Social Studies
In and outside of the United States, there is an acknowledged need for a more globalized social studies course appropriate to the 21st century. Yet, given the importance of history as a subject in most national curricula for secondary studies, there are almost as many proposals for global studies as there are nations around the world.
History and Social Studies teachers in the Asia Society’s International Studies Schools Network (ISSN) met in 2008–2009 to explore this issue. We agreed that any solution would have to be informed by a broader sense of history, and that it would need to be a much more practical effort, directly tied to the well-being of our students and the economies they inhabit. As a result, we imagine graduates who can investigate the world socially, using a range of methods from the social studies.
The History and Social Studies Framework for a global approach to the social studies does not offer a new set of content standards regarding the things students must know about the world. Instead, we began by indexing the ways
in which students approach the world, socially and collaboratively,1 and asked how this approach develops as the student’s sense of that world becomes broader.2 As a result, the ISSN Framework allows us to chart the unique
ways in which individual students develop a more global perspective, and the particular strengths students acquire.
Seen through the Framework, our challenge as History and Social Studies educators is not merely to empower our students to improve upon the human condition once they leave our classrooms, but to empower our students to
revitalize the educational experiences we design for them before they leave. To do this, they must engage the process of history where they are, and we must learn to share in learning about our world with them.
This Framework does not replace required curricula or scope and sequences. Instead, we mean to encourage students and teachers to rethink their learning experiences about the world socially, in an increasingly collaborative and global context. As they do, students and their teachers will be able to identify those competencies with which a student best or most ably comprehends the world. Yet the ISSN framework is not a rubric for attaining a global perspective. Global competence is not a singular developmental achievement of the ability to “integrate” vast amounts of information in order to “take action.” Rather it is an expression of each student’s unique capacity to use some or all of these competencies in a way that allows them to understand the world better.
Taking up the four competencies (described in the performance outcomes) in the context of an individual student’s development, we hope to shift the focus of our students’ learning experiences from being subject to their lessons,
to becoming the agent of their own education. This will empower them to participate in the institutions of socialization and formal education that have traditionally been understood as the primary function of civics or social education. Participation, backed by capacity, will allow them to react to, or even shape, their ever-changing world.
1. Robert C. Hanvey, “An Attainable Global Perspective,” Theory into Practice, Vol. 21, No. 3, Global Education (Summer 1982): pp. 162–167.
2. See also: Jean Piaget, The Construction of Reality in the Child (1954); Lawrence Kohlberg, Philosophy of Moral Development (1981) and Psychology of Moral Development (1984); Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (1982); Benjamin Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956); Eleanor Duckworth, The Reality to Which Each Belongs (2005); and James Banks et. al.,Principles and Concepts for Educating Citizens in a Global Age (2005).
History and Social Studies teachers in the Asia Society’s International Studies Schools Network (ISSN) met in 2008–2009 to explore this issue. We agreed that any solution would have to be informed by a broader sense of history, and that it would need to be a much more practical effort, directly tied to the well-being of our students and the economies they inhabit. As a result, we imagine graduates who can investigate the world socially, using a range of methods from the social studies.
The History and Social Studies Framework for a global approach to the social studies does not offer a new set of content standards regarding the things students must know about the world. Instead, we began by indexing the ways
in which students approach the world, socially and collaboratively,1 and asked how this approach develops as the student’s sense of that world becomes broader.2 As a result, the ISSN Framework allows us to chart the unique
ways in which individual students develop a more global perspective, and the particular strengths students acquire.
Seen through the Framework, our challenge as History and Social Studies educators is not merely to empower our students to improve upon the human condition once they leave our classrooms, but to empower our students to
revitalize the educational experiences we design for them before they leave. To do this, they must engage the process of history where they are, and we must learn to share in learning about our world with them.
This Framework does not replace required curricula or scope and sequences. Instead, we mean to encourage students and teachers to rethink their learning experiences about the world socially, in an increasingly collaborative and global context. As they do, students and their teachers will be able to identify those competencies with which a student best or most ably comprehends the world. Yet the ISSN framework is not a rubric for attaining a global perspective. Global competence is not a singular developmental achievement of the ability to “integrate” vast amounts of information in order to “take action.” Rather it is an expression of each student’s unique capacity to use some or all of these competencies in a way that allows them to understand the world better.
Taking up the four competencies (described in the performance outcomes) in the context of an individual student’s development, we hope to shift the focus of our students’ learning experiences from being subject to their lessons,
to becoming the agent of their own education. This will empower them to participate in the institutions of socialization and formal education that have traditionally been understood as the primary function of civics or social education. Participation, backed by capacity, will allow them to react to, or even shape, their ever-changing world.
1. Robert C. Hanvey, “An Attainable Global Perspective,” Theory into Practice, Vol. 21, No. 3, Global Education (Summer 1982): pp. 162–167.
2. See also: Jean Piaget, The Construction of Reality in the Child (1954); Lawrence Kohlberg, Philosophy of Moral Development (1981) and Psychology of Moral Development (1984); Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (1982); Benjamin Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956); Eleanor Duckworth, The Reality to Which Each Belongs (2005); and James Banks et. al.,Principles and Concepts for Educating Citizens in a Global Age (2005).
The goal of history and social studies courses in a globally-focused school is to develop students who can investigate and act in the world socially, using distinct and disciplined methods from history and the various social sciences (including, but not limited to anthropology, civics, cultural studies, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology).
