The 2010 Social Studies Review Special Issue
In 2008 at a California Council for the Social Studies world-history preconference in San Francisco, several of the authors for the upcoming “New World History” issue of the Social Studies Review presented their work. For many who attended, including leaders in California's history education community, hearing about these approaches was revelatory, showing that one could teach a standards-based curriculum while organizing the content in a far more meaningful, compelling and engaging manner. At the second annual conference of the California World History Association held later that year at SF State University, a series of sessions explored the content and organization of this journal issue, working to give the big picture of the field, then looking at how a world historical narrative can play out in the three grade levels (6, 7 and 8) at which world history is taught in California.
The special issue of the SSR is due out in January 2010.
Section 1 of the SSR issue provides core background in the academic discipline of world history.
Craig Benjamin sets the context for our exploration by introducing the ways in which "world history" as a discipline has been interpreted and constructed over the course of two millennia. This investigation reveals how different paradigms can change what is included, what is omitted, and what messages are imbedded in the "narrative" of human history on earth.
Ross Dunn sets the geographic context for human history – the planet on which world history unfolds – by introducing us to the emerging field of Big History. One cannot understand world history without understanding the place (the world) in which it happens. He argues that our choices in portraying that dynamic stage in which the pageant of human history takes place (including the scales of observation we use, from the global to the hemispherical to the regional to the local) strongly influence the questions we ask and the conclusions we reach about what is significant in that history. His paper challenges many conventional or traditional notions about geography in order to prepare students and teachers to look at larger scales of time and place.
Cynthia Brown introduces us to the emerging field of Big History, a deep historical perspective in which human history is set within the context of the history of the universe as a whole all the way back to the Big Bang. Such perspective helps us to identify broad patterns of exchange, energy flows, and relationships to the environment that transcend regional boundaries and unite us as a species. It also connects us closely to the planet on which our story plays out.
Ray Kea gives an example of incorporating Big History and Big Geography into the broader study of world history by integrating the study of African history into that of the world as a whole. He highlights the importance of Africa itself, challenging the common paradigm that suggests a "backwardness" relative to other parts of the world by isolating and marginalizing the history of its many peoples.
Section 2 focuses on theories of history teaching and applications of those theories to the classroom.
Bob Bain introduces research establishing how students think about history in general and world history in particular, underpinning the importance of creating solid frames of reference and contrasting scales of inquiry in both time and space.
Beth Pollard provides insights into effective approaches for using primary sources as a tool for challenging students to do higher-order thinking about patterns in world history.
Section 3 focuses on the specific grade levels at which world history is taught.
Three historians—Amanda Podany, Edmund Burke III and Laura Mitchell—share narratives of those historical periods covered at grades 6, 7 and 10 respectively, applying principles from Section 1 to portray patterns of human activity that have been globally significant in terms of their effects on humanity and the planet.
Three master teachers—Avi Black, Gerald Morrison and Bill Foreman—apply principles detailed in Section 2 of this issue to suggest approaches for structuring whole courses, units and lessons in order to advance student learning about world history.
Finally, Carl Guarneri addresses the crucial need to integrate studies of US and world history, an imperative that is clearly identified in the California History-Social Science Framework. He provides a powerful rationale with clear examples of the importance of creating a global context for studies of U.S. history. He also demonstrates ways of incorporating US history into the history of the world.
The 2010 Social Studies Review Team
Robert (Bob) Bain is Associate Professor of History and Social Science Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned his Ph.D. in American History and Social Policy from Case Western University. Before joining the UM faculty in 1998, Bob taught high school history and social studies for 26 years, and was a seven-time award winner for excellence in teaching. His research centers on teaching and learning history and the social sciences . His studies have included investigations of history teaching and learning occurring in schools and museums, the growth of teacher knowledge, the design and use of history-specific technology, and a history of teacher preparation in history and the social studies. Bob has worked on history and social science education projects at the national, state, and local levels. He has served on the Executive Council of the World History Association, currently sits on the advisory boards of the National Council of History Education, Michigan Council of History Education and the National History Education Clearinghouse at Stanford University, and was on the course development committee for the AP World History Program. email
Craig Benjamin is an Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University. He is the author of numerous published books, chapters and essays on ancient Eurasian history, big history, and world history historiography. Craig was a member the committee that wrote the Michigan World History and Geography Content Expectations, and is a regular presenter at pedagogical workshops across the country on teaching world history. email
Avi Black
As the History/Social Science Coordinator for the Alameda County (CA) Office of Education, Avi Black organizes, implements and facilitates professional development programs for grade 4-12 teachers related to history, curriculum and pedagogy. His career in education spans twenty years of teaching and program administration. Avi taught world and U.S. history in San Francisco public schools for twelve years, taking on leadership roles as a mentor for credential candidates and new teachers, as instructor in the credentialing program at New College of California, and as district History/Social Science content specialist. He has been actively involved in integration of service learning (as project coordinator of Linking San Francisco) and the arts (with Cal Performances) into the history curriculum. He served on the Executive Council of the World History Association and as Vice President of the California World History Association, and currently is First Vice President of the California Council for the Social Studies. email
Cynthia Stokes Brown is Professor Emerita, Dominican University of California. She devoted twenty years to directing and/or teaching in the single subject credential program. She is the author of Refusing Racism: White Allies in the Struggle for Civil Rights (Teachers College Press) and Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present (New Press). email
Edmund Burke III is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he directs the Center for World History. His recent publications include The Environment and World History, 1500-2000 (Berkeley: University of Callifornia Press, 2008), Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics (Lincoln NB: Nebraska, 2008), and the forthcoming The Ethnographic State: France, Morocco and Islam 1890-1925 (Princeton). email
Ross E. Dunn is Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University, where he taught African, Islamic, and world history. In 1997, he co-authored with Gary B. Nash and Charlotte Crabtree History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past . In 2000, he published The New World History: A Teacher ' s Companion, a collection of essays by forty-six authors on the problems of conceptualizing and teaching world history in schools and universities. The second edition of his book The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim Traveler of the 14 th Century appeared in 2004. He has also written on modern North African history. From 1993 to 1996, he served as Coordinating Editor of the National Standards for World History. He was senior author of a world history textbook for high school students titled World History: Links across Time and Place. He is director of World History for Us All, a web-based model curriculum for world history in middle and high schools, a project of San Diego State University in collaboration with UCLA's National Center for History in the Schools, where Dunn serves as Director of World History Projects. He is a past-president of the World History Association. email
Bill Foreman
Bill Foreman has taught high school in California since 1997. Academically, he focused on Modern Europe and later had the privilege of studying Russia at the University of California, Riverside with Prof. J. Arch Getty. Following graduate school, he embarked on a teaching career. He currently teaches in Hayward, CA. email
Carl Guarneri is Professor of History at Saint Mary's College of California where he teaches American and world history. Through his publications and presentations he has played a leading role in the movement to globalize the study and teaching of US. history. In 2005 and 2008 he co-directed NEH institutes on “Rethinking America in Global Perspective.” Dr. Guarneri is the author of America in the World: United States History in Global Context (2007), editor of a survey course reader, America Compared: American History in International Perspective (2 nd ed., 2005) and, with James Davis, coeditor of a teachers' resource book, Teaching American History in a Global Context (2008). email
Ray Kea teaches African History in the History Department at the University of California, Riverside . He has previously taught at The Johns Hopkins University, Carlton College, St. Olaf College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley after receiving his BA from Howard University (Washington , DC ). He began his teaching career in Ghana ( West Africa ) where he taught in secondary schools for a number of years. He later studied at the University of Copenhagen (graduate diploma), University of Ghana (MA), and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (PhD). At UCR, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in African, Islamic, and world history. One of his current research projects is the study of Africans in Europe from medieval times to the nineteenth century. email
Laura J. Mitchell teaches African and World History at UC Irvine. She works on making sense of early-modern societies in a digital age, and on making history accessible to diverse audiences, including K-12 students. Her research on colonial Southern Africa has been supported by grants from Fulbright, the American Council for Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Mellon Foundation. She has served on the World History Association Executive Council, currently serves on the AP World History Curriculum Assessment and Development Committee, and is Vice President of the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction. Her book, Belongings: Property, Family and Identity in Colonial South Africa (Columbia University Press, 2009) is available online. email
Gerry Morrison
Gerry Morrison lives and teaches in Lakewood California. He is head of the History Department at Hoover Middle School. He has been teaching for twelve years. He teaches World History to seventh graders, and U.S. History to eighth graders. email
Amanda Podany is a Professor of History at Cal Poly Pomona. She is a specialist in ancient Mesopotamian and Syrian history, and is a former executive director of the California History-Social Science Project. Podany co-authored two volumes in the World in Ancient Times series, designed for middle school students. email
Elizabeth Ann Pollard is an Associate Professor of History at San Diego State University. She teaches world history to 1500 CE, ancient Greece and Rome, women in Greco-Roman antiquity, and the historiography of witchcraft. In 2009, she was awarded the SDSU College of Arts and Letters Excellence in Teaching Award. Her current research focuses on Roman-Indian connectivity and on witchcraft accusations against Roman women from the first to the fifth centuries CE. Her recent publications include: "Raising the Stakes: Writing about Witchcraft on Wikipedia," in The History Teacher; "Witch-crafting in Greco-Roman Art," in Magic Ritual and Witchcraft; "Placing Greco-Roman History in World Historical Context," in Classical World; and "Pliny's Natural History and the Flavian Templum Pacis: Botanical Imperialism in First Century CE Rome," in Journal of World History. email
