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February, 2009
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World History and Global Consciousness: A Case Study in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning


James A. Quirin
Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee

WORLD HISTORY has become part of the "revolution in historical studies" since the 1960s,1 and a fast-growing area of college teaching in recent years. This article reports my research on my own world history-based course at Fisk University under the rubric of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). I participated as a Carnegie Scholar in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) in 2000–2001. I was in the third cohort of this five-year program organized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. My group consisted of 40 professors from around the country in many disciplines, including four historians. Judging from the interest and academic excitement generated, the SoTL approach to academic research is taking off around the country and internationally.2 As discussed by Lee Shulman, the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, SoTL has three important characteristics: 1) to conduct reflective scholarship about one's teaching just as one researches one's particular discipline, 2) to uphold responsibly the standards of academic research on teaching just as is done in reviewing other scholars' research in one's discipline, 3) to communicate the results of our research through publications, again as is done in one's discipline.3 Much research from the CASTL cohorts has been presented at national and international conferences and published in several venues in print and electronic form.4 1
   

Research Assumptions and Goals

 
      The project I developed was to investigate the degree to which students internalized a sense of "global consciousness" as they participated in the CORE 306: The World and Its Peoples course during Fall semester 2000. I carried out the research with some reference to a Spring 2001 section of the class and with reflections based on my experience of having taught a version of the class since 1981. An original assumption of my research was that students would learn and retain more information in this class if they became more "globally conscious," and a correlation to that assumption would be that students who achieved higher grades in the course would also be those who acquired a higher degree of "global consciousness." Of course, the teaching and learning process proved to be rather messier than these assumptions forecast. An exciting finding to this research, however, is that even those students who achieved rather low grades almost universally increased their global awareness and sense of personal connection to the world through having taken this course. 2
      The World and Its Peoples is the last of eight courses in Fisk's 32-credit hour CORE curriculum. All students take the same eight courses (except math, which has two tracks). All the students in this section of CORE 360 were juniors or seniors with diverse majors. This course has a cap of 40, but I let a few more students enter in for a total of 43, and two students later dropped out, leaving a total of 41. There were 11 males and 30 females in the class. 3
      The Fisk student body of 900 some students largely is from all over the United States, with a few students from Africa and the Caribbean; is at least 70% female; is almost entirely African American; and comprises many economic and educational backgrounds. From my experience, members of the student body possess different orientations to the world, according to which they can be divided into four groups: 1) those who are very parochial, with almost no knowledge, awareness, or interest in any country outside the United States; 2) those with potential awareness and some concern that they ought to know more about the world; 3) those narrowly focused who may have an interest in only one country or region (such as those fluent in Spanish, those from a particular foreign country, or those with an "Afrocentric" approach); and 4) students with a high degree of global awareness and knowledge as well as a desire to study, travel, and know more about the world and its connections with their personal lives. 4
      Whichever of these four groups the students may initially fall into, they all have a potential advantage toward acquiring an increased global awareness, even if it is not initially realized. As African Americans (with some exceptions), Fisk students are often perceived as the "other" by the dominant culture, so they have grown up in at least two cultures—as Fisk's most famous graduate, W. E. B. Du Bois, identified long ago.5 I feel one of my tasks is to challenge the students to move this "twoness" to a global scale; thus, I would like all students who take the course—whatever grade they receive—to move into either Group 2 or, ideally, Group 4 above. 5
   

Goals of the World and Its Peoples Course

 
      Though I had taught versions of this course since coming to Fisk in 1981, my June 2000 CASTL experience, and reading of Grant Wiggins especially,6 convinced me that I needed to be more explicit to myself and to students about what my goals actually were. This course fits ideally into the need to develop an alternative approach beyond trying to "cover" even some of the world and a few of its peoples, as we jokingly used to say. Therefore, before the start of Fall 2000 classes, I developed a shorthand method of thinking about and remembering the goals of CORE 360, expressed in an acronym: "Change," "Unity in Diversity," "Spacecraft," and "Epistemology" (CUDSE). As I have realized more clearly now, these goals are actually a way to break down the abstraction of "global consciousness" into more identifiable and somewhat measurable chunks. In the last few years, I have added "Identity" as another element to the overall goals, therefore adjusting the acronym to CUDSIE. By adding Identity along with other core goals, I mean to emphasize to the students the significance of seeking personal meaning in this world experience. Most had already been doing this, as seen in later sections of this article, so again this modification was an effort to make my goals more explicit, both to myself and to the students. 6
   

Evidence Used for this Research

 
      In researching my course, I called upon the syllabus and other documents I created relating to student assignments, as well as copies of all student work (including grading marks) as evidence. Permission to use student work for my research was obtained through signed statements by each student, with the agreement that any materials would be cited anonymously. Not wanting to prejudice the results of my research, I merely told students I was researching the class, but did not specify the project goal. 7
      Student work in the class included a Pre-test given on the first day of class, with the same test given as a Post-test at the end of the semester; weekly student journals which I collected and read once at mid-semester and again near the end of the course; two semester tests using essay questions; an essay final examination; three three-to-five-page essays based on the readings; a small group globalization project presented in writing and orally at the end of the semester; results on seven map quizzes, including one on the whole world; my own journal kept (almost) weekly; the comments and journal of a former student from a previous class who observed the class under review; and two post-semester interviews with students in the class. Except for the post-semester interviews and the comments from the past student, all the other work was part of the regular class assignments I would have used regardless of the research project. 8
   

Analysis of Pre- and Post-Test Scores Compared to Final Grades

 
      An original assumption of this research had been that variations in global awareness and knowledge as measured in a Pre- and Post-test would correlate with the final grades students received in the course. The actual results were somewhat less clear. Of the 41 students who finished the class, there were 28 valid Pre- and Post-test exercises available for comparison (students who took both tests, and remembered to put their names on each one). The test was worth 38 total points, and was meant to test both general historical and current knowledge, as well as provide an opportunity to demonstrate an awareness of global connections. For the 28 test students, 23 scores increased, only 3 decreased, and 2 stayed the same. The decreased test scores had dropped by 2 to 5 points while the increased scores ranged from 1 to 15 points higher. 9
      Data indicating a positive relationship with grades included the fact that, as a whole, all students who received an "A," "B," or "C" grade in the course had matched or increased their test scores by the end of the semester. The single highest increase that resulted in the single highest Post-test score was by a student who received an A. All three students who decreased in score received a "D" as a final grade. The final grade distribution (omitting + and – grades) was as follows: A = 3, B = 9, C = 12, D = 15, F = 2. This distribution of grades received some discussion in my cohort at the CASTL experience, where a few comments indicated there were too many D grades. All I can say is that the number was higher than I would have liked, but this is not an easy course, particularly considering it is a course required for all students regardless of their majors. The criteria for assigning grades remained the same as in my previous (and later) classes in CORE 360, irrespective of my research project. For the 25 years that I have now taught versions of this course, the distribution of grades is almost always close to a Bell Curve, though I do not explicitly "curve" the grading scale. 10
      Interestingly, some students who received a D grade had also greatly increased their Post-test performance, one doubling and another tripling their scores. Additionally, the student who received the highest score on the Pre-test ended up with a D in the class. Even the two students who failed the course had slight increases in their Post-test scores, though their overall scores remained at a very low level. 11
      Obviously, grades in this course did not vary neatly with their Pre- and Post-test performances. Some who started with a high degree of global awareness as measured by this test did not perform up to their potential in the actual class. On the other hand, some students who ended up with a C or D in the class nevertheless significantly increased their degree of global awareness as measured by this test. 12
   

Results from Learning Activities Related to CUDSE

 
      Change (C). Though the course is not in the History Department, and there have always been non-historians teaching it, we have almost all felt the need to provide a sense of historical context. Chronologically, the course presently begins with the origins of humanity and comes up to the present, so the students are provided plenty of opportunities to see changes in the world! The broad overview includes the following three key turning points: the origins of humanity more than 4 million years ago; the development of agriculture (and herding) beginning about 10,000 years ago; and the development of industrialization from about 250 years ago. (In previous versions of our Core Curriculum, we had two or, for a while, three semesters for this course.) 13
      Along the way, different kinds of assignments and learning activities are used to raise fundamental questions relating to these processes. As may be seen on the syllabus, several important historical topics that also have implications for the present are discussed, including the concept of "human nature," the meaning of "civilization" both academically and in everyday usage, and a comparison of "southernization" and "westernization." Building global analyses skills, to draw parallels and differences between China and western Europe in the early 1400s, students were asked, "Why don't we speak Chinese (as the main first language) in the U.S. today?" They analyze the Atlantic slave trade in the context of the history of world slavery, and they complete a small group "globalization project" which asks them to look at changes in one country over the last 200 and especially the last 10 years. 14
      Although previously unaware of the terminology, I have been moving over the last several years to an approach to analyzing historical change somewhat like the Interregional Model discussed recently by Ross Dunn.7 This approach focuses on problems and questions rather than simply cataloguing interesting or "exotic" aspects of various civilizations and peoples. I believe virtually all the students in this class do achieve an enhanced perspective on global change to some extent, though much work and thought remains to be done to get them to the point of real global historical thinking, since that type of approach to the world is truly an "unnatural act" for most people.8 15
      The Change (C) goal underlies the first substantive learning activity, which begins the first day when I provide an overview of maps and calendars as a way of raising questions about student space and time perspectives. We go through the Mercator, Gall-Peters, and other types of flat map projections of the globe, and look at some world calendars. They quickly see the inaccuracies and underlying political agendas of the Mercator and in many ways its opposite, the Gall-Peters projections, as well as other types of world maps. They are almost all astounded to hear about all the other calendars and to see the historical context of the western, Gregorian Christian version that dates only to 1582, but has become international. 16
      Student comments in their journals—and later in tests—showed a high degree of global political consciousness after our class discussion. Their awareness did not vary appreciably according to whatever final grade they eventually received. Thus, an A-student commented, "[I was] surprised about how little I knew about maps, but especially about calendars," since she had "assumed the whole world used the same system." One B-student commented it was "very interesting that different cultures and countries have calendars based on what was significant to them." One C-student stated: "What struck me most about the maps is the fact that each one was centered around one country to reflect that particular culture." Another C-student commented, "By showing the changes in maps and calendars over the centuries people are able to see the flow of political power from one group to another." A D-student felt the "interesting points" were "the maps and how they draw or drew them according to who had the power at the time." 17
      Jumping ahead, during Week Six, the class looks at the process of "southernization" in connection with the development of the ancient Indus Valley and successor civilizations of the Indian subcontinent. Students are amazed to find out that our so-called "Arabic numerals" including the concept of zero were invented in India, that sugar crystallization and sophisticated cotton cloth manufacturing, so much associated with slavery in the Caribbean and southern U.S. in their minds, likewise originated centuries earlier in India.9 They read about the origins of Hinduism and Buddhism in greater India and their spread to East and Southeast Asia. 18
      Student essays and journal comments on southernization show that even those who wound up with a D in the class learned something of the significance of this process. One such student used the analogy of "TEAM (in which there is no I)" to explain southernization: "From this phenomenon, new developments and new elements spread throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. Southernization is a true example of a TEAM." A C-student stated: "Southernization was not taken over by Westernization until the eighteenth century. The beginning of the British Industrial Revolution was the rise of Europe, but we must remember the... inventions of India and China that aided the Industrial Revolution." A D-student felt: "The easiest way to describe Southernization is by the modern term 'globalization'... I have enjoyed learning about the Indians and Southernization, and think that everyone should read about how they changed the world. Even their effect on how we view numbers is astronomical. Its significance is unparalleled." Finally, one student entitled his essay, "We were Southernized," commenting that "the numerous years of western dominance have blinded many from even knowing what other world powers or influences existed before it." 19
      Unity in Diversity (UD). The essential point of this theme is that all humans have faced similar questions regarding livelihood, political-social institutions, cultural and religious expressions, and the religious and philosophical analysis of the meaning of life and death, but each culture or civilization has come up with different answers. 20
      I begin this goal with a consideration of the meaning of "civilization," which most history texts take for granted as their basic frame of reference. The concept, however, is embedded in a Eurocentric approach to the world and needs to be deconstructed. The class reads a selection from a traditional approach by a historian, using as criteria for "civilization" the existence of agriculture, a degree of social specialization and hierarchy, a state, cities, monumental architecture, and writing. They also read a piece from the anthropologist, Jacques Maquet, who groups the historical societies of Africa into six "civilizations of black Africa," including those based on hunting and gathering, herding, or small-scale agriculture (elsewhere called horticulture), as well as those with larger-scale agriculture and cities.10 Then they view the documentary The Tree of Iron by the ethnoarcheaologist Peter Schmidt, showing iron smelting in northwest Tanzania that dated back to a few centuries BCE.11 The Haya people in the video employed a sophisticated technology and had a well-organized and hierarchical social structure, but did not have cities, monumental architecture, or writing. We then discuss whether they were part of "civilization" according to the traditional or Maquet criteria. For variation and context, I have added a selection from Johan Goudsblom's Fire and Civilization during the past few years, but that reading was not part of the class in 2000.12 21
      The students' journal comments show how The Tree of Iron resonates with them due to its positive portrayal of African culture, and because it serves to break up the usual monolithic view of "civilization:" "I think when we discuss the topic of civilization it is important to know there is not one correct answer... [Civilization is] how a people live and survive together." "Civilization and its meanings are vast. The standard definition is understood, but it blocks out a lot of groups of people (in the past) that may not have followed the 'standard' way." "The Tree of Iron relates to civilization in that East Africans were making and doing things that pointed to the fact that they were 'civilized' long before they were given credit." 22
      The early weeks of the course are essentially organized around this theme of Unity in Diversity as we compare and contrast early civilizations in Africa (Egyptian, Aksum-Ethiopian, West African, Zimbabwean, and Swahili), West Asia (Sumerian-Mesopotamian and Islamic), South Asia (Indus Valley and Hindu), East Asia (Chinese and Japanese), Europe (Cretan, Mycenaean, Graeco-Roman, and the Middle Ages), and the Americas (Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and Incan). Each civilization is analyzed on its own terms and in comparison with selected others. Often, the students write comparative essays, or at least write journal entries and answer essay questions on the tests. To an extent, this part of the course uses a Different Cultures Model discussed by Dunn,13 but some effort is made to employ a common comparative framework to all of them, and to discuss historical development within and among them. 23
      An essay question on Test #1 asked the class to compare and contrast various civilizations to illustrate the theme of Unity in Diversity. The quality of their answers, and their grades on the question varied according to the depth and breadth of the information they presented and the logic of their analyses. Overwhelmingly, however, all students regardless of their grade or how much information they could remember were able to discuss the concept and often apply it to their own lives. One student, for example, who received a D on this essay and failed the test, nevertheless made the following point on the exam: "The only way we advance in the world is by accepting what we are dealt in life, and learning to work with and appreciate others' differences." Another student with a B essay in a C test summed up his references to six cultures as follows: "It was simply their unity and diversity that put them in the history books. They stood together to build their respective empires and they were diverse enough among themselves to continue to thrive independently." 24
      Yet another student derived lessons for the present from her essay, writing, "One of our (people in general) biggest problems today is that we are very hesitant to accept differences of others. Whites even labeled Africans savages due to the fact that they did not live like Europeans. Different is not always bad. That is the main idea that I got from the readings in this class." An A-student in an A essay summarized her detailed comparisons as follows: "Although these countries and regions were quite different culturally and geographically they were similar in their basic make up. They have been diversified by different tactics for individual means of survival but they were united by the fact that they did survive and not only survived but flourished." 25
      In general, the goal of Unity in Diversity is useful for two main reasons: it allows students to apply the theme to their own lives and current situations; it also assists them to learn material and keep from confusing one civilization with another. Following Jerome Bruner's insight about the structure of knowledge,14 if every civilization is analyzed as a whole and according to the same framework, there should be less likelihood of pieces of information getting mixed up. Of course problems still occur, as on a Spring 2001 student's final exam when he identified Mansa Musa (a fourteenth-century king of Mali) as a "ruler in 13th century India, responsible for having servants called shoguns." Based on my 25 years of experience teaching versions of this class, such gross mix-ups now seem much less frequent than was the case in earlier years. 26
      Spacecraft (S). The characterization of the world as more like a spacecraft than a lifeboat is terminology that comes from the environmental movement, but is meant in a broader sense here. It begins with the common sense view that the world is inter-related in a myriad of ways today, in addition to sharing a common atmosphere and ecosystem. Initially, student comments in class discussions and journals indicated more confusion and, in some cases, resistance to this goal than to any of the others. One journal entry read, "We are sinking because we have proved that we can't live together inside and outside our individual races." Another also resisted the whole idea, and correctly pointed out I had used a mixed metaphor of sinking or swimming with a spacecraft. I have since revised my explanation of this term. 27
      An early learning activity relating to this goal was a class discussion, journal entry, and three-to-five-page essay relating the probable Mesopotamian and Egyptian influences on writing the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. Mesopotamian readings included the Epic of Gilgamesh and King Hammurabi's Law Code. The former has recurring motifs, such as a flood story similar to the flood story in Genesis. The latter's law code contains the "eye for an eye" ethos which was echoed more than 500 years later in the Sinai Covenant in Exodus and elsewhere. Likewise, the "Hymn to the Aten" from Egypt has many themes similar to Psalms 104. Another parallel includes the "Instruction of Amenemope" from Egypt whose list of 30 "instructions" about how to live a good life are essentially paraphrased in Proverbs 22–23.15 I have since added a comparison of the "Sumerian Creation Myth" with the story of creation in Genesis 2, particularly focusing on the "rib motif."16 28
      This material can be seen as part of the Spacecraft goal in the sense that all peoples and cultures are in the same "container" and that those who come earlier often have an influence on those who come later, if the chronology and geography allows. As part of this same exercise, I had students write journal comments on John Donne's seventeenth-century musings that "no man is an island," changing the frame of reference from "man" to "culture." 29
      This whole exercise aroused a lot of interest, and in some cases, resistance and controversy. Many of our more religiously conservative students had trouble with the idea that the Bible is a historical document written by people rather than only the voice of God. But the overwhelming majority of the students saw the logic of the suggested influences and found the process challenging and enlightening since almost none of them had ever heard of any of these comparisons. One student's journal read, "Each man, culture group, country uses the ideals of others as a stairstep to their own advancement." Another used the analogy of making a sandwich in which many various people were needed to make the lunchmeat, the wheat and bread, the packaging materials, and so forth. In general, almost all students' essays showed that "ancient cultures serve as an influence to succeeding cultures." "In all the above texts, it is evident that different cultures share very similar points of view about some very basic issues like creation, the great flood, and laws. The world is truly a circle, meaning that in some strange way everything connects." 30
      Of course, that statement goes too far since "everything" does not connect. These comparisons have to be made under controlled circumstances, allowing for the agency of each "giving" and "receiving" culture and with plausible chronological and geographical contexts. The lack of such controls is one of the problems with some of my "Afrocentric" students' comparisons, such as one arguing that "Egyptian-Ethiopian" civilization was a unit that extended also into Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley. 31
      Most students who resisted these comparisons, however, did so from a fundamentalist Biblical perspective, such as the following: "the probability exists that the Biblical account had been preserved either as an oral tradition, or in written form handed down from Noah, throughout the patriarchs and eventually to Moses, thereby making it actually older than the Sumerian accounts." Others simply waffled, even after making good comparisons: "there are still inconsistencies that hinder a conclusion," while another grudgingly admitted there was "perhaps some sort of influence." 32
      The students' engagement with these texts—even if on a rather elementary level and, of course, through using translations—has proven to be an extremely valuable exercise during the decade or so I have been using it in class. The activity puts them in touch with real scholarly issues that also have significance for the personal lives of most of them. Besides the excerpts from the texts, I also use a video, "Mesopotamia: Return to Eden," that shows the connection of archaeological research to these issues.17 Since that video ignores the possible Egyptian influences, I have since developed a PowerPoint presentation documenting some of the contacts of Egypt and the ancient Israel/Palestine/Canaan region. 33
      For modern times, a major learning activity that fits into the Spacecraft goal framework was the small-group "Globalization Project" completed during the last part of the semester. Here, each small group of three students was to examine the global connections and influences of one country during the past 200 and especially the last ten years, using the rubric of "globalization." They chose countries from every continent. Their projects were presented as written papers and oral presentations the last three days of class. Without exception, the students enjoyed this activity; each one participated in the research, writing, and oral presentations as far as I could monitor. 34
      I found that this activity resonated through the end of the semester when evaluating how this part of the class contributed to their global awareness. For example, two of the students interviewed about the class after it was over felt this activity was the most significant for their understanding of global connections. One of the questions in the Final Exam prompted students to discuss the process and significance of globalization in the world during the previous two decades, using as examples the country they researched as part of their group project and at least one other country for comparative purposes. Most students chose this question among the required three out of five essay choices on this part of the exam. A student who received a B on the exam as a whole commented, "Globalization is as much an idea as a process... Globalization as an idea means that a country sees its problems, whether they be financial or economic, not only in terms of how the country is affected but also how that problem will affect the world at large." She then gave examples from the United States and China. Another student who received a B on the test compared the globalization process in Russia and Portugal: "Countries such as Portugal have seemingly enjoyed the impact that this phenomena has had on its country and economy," noting Portugal's welcoming of foreign marketing. "Russia on the other hand gives the feeling of a grumpy old man stubborn in its ways not wanting to accept the spread of "pop" culture. Russians tend to be more to themselves and xenophobic. The acceptance of outside cultures and ideas are nowhere near that of Portugal." 35
      A student who received a D on the exam mainly because of a lack of demonstrated specific knowledge on the Identifications section nevertheless was able to make some perceptive comments on the process of globalization, as well as on the last question of the exam asking for personal reflections on what the whole course meant to them. For example, she stated: "The significance of globalization in the world... is the reason why I'm sitting here today. We all have learned and incorporated many different languages, religions, and customs from each other." She went on to compare Korea and Brazil in some specifics and concluded: "I look at globalization as a chain reaction. As one country went to another country, they either exchanged the goods that they had or stole them. In that process, people were influenced by different customs and ways or means to survive." 36
      Since the 2000–2001 year, I have changed the nature of the Group Projects to require a focus on causes and results of specific issues within particular countries, such as genocide in Rwanda or Darfur, Sudan; the dissolution of Yugoslavia; economic growth in China or India; ending apartheid in South Africa; and many other specialized topics. In this way, the small groups still need to research the general background of the country in its global context, but they also need to focus on one major issue and therefore go into more depth. In the oral presentations of these projects, the rest of the class can see similarities and differences with their own topics. Some of the questions deal with global issues across several countries, such as ecological, development, or health (especially HIV/AIDS) issues. This small group globalization project thus is an extremely useful learning exercise that brings up to the present examples of global interaction and habits of thought that demonstrate increased student global awareness. It expects students to tie past and present together and illustrates to them the deep-seated and pervasive nature of global interaction. 37
      Epistemology (E). This goal does not involve a systematic examination of the philosophy of knowledge, but it does try to get students to consider and analyze the various sources of their knowledge. This goal was also used as a catch-all category for encouraging students to evaluate and question the usual definitions of common concepts such as "human nature" or "civilization" (see above), as well as to deconstruct certain terms such as "tribe," "native," "pagan"—not to mention the use of "AD," "BC," various map projections, and Eurocentric directional terminology, such as "Near East," "Middle East" or "Far East." 38
      Students are required to write one essay specifically about sources, which additionally serves to touch upon several of these topics. They read the "Epic of Sundiata" from thirteenth-century Mali,18 in conjunction with two fourteenth-century Arab travelers' accounts about Mali.19 The essay assignment is not only to use these pieces as sources of information, but to compare and contrast the treatment each type of source gives to matters of political structure, religion, cultural values, and social structure. The comparison should lead to evaluations of oral versus written, and internal versus external sources, in a particular historical African society. Despite my instructions, their source-critique part of the assignment in this particular class was almost completely inadequate. Rather, most students just treated the sources as supplemental, stating "what one piece might ignore as something insignificant due to habituation the other would record." In general, they felt, "all the writers may have different views on Mali, but they are more or less the same." 39
      The inadequacy of these essays had its roots in the poor class session we had on these readings. Not enough students had read the Epic ahead of time to have an adequate discussion, and the video I showed on West Africa did not have the impact of some others used in the class. The Epic is not a difficult story, but it takes time to overcome the unfamiliarity of names and concepts. In past years, essays on this topic have been much better, so I concluded I needed to be more explicit about what is expected, and to improve the pre-essay class discussion. Since that semester, I have used this essay assignment again and have had better results, but it remains a challenging topic for the general student. 40
   

Conclusions

 
      To draw additional conclusions from my research, I analyzed student answers on the Final Exam, Question III, which asked them to reflect on the significance of the course in several ways:

Answer the following question as completely as you can based on your knowledge and understanding of the world and its peoples and of your relationship to that world (20 points):

You may have younger siblings or cousins, or in a few years you may have children, nephews, or nieces. One day, the children may grow to become teenagers and ask you, "So _____, why should I care about what happened a long time ago or even now in the rest of the world? I want to listen to my music, play games on the computer, and go to the mall. What does it matter to me what happens in China, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, or even in Mexico? They are far away and don't have anything to do with me!"

Answer this question with regard to the world in 2000, and how it has arrived at its present situation during the last several millennia. What have been some achievements of humankind; what have been some failures; what are prospects for the future? Finally, how do you see yourself in relationship to this world; what does it matter to you as an individual, as an American, as an African American, or as a member of the world community?
 41
      My analysis of the answers demonstrated the responses all fit more or less into one of the following four main thematic groups:

  1. Historical (20 responses): students give an overview of world historical changes;

  2. Contemporary (12): students provide an overview of world connections today;

  3. Identity (3): students emphasize how the course has helped their personal identity;

  4. Action (6): students want to apply their new knowledge of the world to take actions to improve it.

 42
      Of course, the actual essays cover many things, and some could fit into all four groups to some extent. The wording of the question suggests some overview of world historical processes would be expected, leading to a connection among contemporary peoples, usually focused on the goods available in the U.S. which came from other countries. On the topic of identity, many more than just three students made a reference to its significance as virtually all my students are concerned with this theme in some variation. The action-focused group, who said generally they wanted to do something about the world or suggested specifically what should be done based on what they had learned about its past, offered a perspective that was not directly forecast by the question's parameters; it also may be the perspective that indicates the highest degree of "global consciousness" in the sense of transforming, not just understanding the world. On the other hand, every one of the 41 students who completed the course had something significant to say about this question with varying degrees of depth, detail, and accuracy, including even the two who earned failing grades in the course as a whole. 43
      The variety of responses cannot be captured with only a few quotations, but let me give some examples. The following response, for example, was from a student who received a B in the class, and the course obviously had an impact on her outlook: "In relationship to this world I feel like a very small part even though I represent a huge group (women, students, Blacks, etc.). I do feel that I have the ability to change things in this world but starting with the communities in the United States... When I think of the world I do not only think of the earth (a collection of land masses divided by water). I consider history, people, religion, problems, philosophies and nations. This class has changed my perspective on this topic." 44
      Another student who received the highest score on the Pre-test realized he did not perform to his highest grade potential and indeed he received a D in the course, but still he kept his global outlook: "It is so important to learn your history and geography, and I promise I'm going to keep learning it because I didn't do a good job on it during the semester. I crammed for this test and didn't get to see the long span until it was too late. But it's not too late. This test will be replaced with other tests, and I'll have the opportunity to quiz and teach others. I hope when it's all over we can see the entire world unfold, not just the small facts that I've managed to pick up from time to time... Like you said before, we will either sink or swim together." 45
      Finally, another student had an opportunity for an overseas experience during the summer before he took this course. He was able to combine his actual experience with the classroom quite effectively and reflect on the results: "One failure of humankind has been its lack of trying to fully understand one another without passing judgement. Americans, I believe, are worst of all... Most other countries look to the U.S. for what the latest hip trend is, be it movies or fashion, while we sit back and mock the rich histories and cultures of others. This is why I think the relationship one has with the world is what he makes it. I am trying to not allow myself to see the world through the same color lenses as everyone else so that at least my children will know better than I." 46
      This SoTL research suggests that virtually all students increased their degree of global awareness or consciousness as a result of taking this course, and that they learned such a global approach from both the pre-modern and modern content. In general, students who got higher grades in the course as a whole also had higher scores on the Post-test purporting to measure degrees of global awareness. But an exciting and unusual finding suggested by the qualitative evidence in this paper is that even students who received low or failing grades did improve their degree of awareness of the world outside and developed ideas about their personal connection to it. 47
      In conclusion, I would like to suggest three ways in which my experience in teaching this course and my discussion in this article may be useful to others: 1) Some of the specific teaching/learning activities or materials described in this paper may be useful in your classes, and if more information is desired, I welcome you to contact me. I particularly recommend the activities that stimulate students to think about common information or concepts such as the existence of many different flat map projections besides the still overused Mercator, or the world wide differences in historical calendars, or the very concept of "civilization" itself. The comparison of ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Old Testament texts, and other comparisons are essential learning activities to enhance students' world perspectives. 2) The approach to this class that explicitly disavows the intent to "cover" everything in world history offers an alternative that instead focuses on issues, problems or approaches to how to understand the world.20 3) Finally, I recommend others try the process of SoTL research on one's own class—it has proved to be extremely enlightening to me, and it is really not hard to do! An interesting area for future research may be a collaborative project between instructors at both the high school and college levels. Based on my experience attending and presenting at World History Association meetings and taking part in the evaluation of Advanced Placement world history tests, I believe college instructors have a lot to learn from our high school colleagues. We should all learn from each others' experiences and work to bring more professionalism to the "operating room," in the terminology of David Pace. We should share existing and develop new teaching techniques and materials to help our students at all levels become more conscious, aware, and knowledgeable about the world, its peoples, and their history. 48


Notes

I would like to thank the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching and Learning for choosing me for their workshop and for all the intellectual stimulation received during that experience, particularly as provided by President Lee Shulman, Pat Hutchings, Mary Huber, and many others. Likewise, I thank my faculty colleagues in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), particularly the 2000–2001 group for their insights, suggestions, and assistance in making my research project better than it would have been without their input. I thank Fisk University for supporting my teaching efforts over the years, and specifically for providing funds to attend this CASTL seminar. I also thank an anonymous reviewer for this journal for useful suggestions.

1.  Patrick Manning, Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past (New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2002), 122–144. For a collection of useful articles re-thinking approaches to teaching world history, see Ross E. Dunn, ed., The New World History: A Teacher's Companion (Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000).

2.  For a sampling of the recent rich literature on the SoTL approach to history, see, for example, David Pace, "The Amateur in the Operating Room: History and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning," American Historical Review 109 (2004): 1171–1191; William Cutler, III, "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Student Assessment," The History Teacher 40 (2006): 69–74; David Pace and Keith Erekson, "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning History Comes of Age: A New International Organization and Web Site/Newsletter," The History Teacher 40 (2006): 75–78. An essential part of the CASTL experience was the interaction among all the professors, both those from within and outside of one's own discipline. I would like to thank all my colleagues in both groups who contributed substantially to the development of my ideas.

3.  In Pat Hutchings, ed., Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Menlo Park, CA: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2000), 103.

4.  Ibid.

5.  W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Greenwich, NY: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1961 [orig. ed. 1903]), 16–17.

6.  Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design (Alexandria, VA: Prentice Hall, 1998).

7.  Ross Dunn, "A Reform Agenda for World History: Teaching in the 21st Century," Spencer Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1998.

8.  Sam Wineburg, "Historical Thinking and other Unnatural Acts," Phi Delta Kappan, March 1999, 488–499.

9.  Linda Shaffer, "Southernization," Journal of World History 5 (1994): 1–21. For an appreciation and a critique of this "southernization" concept, see John Voll, "'Southernization' as a Construct in Post-Civilization Narrative," paper presented at the meeting of the New England Historical Association, October 1994, reprinted in Ross Dunn, ed., The New World History, 191–196.

10.  Jacques Maquet, Civilizations of Black Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972).

11.  Peter Schmidt, The Tree of Iron, documentary, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.

12.  Johan Goudsblom, Fire and Civilization (London, United Kingdom: Penguin, 1992).

13.  Dunn, "A Reform Agenda."

14.  Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education (New York: Harvard University Press, 1960).

15.  All the Egyptian and Hebrew/Old Testament readings are now included in a reader I have since developed for this course: James Quirin, ed., Readings for The World and Its Peoples (Acton, MA: Tapestry Press, 2002). An extensive excerpt from Hammurabi's Code is also in this reader, but the students are assigned the whole book of The Epic of Gilgamesh rather than just an excerpt.

16.  As summarized from Samuel Noah Kramer, ed., Mythologies of the Ancient World (Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1961), 98–103. The classic comparisons of such texts was James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969). For an excellent selection of Egyptian texts, see Miriam Lichtheim, ed., Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3 vols. (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1975–1980).

17. Mesopotamia: Return to Eden, Time-Life Video in Lost Civilizations series, documentary, Alexandria, VA, 1995.

18.  D. T. Niane, ed., Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Essex, United Kingdom: Longman, 1965).

19.  The Ibn Battuta and Al-Umari selections are included in my Readings for The World and Its Peoples.

20.  Of course, other bodies, such as college administrations or state education departments, may impose other requirements with which one has to deal.

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