One of the most relevant outcomes of social studies education today is the teaching of “globalization.” Failure to teach this topic situates social studies with a backward glance that prepares students for the 20th century Additionally, too often globalization in U.S. history courses is limited to an economic phenomenon or misinterpreted as a process of global ‘Americanization.’ Conversely, globalization is better taught as interconnected political, social, economic, and cultural processes and projects.
Also, globalization has a profound impact on contemporary identities, identify formation, and subsequently the formation of the “other.” The process of “othering” categorizes people from one’s own distinctiveness. Typically, the process uses qualifiers to marginalize groups as not being “authentic” and relegate collectives to inferior positions. Recognizing this cognitive practice frees students to better engage ‘globalization’, and other concepts, like ‘modernity’ and ‘culture’, with a nuanced approach emphasizing complexity and connections over simplicity and isolation.
Essential Questions:
- How can globalization be defined and that explanation be nuanced and problematized?
- What are the major systems and ideas involved in and impacted by globalization?
- To what extent is Thomas Friedman’s claim that the “world is flat” a valid one?
- What are the limits of seeing culture as static, packaged groups of beliefs, actions, and qualities?
Module Resources:
- Larry Ferlazzo Blog Response
- How do you teach globalization?Four educators — John T. Spencer, Diana Laufenberg, Jennifer D. Klein, and Jason Flom — have contributed responses to Craig’s question. In addition, I’ve included comments from readers.
- C3 Inquiry Lessons
- Secondary Sources/Informational Text
- Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Chapter one of the text, Beyond Dichotomies: Histories, Identities, Culture and the Challenge of Globalization (2002).
- Mamood Mamdani, Good Muslim , Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism (2002).
- Bill Clinton, Impact and Legacy (c. 2003).
- Taipei Times, Globalization is not Americanization (2004).
- TED Talk – Dr. Dean Ornish, The Killer American Diet that’s Sweeping the Planet (2006).
- TED Talk – Gordon Brown, Global Ethic vs. National Interest (2009).
- Life Expectancy Presentation from Gapminder (2010).
- Podcast -BBC . John and Jean Comaroff explore how communities sell their traditional culture (2010).
- Terrorism and the American Experience: The Journal of American History, speaks with Professor Beverly Gage, author of the essay “Terrorism and the American Experience” (2011).
- Video – Hans Rosling, The US in a Converging World (2011).
- Graphic – US Military Bases Around the World, National Post (2011).
- TED Talk – Pankaj Ghemawat, Actually the World Isn’t Flat (2012).
- Mapping the Nation: interactive map that pulls together demographic, economic, and education indicators—nearly one million data points (2012).
- NPR Podcast, A Brief History of US In Central America in the 1980’s (2016).
- Radio Broadcast : How the World Views the U.S. Presidential Election (2016).
- Raising Barriers: A 3 Part Series on Contemporary Border Walls (2016)
- Web Tool – If it Were My Home: Use our country comparison tool to compare living conditions in your own country to those of another.
- Web Tool – Global Terrorism Database: An open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 on.
- Web Tool – Freedom House: Reports on Freedom Levels over time around the globe.
- UT Austin 15 Minute History Podcast: Nigerian Civil War and the Origins of US Humanitarianism
- Conference Webinar – The US In the Eyes of the Rest of the World (2017): a panel discussion among renowned experts on China, Israel and Palestine, Mexico, the Middle East, and Russia to discuss the ways in which political and social perceptions of America are changing (about 2 hours – from the New School in NYC).
- Globalization and Culture: University of Sydney – 6 minute video (2016)
- NY Times Editorial “Americas’s Forever War” (2017)
- Business Insider Infographic and Article: How 19 nations feel about globalization (2017)
- Khan Academy – Globalization Resource (2018)
- Chicago Council on Global Affairs Report: America Engaged (2018)
- World Pharmaceutical Trade Infographic (2018)
- The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment of global health security capabilities in 195 countries. (2019).
- KOF Index of Globalization (2019).
- Global Healthcare Comparison Index (2020)
- Putting Coronavirus in Context: A History of Disease and Epidemics – webinar from the National Humanities Center (2020)
- Democracy and Freedom Indices 2000 – 2019 (this links to a compilation of indices that compares the US to other nations in specific areas like press freedom and corruption).
- Primary Sources
- Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s resignation speech (1991).
- World Trade Organization History Project, Seattle, WA (1999).
- President Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress and the nation (2001).
- How did past Presidents view the global economy (2001)
- Iraq Anti-War Protests around the World (2003).
- President Obama’s remarks in Cairo on a “New Beginning” Includes audio (2009).
- Peter Menzel’s Material World, slideshow (2010).
- Vladimir Putin’s speech on Crimea (2014)
- The World Values Survey, Data Analysis and Comparing Nations (2014).
- Bill Gates Ted Talk: The Next Outbreak? We are not ready (2015)
- Mr. Sebastian Kurz, Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs for Austria Speech at the United Nations (2016 – Video, Audio, and Translation)
- This American Life: Walls (podcast – 2016)
- President Trump’s “America First” speech at the United Nations (2018 – text and video)
- Built to Separate: A Photo Story of Border Walls (2019)
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian politician and academic who has been Director-General of the World Health Organization since 2017 Opening Speech, World Health Summit (2019)
- UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council on the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)