Understanding World History Teachers’ Instructional Thinking About Global Issues

Learning about contemporary global issues is a major focus of reform efforts helping develop a student’s understanding of the modern world. However, these issues are not typically found in most state social studies standards leaving teachers to decide how and for what purpose they incorporate them into their lessons. Using a task-based interviews approach this study explores what nine experienced world history teachers see as the purpose of teaching about global issues in their classrooms. The findings indicate that these teachers see global issues as a valuable tool to incorporate civic learning into their world history courses. For educators seeking to enhance civic learning in world history, this study’s data offers concrete examples of the kinds of civic skills and global awareness that teachers can help students develop by teaching about global issues in their classrooms.