Mediating transitional justice: South Africa’s TRC in history textbooks and the implications for peace

Bentrovato, Denise; Wassermann, Johan

doi:10.1080/14781158.2018.1438386

Cited by 10 publications

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“…While the editors of this special issue understand and often agree with these critiques, in our prior work we have also offered suggestions about some of the strengths of textbooks. We have, for example, provided practical ideas for how textbooks can be used effectively as one of many sources in inquiry-based lessons and activities (Bentrovato & Wassermann, 2018;Bertram & Wassermann, 2105;Chiponda & Wassermann, 2015;Fru & Wassermann, 2020;Halsall & Wassermann, 2018;Maposa & Wassermann, 2014;Roberts, 2013Roberts, , 2014aRoberts, , 2014bRoberts & Elfer, 2018, 2021Roberts et al, 2022).…”

Section: Scott L Robertsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Good Use of Textbooks

Wassermann

Roberts

2022

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am also the Head of the Department of Humanities Education. My goal is to develop passionate history teachers that will advance historical thinking in their classrooms and, in so doing, advance school history as an analytical endeavor. In my professional development, my scholarly work focuses on history textbooks, youth and history, and teaching issues of controversy in the subject. Before joining academia, I taught high school history and geography. Outside of my professional development efforts, I am married to a fellow History teacher and love rambling and travelling.

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Section: Scott L Robertsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Good Use of Textbooks

Wassermann

Roberts

2022

ASSERT

Self Cite

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“…An analysis of truth commission final reports (Paulson and Bellino, 2017), for example, found that 16 reports called for non-formal education programmes, and 15 reports recommended the development of new content or subject areas within formal education. Furthermore, truth commission reports have provided source material for official textbooks (Bentrovato and Wassermann, 2018) and alternative educational materials developed by human rights organisations in Guatemala (Oglesby, 2007), South Africa (Weldon, 2010) and Peru (Paulson, 2017). In the absence of a history education that facilitates truth telling, history educators warn that a 'social amnesia' (Chapman, 2007) might prevail, and 'if the origins of conflict are not addressed effectively, then instability remains' (Barton and McCully, 2006: 176).…”

Section: Problematising Truth Tellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualising historical legacies for transitional justice history education in postcolonial societies

Robinson

2022

Hist_Educ_Res_J

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Addressing legacies of past injustice is a central concern for transitional justice. It has most commonly been attempted through a ‘truth-telling’ approach; it is assumed that if the truth of past injustices is made known, then justice can be acted upon within contemporary society. ‘Truth telling’ – and disciplinary approaches to learning about past injustices – is therefore a central rationale for postconflict history education. However, this article argues that ‘truth telling’ is not sufficient for transitional justice history education. Instead, greater attention should be paid to historical legacies, since it is beliefs about how the past impacts the present that shape reparation decision making. While the concept of historical legacies has been under-theorised by transitional justice scholars, this article demonstrates how recent work from the field of history education can be helpful. In particular, this article distinguishes between legacies as essentialised causal relationship between the past and the present, and legacies which refer to how people construct causal relationships between the past and present. By understanding legacies as constructs, this article encourages history educators to engage with how identity factors may mediate the way in which students understand the impact of the past on the present, particularly in postconflict societies.

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“…There exist few conceptual frameworks for the analysis of processes by which knowledge from historical justice agendas gets translated into educational domains, such as curricula, pedagogy, materials, museums, and memorial sites. Scholars seeking to survey this field have tended to focus on specific redress mechanisms in relation to education, like truth commissions (Paulson and Bellino 2017) or discrete educational materials such as textbooks (see for example; Bellino and Williams 2017;Bentrovato and Wassermann 2018;Christodoulou 2018), and curricula (See for example; Miles 2018; Keynes 2019).…”

Section: (C) Educationalisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Connecting Historical Justice and History Education

Keynes

Elmersjö

Lindmark

et al. 2021

Historical Justice and History Education

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In recent years, movements for historical justice have gained global momentum and prominence as the focus on righting wrongs from the past has become a feature of contemporary politics. This imperative has manifested in globally diverse contexts including societies emerging from a period of recent, violent conflict, but also, established democracies which are increasingly compelled to address the legacies of colonialism, slavery, genocide, institutional abuse, and war crimes, as well as other forms of protracted discord. A diverse suite of redress instruments including -but not limited to -criminal tribunals, truth commissions, reparations, and official apologies, are now regularly deployed in efforts to remedy and overcome historical injustices. Conceptions of historical justice have been embedded in existing legal systems and humanitarian frameworks, including human rights (Teitel 2014), and history increasingly occupies a central position in the mediation and management of the collective past (Olick 2007).Educational initiatives of various kinds are located at the centre of these actions for historical justice. Educating the public, politicians or different categories of professionals by spreading knowledge generated in truth commissions, white paper projects, or criminal tribunals are, alongside different political and compensatory actions, important aspects of such initiatives. Schools, and other institutionalised educational contexts, have become important arenas of dissemination, as have museums and commemorative sites as well as broader governmental campaigns for spreading knowledge of historical injustices to the public. In this context, history education, broadly conceived, has become a focus for researchers and practitioners interested in how contested understandings of, and approaches to studying, the past can incite, exacerbate, and potentially, transform conflict.While there are many books published on the topics of teaching difficult, sensitive, and contested histories (Bentrovato et al. 2016;Elmersjö et al. 2017;Psaltis et al. 2017;Peck and Epstein 2018), scholars have paid relatively less attention to the evolving relationship between historical justice and history education, including the challenges and possibilities this relationship generates for both fields. This volume is thematically located at the intersection of these two fields and is concerned with how the expectations of historical justice movements and processes are directed towards, and taken up, in educational contexts, particularly in history education. By presenting cases from a wide range of national contexts, this collection sets out to explore important empirically grounded and conceptual features of the evolving relations between history education and historical justice, as well as to discuss various problems and possibilities located at those junctures.This book explores distinct but connected domains where agendas of historical justice and history education intersect. It considers the spread and use of knowledge generated fr...

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Mediating transitional justice: South Africa’s TRC in history textbooks and the implications for peace

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Making Good Use of Textbooks

Making Good Use of Textbooks

Conceptualising historical legacies for transitional justice history education in postcolonial societies

Introduction: Connecting Historical Justice and History Education

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