100-200 level)
Edward C. Davis IV, Malcolm X College
Sociology
The Missing Sociological Imagination: Sociological Functionalist Theory that Shapes the Filipino Social Consciousness in the Philippines (PDF) (Community College)
Kathy Westman, Waubonsee Community College
Web Resources
- Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
- Karapatan: Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
- Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process
- Republic Act 8371: Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines
- UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
- UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
These syllabi have been developed by three northern Illinois community college educators who accompanied CSEAS Director Judy Ledgerwood on a three-week study tour of Cambodia in the summer of 2016. The study tour was supported in part with funding through the Center's U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.
- Artistic Intellect: Cambodian Art in Political and Historic Discourse (PDF) (Community College: 200 level or above, English/ Composition, Regional Study Abroad, Humanities), Willie J. Morris, Harper College
- Those Who are Made Toys: Khmer Rouge Youth Mobilization, Indoctrination and Organization (PDF) (Community College: 200 level or above, English, World Literature, Regional Study Abroad), Willie J. Morris, Harper College
- International Relations (PDF) (Community College), Paul Edelman, Sauk Valley Community College
- Introduction to Cambodian History, Politics and Society (PDF) (Community College), Paul Edelman, Sauk Valley Community College
- The Khmer Rouge (PDF) (Community College), Paul Edelman, Sauk Valley Community College
- Introduction to Sociology and Cambodia (PDF) (Community College), Kathy Westman, Waubonsee Community College
- Gender Issues in Cambodia (PDF) (Community College), Kathy Westman, Waubonsee Community College
- Global Contemporary Social Issues (PDF) (Community College), Kathy Westman, Waubonsee Community College
Teaching Resources
- A Conceptual and Visual Comparison of Religious Architecture - East and West (PDF)- Richard Cooler, Professor Emeritus, Art History
- The Art and Culture of Burma (PDF) - Richard Cooler, Professor Emeritus, Art History
- Islam: A Worldwide Religion and its Impact on Southeast Asia (PDF)- Susan Russell, Professor Emerita, Anthropology
- The Mindanao Conflict and Prospects for Peace in the Southern Philippines (PDF) - Excerpted from Mindanao: A Perspective on Youth, Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Conflict Resolution In the Southern Philippines by Susan D. Russell, Lina Davide-Ong, April Rica Gonzalez, Rey Ty, Nagasura T. Madale, and Noemi A. Medina
- Wat Xieng Thong Temple in Luang Prabang, Laos - Constance Wilson, Professor Emeritus, History (deceased)
NIU Southeast Asia Library Collection
Contact Us
Center for Southeast Asian Studies520 College View Court
815-753-1771
cseas@niu.edu