I started listening to the Head On History podcast this summer and I’m continuing to catch up with the episodes during my commute now that school has started. It’s been great for adding nuance to and correcting misperceptions of the history of Islam. I plan to suggest some episodes as supplemental resources to students in my […]
Early last week three of my summer’s hashtags intersected on a concept that I find very useful in World History pedagogy: granularity. As I was finalizing my presentation for #MNHistoryFest (3rd annual, always epic), I noticed that the benchmark for the “New” Imperialism in the Minnesota state standards is in the eleventh standard of World […]
As I have for the past two summers, I am eagerly anticipating History Fest 2018 (third annual, always epic). This year I’m presenting on how classroom discussions of Imperialism can either reinscribe or interrupt racist narratives. I reflected on this topic in a series of blog posts, and the ideas have percolated through the World History collaborative […]
My reading over the past year encouraged me to consider a variety of geographic vantage points on World History. This year I’m having a similar experience with regard to time. In addition to adjusting our spatial vantage points, history teachers need to thoughtfully consider time frames and established narratives, I learned a lot from Wensheng Wang’s White Lotus […]
Stenka Razin Sailing in the Caspian Sea, Vasily Surikov, 1906Stepan, aka Stenka, Razin led a 17th century attack on outposts of the Russian state, and it looks different from the vantage point of Moscow or the Caspian sea. I’m currently reading about rebels and pirates in Qing China, and Razin was both. This “rebellion” began as maritime […]
Keeping an open mind as a history teacher is about more than be willing to test our understandings of the past with new evidence. It also means looking at familiar topics from new vantage points. Recently on Twitter I’ve seen historians advocating more engagement with the public. I’m all for it, but I also think […]
Word around my house is that I may be over subscribed to professional publications. To be honest, there are more journals articles coming through the front door than I am reading. Occasionally surveying new historical scholarship is integral to an understanding of history as constructed knowledge, not as a settled fact. History is not the […]
After a summer of thinking about World History in a variety ways, school is underway. My interest in educational equity and disciplinary fidelity continue to motivate me to globalize the high school World History course. An excellent professional development session led by Dr. Keith Mayes refined my reasoning for continuing to globalize the course. In […]
For the past several years globalizing my World History classes has animated my teaching practice. I was fortunate to be able to share some of this work at the second annual Minnesota History Fest, where I presented “Putting the World in World War One in the World History Classroom.” Teaching about World War One presents […]
Curricular framing of imperialism in high school World History classes often bears the marks of the Western Civilization courses that preceded them