We have spent some time wrestling with student expectation 6.10B in the World Cultures course. Compare ways in which various societies such as China, Germany, India, and Russia organize government and how they function.
On the surface this standard doesn’t seem all that difficult, but let’s look a little closer. Compare, that’s easy enough. What is similar and what is different? So basically identify what is similar and different about the way various societies organize government. Except, governments can be organized in a lot of ways- as parliamentary systems, unitary systems, confederations, federations, monarchies, theocracies, democracies, and republics. I’m sure I left something out.
The standard gives some examples of what are “various societies.” While that may help us understand that in this instance “various societies” is synonymous with nations, it also introduces some confusion. Are students supposed to really study the way China, Germany, India, and Russia are organized as governments? Are they supposed to know about each of their legislative bodies, judicial structures, and executive duties? Additionally, students are supposed to compare how governments function. Don’t all governments have some type of bureaucracy to function? Add it all up and we think this is a “tricky SE.”
What’s a teacher, instructional coach, or curriculum director supposed to do? What are the students really supposed to learn? Remember they are in sixth grade not high school government. After some research we revised the clarification for this SE, picking two broad categories for the organization of government- unitary systems or federal systems. We left out confederations, since we have no modern examples of those among the various societies examples. One may consider the EU as a confederation, but we are trying to simplify this SE and not over complicate it.
The SE is first introduced in Unit 2 where students learn that Canada and the United States compare as similar, both being federal systems with constitutions detailing the division of powers between the national government and the state/provincial governments. The SE is included in later units based on the examples of “various societies.” In Unit 4 Europe, unitary systems are more common with Germany being one exception. In Unit 5 it gets a little tricky with Russia. After the fall of communism in Russia a constitution was adopted in 1993 creating the Russian Federation. So technically Russia is constitutionally organized as a federation, but the concentration of power at the executive level means Russia operates more as a unitary system. Unit 8 includes the SE with India being an example of a federal system. And finally the SE is included in Unit 9 with China exemplifying a unitary system.
Most nations operate governments at national, intermediate, and local levels. The distinction between federal systems and unitary systems is evident in how the power between the national government and these sub-units of governments is detailed, usually in a constitution. In a unitary system the local governments may have some autonomy, but the national government determines which powers the local government may exercise and may even abolish the local government. Generally in federal systems intermediate government levels, such as the state/provincial governments, have constitutionally protected powers and a measure of sovereignty. These two definitions are the extreme on the continuum, as most nations are fall somewhere between the extremes.
We hope our new clarification of this “tricky SE” makes more sense. We welcome your feedback and offer this hyperdoc as a resource. Let us know if you have a tough TEKS/SE you would like highlighted.
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