Building on a Textbook: Historiographical, Methodological, and Narrative Scaffolding in World History Instruction

How can we introduce history methods and historiography into a global history course curriculum built around a textbook? This case study examines a tenth-grade world history class with Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (WTWA) as the main textbook. WTWA has many merits, including its chronological organization, its fairly open narrative that allows for curricular flexibility, and its global, non-Eurocentric focus. However, the interpretive and narrative frame can feel broad and general, relaying a history that is large in scope but spare in its elaboration. Further, WTWA deploys analysis subtly and explores historians’ debates fairly minimally. Thus, the book’s truly global focus can fall somewhat flat unless the teacher or course scaffolds story-telling, methodical instruction, and field familiarization. Given that such gaps are not untypical of textbooks, this paper considers a remedy, relating how Trevor Getz and Liz Clarke’s Abina and the Important Men – a graphic history accompanied by primary source material, explanation of history methods, and snippets from scholarly works – proved a useful supplement to WTWA. Specifically, this example shows how Abina (or comparable) can be powerful. Along with its compelling story, it: 1) allows for systematic, theorization of major historical phenomena – like Atlantic World intersections of gender, slavery, colonialism, and capitalism (this also met our SF Bay Area school’s DEI needs); 2) introduces methodological questions around archives, sourcing, interpretation, narrative, and more; 3) engages with historiography and related interdisciplinary scholarship; 4) shows students what a “deeper dive” in global history can look like; and 5) ultimately, makes more transparent the production of academic knowledge such as that which appears in a textbook but also beyond. This paper will include a brief curricular overview and detail specific lessons and assignments, in order to demonstrate, ultimately, how two such texts can complement one another in support of a course.