Nuclear history has been taught with a focus on nuclear weapons and has been too often discussed within a framework of international relations and politics; consequently, the teaching of nuclear history has been separated from our everyday lives. This has diverted our attention from the manifold damages done to human bodies and the environment, as the production of nuclear weapons inevitably brings about radiation exposure from mining, refining, and enriching uranium; transporting materials; assembling those materials into weapons; testing those weapons; decommissioning them; and disposing of them. Given this process, we cannot separate nuclear power that generates electricity from the problem of radiation. Nuclear history will thus draw attention to our everyday concerns—racial, environmental, gender, and economic justice—by teaching what happens to the human body when exposed to radiation, either from the detonation of weapons or accidents at commercial/research nuclear reactors; where the tests have been conducted and who was affected; what rhetoric has been used to promote the nuclear armament; what kind of experiments have been conducted; and how much money is spent on producing, maintaining, and decommissioning the weapons and nuclear facilities.

Teaching nuclear history, thus, connotes paramount importance as anti-racist teaching and is highly critical in this country. The brutal murders of BIPOC and AAPI heritage people at the hands of the police and white vigilantes brought recent national attention to the vital need to actively combat hate. According to the 2017 “Hate at School'' study conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), 35% of students reported being concerned about hate and bias at school. A subsequent 2018 SPLC study that surveyed 2,776 educators nationally determined that over 60% had witnessed a hate or bias incident in their schools. Racism is the driving motivation behind the majority of hate and bias incidents reported in school, accounting for 63 percent of incidents reported in the news and 33 percent of incidents reported by teachers.

Furthermore, after the past year of global pandemic and shuttered schools,  it is even more important than ever that educators, school leaderships, and districts, such as Chicago Public Schools, teach inclusive and complex history through a culturally responsive lens  to rebuild classroom environments that will welcome students’ different identities, center their needs within their learning, and address trauma experienced during these extended school closures. 

In response to recognition of this need, the TEAACH Act was officially passed in 2021. The TEAACH Act was written to amend the Illinois School Code to include an Asian American History Curriculum in every public school in Illinois, ensuring that crucial stories, diverse perspectives, and powerful legacies are elevated and explored by students across the state. This Act was passed as a response to non-existant or limited AAPI history taught in American schools, as current teachers struggle with how to more effectively embed new, more inclusive instruction into their practices and pedagogies. Additionally, the new Illinois Culturally Responsive Teaching  standards, which take effect in 2025, define a culturally responsive educator as practitioners who will “critically think about the institutions in which they find themselves, working to reform these institutions whenever and wherever necessary,” as well as one who will “assess how their biases and perceptions affect their teaching practice and how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.)”