World History Textbook Rubric Evaluation Session

World History Textbook Rubric Evaluation Session
June 12, 2019, 5:30-8:30pm
4130 Wesley Posvar Hall
 
We are putting together a group of teahers to help with a project  that we have been working on for the past year—a rubric for evaluating World History textbooks (see the statement of purpose below for what we’ve been up to). We would like to put the rubric to the test by having a group of teachers meet for a few hours to evaluate a world history textbook (we’ll provide the text to be evaluated).  You don’t have to be a world history teacher to participate! Also, we are not limiting this to NCTA teachers, so if you have any colleagues who would be interested in this, please let them know about it.  We’ll provide dinner, free parking in the Soldiers & Sailors garage, and as a “thank you” for your time, we’ll give you a $50 stipend and a free copy of the latest title in the ‘Key Issues in Asian Studies” series.
 
If you are able to help out with this interesting project, please email Patrick Hughes  hughespw@pitt.edu by Monday, June 10.
 
Here is the STATEMENT OF PURPOSE from the Textbook Rubric Team (Michael-Ann Cerniglia, Matthew Roberts, Matthew Williams):
Based on conversations at NCTA Board of Advisors over a year ago, we embarked on developing a tool to evaluate the quality of textbooks. At first, we were thinking about the way in which East Asia was treated in World History textbooks, but then we looked more broadly at World History textbooks as a whole.  Of course, this became a very challenging endeavor over the year, in that we found even defining "quality" was subjective. At this point, we have developed a draft of a rubric which we believe produces two things.  First, it produces a subjective score that is based on operationalized definitions; though this was not, admittedly, scientifically tested. Second, it produces a process and experience from which teachers can discuss and compare their scores.  Ultimately, it is the discussion that is most valuable. To that end, we are seeking teachers who are interested in the comparative value of different textbooks based on four categories: Legitimacy, Structure, Perspective, and Agency.  We hope to workshop this rubric and engage in discussion about its value and possible changes that would make it more useful in its application.