ERIC Number: EJ1312099
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Feb
Pages: 19
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-2745
EISSN: N/A
Lessons from the Trenches: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Great War
Campion, Corey; Dodman, Trevor
History Teacher, v54 n2 p337-355 Feb 2021
The centennial of the First World War has offered instructors across the humanities an exciting opportunity to enhance students' disciplinary expertise while reflecting on the significance of an event that continues to shape the world today. Drawing on established courses on the history and literature of the war, respectively, the authors designed a seminar that invited students to explore both the experience and the memory of the conflict from an interdisciplinary perspective. Eager to model the kind of collaborative exchange hoped to see among students, the authors elected to team-teach the course, attending and engaging in all class sessions and co-grading all major assignments produced by the twenty students. Moreover, the authors were mindful to maintain a balanced syllabus, alternating between lessons in history and literature in order to demonstrate how work in one field both complements and enhances work in the other. While this balancing act provided students with an invaluable learning opportunity, it created an unexpected one as well. In addition to delivering a course that challenged students to work at the intersection of English and history, it was a surprise to observe how the attention to the incorporation of diverse sources and global voices also led students toward a transdisciplinary exploration that encompassed language, visual art, music, and archaeology. In this article, the authors will review the course design, assignments, and experiential learning components before sharing reflections on this unexpected pedagogical outcome.
Descriptors: War, Humanities, Interdisciplinary Approach, Seminars, Conflict, Memory, Cooperative Learning, Team Teaching, History Instruction, Literature, English Instruction, Experiential Learning, Course Descriptions, Assignments, Propaganda, Museums, Novels, Field Trips
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/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A