The 'Inconvenient Continent'?: Teaching 'Africa' in Global and International History

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  • Additional Information
    • Availability:
      Society for History Education. California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840-1601. Tel: 562-985-2573; Fax: 562-985-5431; Web site: http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/
    • Peer Reviewed:
      Y
    • Source:
      26
    • Education Level:
      Higher Education
      Postsecondary Education
    • Subject Terms:
      Foreign Countries; Teaching Methods; History Instruction; Course Content; Barriers; Ethics; Epistemology; African Culture; Politics; Race; Foreign Policy; Historians; World History; Global Approach; Introductory Courses; International Relations; Undergraduate Students; Social Action; Social Change; Diversity
    • Subject Terms:
      Africa
    • ISSN:
      0018-2745
    • Abstract:
      Due to the particular experiences of the African continent and its peoples, and the myriad of ways these experiences have been interpreted, appropriated, and reclaimed, there are a pressing series of epistemological, pedagogical, and ethical challenges, especially for those who wish to include African content in predominantly non-Africanist spaces, such as large survey courses. Ensuring an appropriate level and breadth of knowledge, as well as attention to the intricacies and cartographies of cultural specificity, while remaining attuned to the politics of racialization and colonization can be an extremely difficult balance to maintain. For historians working at the intersection of the analytical concepts of global and international, teaching African content can be an even more perilous journey. There are three main approaches to transnational history--that is, histories that traverse national borders and narratives: world history, international history, and global history. This paper examines the specific intellectual and pedagogical challenges of teaching "Africa" in non-Africanist contexts, specifically introductory global and international history. It draws on insights gathered from a decade of working at the intersection of international history and International Relations (IR), with a focus on twentieth-century African liberation movements, as well as from several years of teaching global and international history to undergraduates.
    • Abstract:
      ERIC
    • Publication Date:
      2020
    • Accession Number:
      EJ1276012