13: Epilogue- Charting A Course towards Equity
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Decolonizing History Education
We applaud the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) in spearheading efforts to create quality open educational resources (OER) and to promote anti-racist curriculum in California’s community colleges, the largest system of higher education in the United States that serves nearly 1.8 million students. In 2020, several educational institutions made a commitment to denounce racism and make equity a strategic goal. Last year, a small group of historians across eight districts began work on a collaborative project to revise content in an existing OER textbook, History of the Modern World, by Dan Allosso and Tom Williford, to promote anti-racism and open pedagogy in History education. This revised textbook is not an edited volume. Each chapter has separate authors and the writers have approached the topics of social justice, equity, and anti-racism from their own perspectives. We hope that the revised content will provide a deeper understanding of important topics in modern World History.
- 13.1: The Limitations of Western Civ. Courses
- Eurocentric narratives present a one-sided and distorted view of historical events, marginalize the contributions and experiences of non-Christian non-Europeans, erase the atrocities of the colonizers, and limit students' understanding of the richness and diversity of human civilizations. This is precisely why it is important to be critical of these perspectives in world history textbooks, and to include alternative perspectives and interpretations that are more inclusive and representative of t
- 13.2: Expanding Horizons- Methods in World History
- One of the key ways in which this textbook promotes anti-racism, equity, and social justice is by highlighting the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression. By examining the ways in which power has been distributed and contested throughout history, global history provides a framework for understanding contemporary issues of inequality and social justice.
- 13.3: Decentering Historical Narratives
- World History textbooks often present sanitized versions of conflicts that either minimize or omit violence, exploitation, and oppression that were integral to empire building and European colonialism. Thus, incorporating anti-racist content into World History textbooks involves exposing violence and exploitation by examining the brutalities of slavery, the exploitation of colonial subjects, and the ongoing violence against women and minorities.
- 13.4: A Commitment to Anti-Racism
- As we move forward into the twenty-first century, it is crucial that we continue to reflect on the progress that has been made and the challenges that remain in our quest for social justice and equity. We hope that you will find this revised textbook to be a useful resource, and that it will inspire you to continue learning and engaging with important topics in World History.
Thumbnail: "Equity in World History," by Anupama Mande, licensed under CC BY.