Abstract
In a society mired by racial segregation, the post-apartheid South African history curriculum was designed to promote social cohesion through a centralised narrative of oppression, liberation and democracy. However, in this chapter, Robinson argues that a centralised historical narrative is not sufficient to promote social cohesion. What is required is a focus on historical consciousness—how young people understand the legacy of the past—since it is beliefs concerning this legacy of historical injustice that shape many of South Africa’s defining questions. Historical consciousness is therefore the focus of this study, and in particular how it is developed in four South African Grade 9 history classrooms. The study finds that while history teachers convey the same historical facts, the way that the legacy of the past is communicated differs widely between racial groups in South Africa. A range of pedagogical strategies are used which position the apartheid past as either temporally distant and having little impact on the present, or temporally close and having profound and lasting impact on the present. Furthermore, at times it is the students themselves who police the ways in which the legacy of the past is communicated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
While recognising that race is a cultural construct, often oppressive in nature, and with no scientific validity, it nonetheless holds meaning in the minds of many South Africans. To ignore race would not only be a refusal to acknowledge the lived reality of those I purport to study but would also blind me to the lines along which discrimination and privilege fall. In this study I therefore use capital letters in reference to racial terminology to serve as a reminder that these identities are politically constructed labels, rather than descriptive.
- 2.
A multi-racial ethnic group that claim a distinct identity and were labelled as such by the apartheid government.
- 3.
These questions were largely addressed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
- 4.
Government schools in South Africa may choose to charge fees, however as a result of charging fees they receive reduced government funding.
- 5.
Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa, which assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas. Under the Group Areas Act Black and Coloured people were forcibly removed from neighborhoods which were designated as ‘White’.
- 6.
A common South African expression of surprise or shock.
- 7.
A South African slang term meaning ‘extreme’ or ‘stressful’.
References
Ahonen, Sirkka. (2012).Coming to Terms with a Dark Past: How Post-Conflict Societies Deal with History. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Angier, Kate. 2017. In Search of Historical Consciousness: An Investigation into Young South Africans’ Knowledge and Understanding of ‘Their’ National Histories. London Review of Education.
Asmal, Kader. 2003. Address of the Minister of Education on the Debate on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. Cape Town: www.info.gov.za/speeches/2003/03041515461001.htm.
Assmann, Aleida. 2010. Re-framing Memory. Between Individual and Collective Forms of Constructing the Past. In Performing the Past: Memory, History, and Identity in Europe, ed. Karen Tilmans, Frank Van Vree, Jay Winter, 35–50. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Bentrovato, Denise. 2021. History Education, Transitional Justice and Politics of Reconciliation: Multi- and Univocality Around Violent Pasts in South African and Rwandan Textbooks. In Historical Justice and History Education, ed. Matilda Keynes, Henrik Åström Elmersjö, Daniel Lindmark, and Björn Norlin (pp. 291–314). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Charland, Jean-Pierre. 2003. Les Eleves, l’Histoire et la Citoyennete: Enquete aupres d’Eleves des Regions de Montreal et de Toronto. Quebec: PUL.
Dryden, Sarah.1999. Mirror of a Nation in Transition: History Teachers and Students in Cape Town Schools. Master of Philosophy in Education Dissertation submitted to the University of Cape Town, Faculty of Education.
Duquette, Catherine. 2015. Relating Historical Consciousness to Historical Thinking Through Assessment. In New Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking, ed. Kadriye Ercikan and Peter Seixas, 51–63. New York: Routledge.
Grever, Maria., and Robbert-Jan Adriaansen. 2017. Historical Culture: A Concept Revisited. In Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education, ed. Mario Carretero, Stefan Berger, and Maria Grever, 73–90. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mannheim, Karl. 1952. The Problem of Generations. In Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, ed. Paul Kecskemeti, 276–322. London, UK: Routledge.
Rüsen, Jörn. 2004. Historical Consciousness: Narrative Structure, Moral Function, and Ontogenetic Development. In Theorizing Historical Consciousness, ed. Peter Seixas, 63–85. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Sayed, Yusuf. et al. 2017. Engaging Teachers in Peacebuilding in Post-conflict Contexts: Evaluating Education Interventions in South Africa. Cape Town: Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE).
Seixas, Peter. 2006. What Is Historical Consciousness. In To the Past: History Education, Public Memory and Citizenship in Canada, ed. Ruth Sandwell, 11–22. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Swartz, Sharlene. 2016. Another Country: Everyday Social Restitution. BestRed: Johannesburg.
Teeger, Chana. 2015. Both Sides of the Story’: History Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa. American Sociological Review 80 (6): 1175–1200.
Terreblanche, Sampie. 2003. A History of Inequality in South Africa 1652–2002. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Weldon, Gail. 2009. A Comparative Study of the Construction of Memory and Identity in the Curriculum of Post-conflict Societies: Rwanda and South Africa. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Robinson, N. (2021). Developing Historical Consciousness for Social Cohesion: How South African Students Learn to Construct the Relationship Between Past and Present. In: Keynes, M., Åström Elmersjö, H., Lindmark, D., Norlin, B. (eds) Historical Justice and History Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70412-4_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70412-4_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-70411-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70412-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)