Thinking and Teaching in Global Dimensions: A Joint Proposal for A May Seminar

Thinking and Teaching in Global Dimensions: A Joint Proposal for A May Seminar

Grant:
Gilbert Whitaker Fund for the Improvement of Teaching
Academic Year:
2009 - 2010 (June 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010)
Funding Requested:
$10,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
northrop
bbain
Overview of the Project:
The applicants propose a May Seminar for up to 10 faculty and 12 graduate students on the topic of "Thinking and Teaching in Global Dimensions," to be held at the University of Michigan from May 18-June 4 in nine four-hour sessions (9 a.m.-1 p.m., three per week). The Seminar is conceived as a training site in global and world history, a relatively new field for both research and teaching. There is very high demand in particular for accomplished teachers of world history at both the university and K-12 levels, but few UM faculty and graduate students have any formal training in this area. We see this seminar as a springboard for curricular reform in both History and Education—by reaching beyond the national, regional, and temporal frames that shape most History classes at UM. The seminar aims to better prepare graduate students for the future teaching demands they will face, and simultaneously to work with faculty to infuse their teaching with more sensitivity to global and interregional concerns. Globalizing the curriculum also provides clear benefits and new skills to undergraduates, such as the ability to move more fluidly among and between global, national and local scales. Specific outcomes from this Seminar will include new course proposals in global history; substantial modifications to existing courses; new collaborative teaching initiatives across disciplinary lines; expanded K-12 outreach activities; and preparation of new teaching modules. These outcomes address the state of Michigan's new content expectations for world history and geography—of direct relevance to our undergraduates and graduate students pursuing careers in K-12 education—and also help Ph.D. students prepare more effectively for the new contours of an academic job market.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:
The applicants propose a follow-up to the work funded by the original Whitaker grant, which we received in spring 2009. After the 2009 May Seminar for faculty and graduate students, which was the main project in our original proposal, Whitaker funds helped to fund three follow-up teaching workshops in 2009-10 and three others for 2010-11 (for a total of six workshops) that were cosponsored and co-organized by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. In applying for the extension of the Whitaker funds, we also propose to continue our work on the Global Dimensions website, on developing additional new courses, and most significantly, convening the growing group of faculty and graduate students who are interested in teaching and thinking in global dimensions (Globalist caucus).
Project Achievements:
The participants in the May Seminar 2009 included 15 graduate students, 2 post-doctoral fellows, and 12 faculty members from the School of Education and the Departments of History, Anthropology, and Sociology in LS&A. We conceived of the May Seminar and the Phase I follow-up activities as both a training site and springboard for teaching global and world history, seeking to meet the very high demand for accomplished teachers of world history at both the university and K-12 level. These activities, in part supported through Whitaker Stage I grant, helped prepare graduate student participants for future teaching demands while working with UM faculty to infuse their teaching with more sensitivity to global and interregional concerns. The specific outcomes from the Stage I project have been new course proposals in global history (e.g., Hist. 303; Hist. 239); modifications to existing courses (e.g., Hist. 238, 240); new collaborative teaching initiatives across disciplinary lines (Globalist caucus); expanded K-12 outreach activities (World History Initiative); and preparation of new teaching modules.
Continuation:
In Stage II, we seek to build upon this momentum generated in 2009-2010 by (1) supporting the “globalizing” of existing courses; (2) expanding instructional resources for global history; (3) developing rubrics and evaluation principles to determine which courses qualify as “Globally Intensive,” (4) providing further opportunities for graduate students and faculty to deepen understanding of issues and approaches to teaching and thinking in global dimensions, by transcending the national and regional boxes that characterize most historical teaching and scholarship. We will accomplish these goals through a series of course revision workshops that mix investigations into new resources, new approaches to global pedagogy, new technological supports, and studies of students’ thinking as they move beyond the local and proximate.
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