Models for Teaching about the

World Past and Present

from a civilizations-based model to a

human-centered, global model
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Why teach and learn about the world?

People from all over the world are
coming together in many arenas,
and need knowledge about each
other.

Memory is an important part of

what makes us human. Each
person is a transmitter of
knowledge about the past.

Three common models for teaching

about the world

1. The geographic perspective

2. The civilizational perspective
3. The world history perspective

Option #1: the geographic perspective

This is a stand-alone geography course
Geography studies often give students their
first view of the whole world
Students are taken on a tour of the world,
full of descriptive facts
It is organized around a sequence of
regions, based on modern divisions of the
world.
This division makes it hard to teach about
earlier historical regions, which were often
very different.

Geography/World Cultures
Model Russian
Canad
a
U.S.A.
Central
America

South
Americ
a

Western
Hemisphere

Europe

Federation

Middle
East / North
Africa

Central /
South Asia

Sub-saharan
Africa

Far
East
Southeast
Asia

Australo
-Pacific

Eastern
Hemisphere

Option #2: the civilizational perspective

Most world history courses have been organized
around coverage of civilizations
Students are given chapter-by-chapter descriptions
of world civilizations, including:
a description of its geographic setting
an account of its origins
descriptions of its political, social, and cultural history,
and a list of its contributions

Including new topics in these courses has been a

problem, because only civilizations need apply
Many regions without major civilizations were very
important in world history, but they find no place in
these courses.

Ancient
Mesopotami
a

Ancien
t Egypt

Classica
l Greece

Other River
Valley Civs.

Classica
l Rome

China

Byzantium
& Russia

Islam

Sub-Saharan
Africa

India

The
Americas

Medieva
l Europe

Renaissance
Exploration

Scientific Rev
Enlightenmen
t

Industrial
Revolution

Imperialism
World Wars

Colonized
Countries

Traditional Western
Civilizations Model

Postwar
To Present

Developing
Countries

Traditional world history covered only a small part of the

worlds surface, only expanding its scope with the modern
expansion of Europeans after 1400 C.E.

It focused on Mediterranean civilizations, but added

others gradually and incompletely in response to
multicultural demands to cover the non-west

Option #3: world history perspective

This new model for teaching about the world is
organized around global eras of human history
Students take an era-by-era tour of world history, that
includes
dynamic coverage of geographys role in human history
inclusion of regional societies, civilizations, and the spaces
between them
interactions among cultures and long-term historical
processes

The model is academically challenging and culturally

flexible. It helps develop critical thinking and
research skills.
It effectively incorporates new and existing research.

Era 8
Regional
Societies

Era 7

C
o
n
t
i
n
u
i
t
y
Regional
Societies

Regional
Societies

Regional
Societies

Era 6

Era 5
Era 4

Cultural interactions
Regional
Societies

Regional
Societies

Regional
Societies

Era 3
Era 2
Era 1

GEOGRAPHY

C
H
R
O
N
O
L
O
G
Y

Era 8
Era 7
Era 6

Era 5
Era 4
Era 3

Agriculture

Trade

Technology

Spread of
Religions

Era 2
Era 1

GEOGRAPHY

C
H
R
O
N
O
L
O
G
Y

THE NEW WORLD HISTORY MODEL

Geographically comprehensive and truly

global in scope
Human-centered and inclusive
Developed by international world
historians and geographers
Academically sound rationale for inclusion
of the worlds societies and cultures
Accepting of new scholarship and research
to encourage lifelong learning

Why is World History education

important?
1. World history helps make sense of globalization.
2. World history demonstrates our expanding
knowledge about the past.
3. World history shows links from national history
to the rest of the world.
4. World history sustains citizenship.*
*From Patrick Manning, Presenting World History to Policymakers: Three Position Papers,
Perspectives, March 2006

SOME WORLD HISTORY EDUCATION LINKS

UNESCO World Heritage http://whc.unesco.org/
Bridging world history

http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/worldhistory/whatis.html

Center for History and New Media

http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/worldhistory/
The Silk Road Project http://silkroadproject.org/index.html

Europaischer Kongress fur Welt- und Globalgeschichte

http://www.uni-leipzig.de/zhs/ekwg/

European Network in Universal and Global History

http://www.lamprecht-gesellschaft.de/ENIUGH/eniugh-frame.htm

Histoire du Monde

http://www.histoiredumonde.net/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=47

World History Compass (links to world history information around the

world) http://www.worldhistorycompass.com/about.htm

Shixue Lianxian(History On-line)

http://saturn.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~liutk/shih/
World History For Us All online curriculum
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu