Your Name and Title: Craig Perrier, Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator for History and Social Studies and History Adjunct, Northeastern University.
School or Organization Name: Virtual High School and Northeastern University
Co-Presenter Name(s): None
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Massachusetts, USA
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): Teachers, Dept Heads, Curriculum Coordinators, Librarians,
Short Session Description (one line):
Ultimately, a more nuanced, constructivist approach to history education which addresses culture as a complex process (not only as a product) with contextualized meanings, will further authentic global perspectives in education and promote historical thinking beyond the limits of national models of history education.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
Essentializing the Global “Other”: Defining and Teaching “Culture” as a 21st Century Skill
In the wake of globalization’s impact on education, a movement which has simultaneously called for the development of global competencies, global literacy, global intelligence, global perspectives, and global citizenship in schools, the concept of “culture” is largely defined in terms of bounded and static units of knowledge. Teaching “culture” as both essentialized packages and the domain of national and ethnic identities, is a central practice to the process of “othering.” What’s more, this over-simplification embedded in curriculum models labeled “multi-cultural”, “international”, and “global” garners legitimacy in secondary education pedagogy and epistemology. This validation, in turn, replicates the paradigm of the “other” associated with nationalized history education. Understanding the “other” as well as the processes of “othering” should be explicitly stated in history curricula and justified as a skill set mastered by students. To these ends, framing “modernity” and “globalization” as constructed, interconnected historical, social, and economic process bridges understanding of the past with contemporary cultural realities. Failure to do so reinforces national and civilization identities as natural truths and not constructed imaginaries.
In Rescuing History from the Nation, historian Prasenjit Duara contends that, “othering has a genealogy related to nationalism. Only when…cultural values sought legitimation in the face of the challenge posed by the Other…do we begin to see the transformation to nationalism or to a culture protected by the state.” Similarly, Michel Rolph-Trouillot, in Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World, identifies the phenomenon of “othering” as a knowledge category underlying the West’s worldview:
"In creating the West, the European Renaissance shaped a global geography of imagination. That geography required a “Savage slot,” a space for the inherently Other. … The other in the savage slot can be noble, wise, barbaric, victim, or aggressor, depending on the debate… Regional and temporal variants abound. As long as the slot remains, the Savage other is … a metaphor in an argument about nature and the universe, about being and existence - in short, an argument about foundational thought…it legitimates differences form the Other and to fix and privilege a single identity from among the contesting multiplicity of identifications."
Ultimately, a more nuanced, constructivist approach to history education which addresses culture as a complex process (not only as a product) with contextualized meanings, will further authentic global perspectives in education and promote historical thinking beyond the limits of national models of history education. Simply put, destabilizing national narratives invites active inquiry by students engaged in the construction of knowledge about the past, culture, and identity.
Overall, this presentation challenges traditional, simplified definitions of culture which replicates a myth of ‘cultural authenticity’ found in most secondary social studies textbooks. It utilizes and anthropological view of culture and argues that this approach is an essential part of global competencies. Lastly, it argues that culture is a key skill to explore in the social studies as important as STEM objectives and outcomes. Participants will come away with an understanding of culture and tools to implement this learning with their students. Time for Q and A is built in to the 1 hour session.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/107.5/ah0502001500.html
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