Build a bridge between global and local history
In our globalized world, students from different places work together on problems that extend international borders. Working in such a way requires that students have the ability to identify with the world at large and with its history. Yet students are also rooted in their local cultures. They have local identities, supported by local histories. The question is how students can combine global and local identities.
In order to encourage students to reflect on this question, the project team aimed to develop the ‘Local Big Histories’ project. This project included a big history crash course. It is often argued that such a course stimulates students to (further) develop their global identities. After having taken the crash course, students will use the little big history method to build bridges between the content of the big history crash course and their own local histories. Also, students build bridges on the corresponding global and local identities. They do this by analyzing how big history processes that have affected all places in the world shaped different local histories and identities. Examples of big history processes are the development of stars, plate tectonics, biological evolution and common processes in human history, such as migrations or the development of religions. The students analyze these big history processes in groups composed of students from different countries. This allows them to gain a deeper understanding of what they all shared and how a common base nevertheless made them all different.
Development and implementation of ‘Local Big Histories’
The project was first implemented in the fall of 2020, by professors and students from the University of Amsterdam, the University of Milan and Aarhus University. After taking similar big history crash courses at their own universities, the students spent five Friday afternoons working together through Zoom. In these sessions, students connected what they had learned in the crash courses to their own local histories. By the end of the fall, the students published their results in the form of local big history videos. They posted these videos on an online world map. This map aimed to show the connections between the videos.
Interesting experience, not entirely satisfactory
Results showed that even though professors and students agreed that working on the project together was an interesting experience, it was not entirely satisfactory. This was to a large extent due to the difficult working conditions that resulted from the corona crisis. But other problems had arisen during the project as well. These issues were mostly related to language barriers. It was difficult to understand each other’s language in sometimes unstable Zoom environments. As a result, what was clear to some groups of students was not always clear to others. This led to confusion, which in turn resulted in too little time to get points across. Consequently, the final videos were not as related to each other as the project team had hoped they would be. Students rated the course with a seven out of ten.
Further development of the project
Fortunately, an opportunity for another run of the project presented itself in the spring of 2021. This time the University of Amsterdam collaborated with the University of Oviedo. During this second run, the project team implemented a number of important lessons they had learned in the fall of 2020.
Implementing these lessons to the project led to inspiring and energizing discussions between the students. Also, it led to surprising and rewarding connections between the local big histories. The second run of the project formed the base for the recommendations the project team members made for local big histories projects beyond their own classrooms.
Presentations, publications and products from the project
Comenius Teaching Fellow 2019
