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

Abstract

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.

The History teacher as public historian

“…Létourneau compared these commonly accepted narratives with official histories that participants would have encountered in school history textbooks and determined that relationships did exist between these two sets of stories. Since publication of this work, Létourneau's methodology has been taken up in parallel projects conducted in places such as South Africa (Angier, 2017), Sweden (Donnelly et al, 2017;Olofsson et al, 2017), Belgium (Van Havere et al, 2017, and by our research team in Australia (Donnelly et al, 2019;Sharp et al, 2017).…”

Controversially uncontroversial? Swedish pre-service history teachers’ relations to their national pasts

“…Still, recent research has shown that history students (and others) tend to rely on what could be perceived as rather traditional renderings of the past, in particular when it comes to the national past (e.g., Angier, 2017;Goldberg, 2017;Vinterek et al, 2017). Canadian researcher Stéphane Lévesque argues that national histories and narratives are particularly salient to how we construct identities and make sense of ourselves and the world around us.…”

“…As already noted above, research on national history and history education tends to focus on countries or societies where there is a tension or a conflict regarding the national past. Studies in Australia (Macintyre & Clark, 2004), Canada (Létourneau & Chapman, 2017;Lévesque, 2017), South Africa (Angier, 2017;Wassermann & Bentrovato, 2018), Spain (Serrano & Lopéz Facal, 2016), Finland (Löfström, 2012), Israel (Goldberg, 2017;Porat, 2004), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Ahonen, 2014), providing some excellent examples, all show how history plays an important but also problematic role in framing and solving these controversies. In order to solve the national controversies in these societies, the general consensus among this research seems to be a move towards a national history education that enables students to meet multiple perspectives on the past and to destabilise and deconstruct their own favoured national narratives.…”

Modelos de conciencia histórica en el alumnado de Educación Secundaria: tradición, simbología y contextualización en torno a los restos del franquismo.

“…Pese a las limitaciones de este estudio, centrado en el análisis de un proceso histórico controvertido muy concreto, y sobre el que los participantes tienen frecuentemente ideas preconcebidas, ya sea por la presencia de los debates en los medios de comunicación o en ámbitos familiares, no cabe duda de que la polémica es un aspecto que precisamente puede ayudar a identificar concepciones diversas. De esta manera, es posible justificar que el análisis de los modelos de conciencia histórica del alumnado puede ser enfocado a partir de la Historia más reciente, así como de los restos patrimoniales, aunque también pueda orientarse a través del examen identitario y de los procesos de construcción nacional (Angier, 2017;Lévesque et al, 2015).…”