Chapter 13: Globally Connected Social Studies: Making it Real, Making it Relevant

There was a time not so long ago when Americans perceived the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, or Europe to be “over there,” far away from the United States and unconnected to their daily lives. The issues of those places—dealing with poverty, hunger, old rivalries, ethnic, or religious conflicts—seemed quite apart from the issues faced in their own communities. Up until the late 1980s instructional units and textbook chapters about other world regions often sounded like a fairy tale in a place far, far away as students studied “Nigeria: Tradition and Change,” “Japan: Asia’s Miracle,” or “Israel: A Homeland for the Jews,” with little or no connection between what was happening “over there” to the United States or students’ own lives.