On March 10, the San Mateo Union High School District Social Science Council will recommend the Board of Education to adopt the “Voyages of Exploration” textbook to replace the textbooks currently used in the college preparatory and advanced standing Modern World History classes. In total, the District would spend $240 thousand on the new textbooks for about 2,200 students if the textbook is adopted.
In the past, Aragon freshmen took the World History Introduction class to prepare for the Modern World History course sophomores are required to take. However, with the shift to Ethnic Studies as the freshman year social science class, a course of study committee formed in the fall of 2019 to adjust the social science curriculum.
“We revamped and rewrote the Modern World History course to be more inclusive and representative of a world perspective,” said the District Social Science Coordinator Michael Zozos. “When you rewrite the course of study, you need a book to match it.”
“[The current textbook] has a narrow scope and does not provide the inclusivity that we would like to see“
The Modern World History Textbook Selection Committee, consisting of 11 teachers across five school sites, formed in the fall of 2021. Using the textbook piloting rubric approved by the Social Science Council, the textbook committee selected “Voyages of Exploration” and “History Alive! World Connections” out of five options, which were then used by students in the fall of 2021. Two student surveys were administered in the winter of 2021 to garner feedback. After the pilot phase, the textbook committee favored “Voyages of Exploration” and made this recommendation to the Social Science Council.
“[The ‘Western Civilization’ textbook, used in the AS classes, has a] Eurocentric lens,” Zozos said. “It does not match with the vision of the District and our teachers [because] it has a narrow scope and does not provide the inclusivity that we would like to see.”
Unlike the current CP Modern World History textbook, “Voyages of Exploration” will offer more comprehensive material, online resources and shorter chapters, providing teachers with flexibility when lesson planning.
“Our understanding on how we learn history can evolve”
“One of the challenges is the reliability of sources,” said Modern World History teacher Jonathan Felder. “I like to give students a variety of sources so they can practice evaluating source reliability and … determine [holistically] what happened in an event. ‘Voyages of Exploration’ writes more about the leaders of independence movements in countries like Africa. It includes the Chinese perspective, the Japanese perspective and more Asian country perspectives [overall].”
Modern World History teacher Jennifer Seif elaborates on why the “Voyages of Exploration” textbook is more extensive.
“It includes more primary sources and alternative narratives,” Seif said. “It’s exciting because scholarship can change even though history feels stagnant. Our understanding on how we learn about history can evolve.”
If the District adopts the “Voyages of Exploration” textbook, it will be implemented in the fall of 2022.
