The title pretty much explains it. History is just so incredibly vast and varied with so many nuances in even the most remote of subjects. So with that in mind, what makes a text a good text for teaching say...basic world history? How do you make sure that you do enough justice to the importance of certain trends, events, people, regions, etc. while still making sure that people understand the bigger picture?
Hmm this is a tough question to answer. There has been a new trend towards globalizing the teaching of history. Many historians are attempting to create creative ways, in which to teach a more encompassing world history, rather than the standard western heritage model (Eurocentric). The most useful strategy is to find themes or periods in world history that can be used to frame and contextualize historical events. Ie. Classical Period, Modern Period. Students are able to identify larger historical developments and determine historical significance, better, when they can break up historical developments into smaller pieces. Without these frames, history becomes a sort of jumbled mass of facts. Students should also know why these periods begin and end when they do. It is impossible to include all regions and people into your historical narrative, so it is up to the teacher to really determine what they include. You can take different routs when creating your narrative. You can go, chronologically, region (start with Asia, move to Europe et ), or global. Jerry Bentley is a world historian, who takes this global approach. He uses Cross-Cultural interactions (trade, migration, empire building) to determine the periodizations of world history. As far as keeping up on current trends etc. that is also the role of the teacher. Textbooks will almost always be outdated, so bringing in new sources can help bring some life to the classroom. So read if you want to keep expanding subject matter competency. Sometimes to teach a more global history, you might find it beneficial to shift around some of the standards. Many world history books in the united states start with ancient civilizations such as Greece, Rome etc. and then shift to some other region in the globe, without really explaining that shift. It also puts too much emphasis on Europe’s role in shifting world history, and ignores the significance of Asia. A good article by Lynda Shaffer titled Southernization, talks about how developments that started in India and China, spread all throughout the Indian ocean, making it to Europe. Her article may change the way you view global historical shifts, this perhaps would make you teach how Asian developments spread throughout the world, making it possible for European development. Looking at interactions seems like the best way to organize a class, and helps explains many shifts in World history (ex. Islamic expansion pushed the Portuguese to explore into Africa. European exploration didn’t just emerge out of some pre-determined exceptionalism). Southernization led to westernization Beyond the subject matter, it is also really important to teach historical skills to students. Many Historians have written articles on how to do this. (just look up how to teach historical thinking skills. )
I hope this helps just a little. I find that it is very important to determine significance in World history, so that you can create meaningful frameworks, which students can use to learn at least a few key points of world history.
Periodization :
Jerry H. Bentley, “ Cross Cultural Interaction and Periodization in World History, The American Historical Review Vol 101. No.3, (June. 1996).
Lynda Shaffer, Southernization