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
Canada
U.S.A.
Central
America
South
America
Western
Hemisphere
Russian
Federation
Europe
Middle East /
North Africa
Far East
Central /
South Asia
Sub-saharan
Africa
Southeast
Asia
AustraloPacific
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
Mesopotamia
Ancient
Egypt
Classical
Greece
Classical
Rome
Other River
Valley Civs.
Byzantium
& Russia
Islam
Sub-Saharan
Africa
The Americas
Medieval
Europe
China
Renaissance
Exploration
Scientific Rev
Enlightenment
Industrial
Revolution
India
Imperialism
World Wars
Colonized
Countries
Traditional Western
Civilizations Model
Postwar
To Present
Developing
Countries
Traditional world history covered only a small part of the
world’s 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 geography’s 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
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n
t
i
n
u
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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
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R
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N
O
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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
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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
world’s 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