National literacies, or modern education and the art of fabricating national minds

Abstract

The general thesis of this article is that 'nation' and 'state' are often understood as almost equivalent and that this understanding has led to aberrations in educational research, not only with regard to citizenship but also with regard to questions of modernity, claims of globalization, visions of a coming world culture, or even the proclamation of the end of history. The assumed equivalence expresses a particular discourse that traps reflections and research alike, and this discourse is borne by those nation-states that have profited the most from the coupling of the idea of the nation with the idea of the state-that is, foremost, England, Germany, France, and the United States. Two related shortcomings are identified: the large underestimation of nationalism in education and curriculum research and the ignorance of education in the theoretical study of nationalism. The more precise thesis of this article is that we will never understand nationalism in all its layers if we exclude education from the study of nationalism, and that we will never understand modern education if we exclude nationalism in the emergence of the modern nationstates.

Educational Biblical Nationalism and the Project of the Modern Secular State

“…Though research since the 1990s has challenged the presumed connection between the modern nationstate project and the project of secularization, Brubaker (2012) argues that it might still make sense to understand these projects as intertwined. The case at hand seems to support this view, but in a way which at the same time directs our attention toward how religion as a governing factor was rather transformed and maintained within the nation state than dissolved, and that this becomes not least apparent when studying the national comprehensive education system from the 19 th century onwards, as suggested by Tröhler (2020). The case of educational Biblical Nationalism in this context points to the fact that a secularized and re-sacralized body of nation-state knowledge became part of the national imaginaries of the Danish (and other Nordic) Protestant states.…”

“…Picking up on the conceptualization of Biblical Nationalism, this paper is concerned with the use of the Bible in relation to modern national state crafting and as such in post-Enlightenment nationalism, taking up the question of how the Bible was used in crafting the education systems as part of modern nation-state crafting, such as raised by Tröhler (2020).…”

National Identity Textbooks: Teaching Scottishness in the Wake of the Union of Parliaments

“…Scotland as a case study more broadly demonstrates the importance of breaking open the limitations of theories of nation and nationalism conditioned by discussing nationalism as a predominantly political, that is state-bound phenomenon of the modern era, as it exemplifies that politically motivated protests and actions appear to not have been necessary to secure the existence of a nation and the loyalty of its citizens. In this sense, the Scottish case exemplifies the need to expand the research objects of theories of nationalism beyond established nation-states, with that widening the understanding of the terms nation and nationalism, as it appears that nation is mistakenly often used synonymously to the term state (Tröhler, 2020).…”

Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2020

“…The theoretical framework of our research is based on studies of nationalism, national and ethnic identity (Carretero, 2011;Cohen, 2004;Billig, 1995;Tröhler, 2020;Šūpule, 2012). According to European Union legislation (Consolidated Version…, 2012, Art.…”