History and the Emerging Nation: The South African Experience

Siebörger, Rob

doi:10.18546/herj.01.1.04

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“…No immediate re-writing of the school history curriculum took place after the end of apartheid in 1994. Instead an interim revision of school syllabuses, to 'remove inaccuracies, outdated and contentious content' (Sieborger, 2000), 'cleansed' the curriculum of the most offensive bits of racism, buying time for a more radical process of re-curriculation to be enacted.ThedetailsoftheSouthAfricanpost-apartheidcurriculumreformprocesshavebeen well documented elsewhere (Jansen, 1999;Chisholm, 2004;Hoadley, 2011). For almost a decade,however,theschoolsubject'History'waslostinacul-de-sacofintegratedstudiesand outcomes-basededucation,whichprivilegedformoversubstanceandmarkedthetriumphof forgettingovermemory.…”

Section: The South African Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In search of historical consciousness: An investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of 'their' national histories

Angier¹

2017

London Review of Education

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This study reports the findings of an investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of their national past derived from narrative accounts of South African history written by 27 university students who had recently completed the national school history curriculum. Analysis of these narratives indicates two fundamental differences in the way the history of South Africa is told, in terms of emphasis (the relative weight assigned to different periods and people) and of agency (who 'did' and who was 'done to'). These differences point to the continued importance of racial identity as a factor in the formation of a national historical consciousness in post-apartheid South Africa. The highly selective emplotment of South Africa's past by the students highlights the importance of sociocultural factors in the development of young people's historical consciousness, a conclusion that has implications for classroom pedagogy. These findings suggest that unless the historical understanding with which students come to the classroom is engaged and is complicated through evidence-based historical enquiry then neither the 'disciplinary' nor 'social justice' aims of the intended curriculum will be realized.

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Section: The South African Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In search of historical consciousness: An investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of 'their' national histories

Angier¹

2017

London Review of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

History and the Emerging Nation: The South African Experience

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

In search of historical consciousness: An investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of 'their' national histories

In search of historical consciousness: An investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of 'their' national histories

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