Global Awareness and Perspectives in Jordanian History Textbooks
Prof. Dr. Fakhri R. Khader

Abstract
This paper examined the global awareness and perspectives in the Jordanian history textbooks for grades 6-10 of the upper basic cycle. The purpose of this paper is fivefold: (i) to analyze the history textbooks in order to explore the inclusion of global and local dimensions, (ii) to explore in which grade levels global and local dimensions are introduced and taught, (iii) to look into the percentage of global dimension compared to the local dimension, (iv) to envisage a list of global topics that can be taught, and (v) to discuss the role of teachers in engaging students in global education. To achieve the purpose of this study, 18 concepts related to global awareness distributed in five main domains were developed. These are the concepts that may prove useful to teachers faced with the task of providing instructions about global dimension. The content was analyzed to examine the repartition of the global and local dimensions based on the number of pages in the textbooks. It was concluded that the Jordanian history textbooks are biased and the global dimensions are almost ignored for grades 6-10 of the upper basic cycle. Therefore it is recommended that the Jordanian history textbooks be reviewed and re-designed in order to infuse global dimension.

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