Historical Themes and Questions

This is a resource page for teaching history thematically.  I hope some of you find it useful!  

Knowledge is constructed, or built, and the way that it's built is by fitting all the pieces together, by making connections.  In history, basic day to day connections are made by examining historical causality: rich explanations of why things happen create a story that can be remembered, whereas sheer information is fragmented, difficult to remember, and difficult to discover meaning in.  Causality in history is thus like a kind of glue that holds things together, unfortunately it is notoriously difficult to find texts that are both accessible to teenagers and rich in causal explanations.  In history, analysis of causality constructs knowledge on a day to day basis, but this daily work must be connected to big ideas, themes, and questions.  As the year (and years) progress, these ideas, themes and questions are revisited at higher orders of thinking.  (More on historical causality here.) 

Below are examples of historical themes and questions taken from a few different sources. (For examples of the related topic of teaching for understanding, generative topics, and throughlines/red threads, check out these "pictures of practice".)  

1) One fantastic place to start exploring historical themes is the excellent website Bridging World History, which offers 26 thematic units.  Examples of themes include: human migration, agricultural and urban revolution, connections across land, connections across waters, transmission of traditions, families and households, and land and labor relationships. 

2) In Teaching World History in the 21st Century, a book filled with intelligent and helpful essays, Thomas Mounkhall suggests four "core world history themes": political, economic, cultural, and biological.  His strategy is then to divide each of those up into four smaller themes.  He emphasizes that educators should develop their own themes, to suit their own needs; here are the sub-themes he uses: 

Political: imperialism, self-determination, cross-regional war, and exploration.

Economic: long distance trade, interdependence, multinational corporations, trade diasporas 

Cultural: cultural diffusion, cultural synthesis, technology diffusion, missionary work 

Biological: flora diffusion, fauna diffusion, disease diffusion, migration

The history of the human relationship to environmental change is a major historical field, but a new one.  Teachers interested in learning more about environmental issues and biological diffusion in world history should consult the incredible annotated bibliography at the end of Teaching World History in the 21st Century, or read this issue of World History Connected online. 

3) Chapter 5 of Wiggins and McTighe's essential book on backwards planning, Understanding by Design, is titled "Essential Questions: Doorways to Understandings".  They open with this quote by Jerome Bruner: "Given particular subject matter or a particular concept, it is easy to ask trivial questions.... It is also easy to ask impossibly difficult questions.  The trick is to find the medium questions that can be answered and that can take you somewhere".  A trivial question is one that is quickly answered and then done with.  Like an impossibly difficult question, trivial questions inspire no thought and lead nowhere. 

Wiggins and McTighe emphasize that essential questions allow students to remain focused on big ideas.  Essential questions are not immediately answerable - but they inspire thought, and can be thought about for years, or over the course of a life.  Here are examples from all subject matters:  

• To what extent does art reflect culture or shape it?
• What is a true friend?
• How precise must we be?
• Must a story have a beginning, middle, and an end? 
• Is everything quantifiable?
• To what extent is DNA destiny? 
• In what ways is algebra real and in what ways unreal?
• To what extent is US history a history of progress?  
• What is the difference between a scientific fact, a scientific theory, and a strong opinion? 
• Must heroes be flawless?
• Who is entitled to own what? 

How are such questions meant to be used?  In backwards planning, the goal is to start planning with what you want your students to understand at the end of a week or a unit, to figure out how they can show you their understanding and how you can assess it, and then to plan according to meet those goals.  If one of my big goals for a week was to help students to understand the balance of power amongst the three branches of government, I could start the week off with the question, "How might a government guard against abuses of power?"  The purpose of the question is connective.  As the week progresses and facts accumulate, students can see how the Framers were trying to solve this question and attach the facts back to the question.  Executive branches, checks and balances, and all the rest thus finds meaning and coherence.  At the end of the week, the question is not answered; nor was it meant to be. 

Some questions are great for framing lessons, others for units, some for year long themes.  A question like "what is democracy?" could frame an entire unit; while "How does technology influence culture?" could be a year long theme, revisited at increasingly sophisticated levels, giving students the chance to recall and compare how technology influenced culture in past units.   

4) Linda Levstik and Keith Barton offer this extensive list of themes and questions in their book Doing History. They introduce them as "the enduring themes and questions that humans have struggled with over time", and note that the questions need to be altered according to grade level.  For example, "how has human movement been encouraged or prohibited" can become "why do people move from one place to another?"  They also note that many of these questions can be reworded and asked of ourselves and our society, thereby becoming directly applicable to students lives.  They recommend beginning by framing a question as it applies to students, and then exploring the question historically.   

The Development of Human Societies and Cultures

Why have people developed organized societies and cultures? 

How have environmental factors influenced sociocultural developments? 

How have cultures differed in social, economic, and political organization? 

What elements do societies/cultures have in common? 

How have cultures influenced the way people perceive themselves and others?   

How have continuity and change been reflected in and across cultures over time?  

Movement and Interaction of People, Cultures, and Ideas 

What forces have created, encouraged, or inhibited human movement?

What factors have enhanced and inhibited the spread of ideas, goods, and cultures?  

How has human interaction led to conflict and/or cooperation?  

How has the spread of ideas, goods, and cultures influenced societies? 

Human Interaction With the Environment

Over time, how have human societies viewed their physical environment?  

How have humans changed their environment to suit their needs?  

How have humans adapted over time to meet environmental realities?  

How have decisions about the environment had cumulative and complex effects on societies? 

How have competing interests within a society viewed resource allocation?   

Patterns of Economic and Technological Organization and Change 

Why have different societies and cultures developed different economic systems?  

How and why did some societies develop agricultural economies? 

What factors are critical to the emergence of technologically advanced societies? 

How have societies with different economic systems included or excluded people/groups from decision making and the allocation of benefits?  

How have societies with different economic systems adapted to changing conditions and demands? 

How have scientific developments led to technological and/or developmental change?  

The Relationships Amongst Values, Beliefs, Ideas, and Institutions 

How have religion and philosophy influenced individuals and groups?  

How have these influences been expressed in the arts and in other institutions?  

How have values, beliefs, and ideas shaped culture and social institutions? 

What leads some cultures to influence others?  

How have some cultures imposed their values, beliefs, ideas, and institutions on others?  

How have cultures attempted to maintain their values, beliefs, ideas, and institutions?  

How have values, beliefs, ideas, and institutions come into conflict with each other, and how have these conflicts been expressed? 

How have cultures defined the relationship between the individual and society?