Lauren McArthur Harris

Pedagogical Content Knowledge for World History Teachers: What is It? How Might Prospective Teachers Develop It?

This article takes up the question of world history teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge by reporting on two separate but related projects. In the first, we briefly discuss an empirical investigation one of the authors conducted into the ways that pre- and in-service world history teachers think about, organize, and make meaning of separate and discrete world historical events, first for themselves and then for their students. It demonstrates the value of world history teachers making multiple connections among world historical events from the biggest to the smallest ones to construct dynamic and coherent pictures of the past for themselves and their students. In the second project, we discuss our innovative history lab, a course designed to help undergraduates enrolled in a world history course “see” the pedagogical moves their world history instructors make. We designed this pedagogical history lab to foster future teachers’ understandings of the content knowledge needed to teach world history while they are learning world history as students.

Conceptual Devices in the Work of World Historians.

This article explores articles from the Journal of World History, from 1990 to 2008, to uncover conceptual devices world historians use in their work. The goal is to identify promising devices for improving world history instruction. While teaching world history is viewed as increasingly important, lack of clarity regarding course structures and teacher preparation has left many teachers wondering how to help students make sense of the subject. This article aims to provide greater coherence in world history by pursuing a line of inquiry parallel to one researchers have used for history education in general: investigating how experts conduct their work to inform educational models. Results show that these world historians argue for and use multiple, nested units of analysis and shifting temporal and spatial schemes. I discuss the instructional implications of these devices and conclude with recommendations for empirical research on teacher and student cognition in world history.

Does students’ heritage matter in their performance on and perceptions of historical reasoning tasks?

Abstract This mixed methods study explores how high school students (N = 35) enrolled in a US charter school with a high Latino/a population perform on and perceive (in terms of interest and relevance) document-based type historical reasoning tasks: one about the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and the other about the experiences of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 1920s. Students wrote essay responses and completed perception inventories about the tasks. We also interviewed 10 focal students to delve more deeply into students’ thinking regarding the tasks and their interest levels in the two topics. We scored students’ responses along the criteria of historical claims, substantiation of claims, use of evidence from documents, sourcing of documents and contextualization. Our hypotheses were that students would perform better on, and be more interested in, tasks that were culturally relevant to them. We found that although students did not perform differently on the two tasks overall, students’ perceptions of the tasks differed, with a significantly greater interest in the task about Mexicans and Mexican Americans. We address the complexity of these findings and discuss implications for curriculum and practise.

Making Connections for Themselves and Their Students: Examining Teachers’ Organization of World History

Abstract The ability to make connections is an important aspect of teaching history and a vital skill in our increasingly globalized world. This study examines how preservice and practicing teachers organize and connect world historical events and concepts for themselves and for instructional purposes. Findings are based on interviews with 2 card-sorting and think-aloud tasks. Analysis of card-sort maps found that participants made different kinds of connections that give insight into the types of knowledge needed for and the challenges involved with teaching world history. Participants were able to represent the most sophisticated historical processes when they discussed how to connect events to other events. All of the participants made fewer event-to-event connections in the second card-sort focused on instruction, and all but 1 changed the organizational scheme of the cards. This second finding indicates a shift in how participants represented their thinking of world history for themselves and how they might represent it for their students.

Considering World History as a Space for Developing Global Citizenship Competencies

Abstract This article addresses how we might teach for global citizenship in world history classrooms. Despite the name, secondary world history courses in the United States have not consistently focused on global interconnections, multiple perspectives, and inquiry into global issues. We explore why this might be, as well as suggest specific learning activities and curricular topics in world history that could help meet global citizenship goals.

Exploring Teachers’ Use of Resources to Integrate Geography and History

Abstract This article describes the findings of a study involving a professional development program that prepared middle school teachers to integrate content on the earliest eras of world history and world geography. In particular, this study focused on participants’ (n = 37) use of geographic resources to integrate geography and history and to encourage spatial thinking. Teachers were enthusiastic about all of the resources and used them to integrate geography and history content. Thus, this study found that teachers will adopt relevant and accessible materials if they are trained to use them. The Atlas of World History was the most widely adopted resource; the mapping software StrataLogica was more effective at promoting spatial thinking, but the teachers found it to be less accessible and therefore did not use it as often.

The Wiley International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning

The Wiley International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning draws on contributions from an international panel of experts. Their writings explore the growth the field has experienced in the past three decades and offer observations on challenges and opportunities for the future. The contributors represent a wide range of pioneering, established, and promising new scholars with diverse perspectives on history education.