Educational: History

Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA volume in International Review of History Education Series Editor Peter Lee, Rosalyn Ashby, Stuart Foster As educators in the United States and Europe develop national history standards for K-12 students, the question of what to do with national history canons is a subject of growing concern. Should national canons still be the foundation for the teaching of history? Do national canons develop citizenship or should they be modified to accommodate the new realities of globalization? Or should they even be discarded outright? These questions become blurred by the debates over preserving national heritages, by so-called 'history wars' or 'culture wars,' and by debates over which pedagogical frameworks to use. These canon and pedagogical debates often overlap, creating even more confusion. A misconceived ""skills vs. content"" debate often results. Teaching students to think chronologically and historically is not the same as teaching a national heritage or a cosmopolitan outlook. But what exactly is the difference? Policy-makers and opinion leaders often confuse the pedagogical desirability of using a 'framework' for studying history with their own efforts to reaffirm the centrality of national identity rooted in a vision of their nation's history as a way of inculcating citizenship and patriotism. These are the issues discussed in this volume."" Today's students are citizens of the world and must be taught to think in global, supranational terms. At the same time, the traditionalists have a point when they argue that the ideal of the nation-state is the cultural glue that has traditionally held society together, and that social cohesion depends on creating and inculcating a common national culture in the schools. From an educational perspective, the problem is how to teach chronological thinking at all. How are we to reconcile the social, political and intellectual realities of a globalizing world with the continuing need for individuals to function locally as citizens of a nation-state, who share a common past, a common culture, and a common political destiny? Is it a duty of history education to create a frame of reference, and if so, what kind of frame of reference should this be? How does frame-of-reference knowledge relate to canonical knowledge and the body of knowledge of history as a whole?Table of ContentsAcknowledgements, Linda Symcox and Arie Wilschut; Series Introduction: International Review Of History Education, Volume 5, Rosalyn Ashby, Stuart Foster and Peter Lee; Introduction, Linda Symcox and Arie Wilschut; SECTION I: NEW CURRICULA IN A POST-NATIONAL WORLD; The Evaporated Canon and the Overvalued Source: History Education in Belgium: An Historical Perspective, Kaat Wils; Internationalizing the U.S. History Curriculum: From Nationalism to Cosmopolitanism, Linda Symcox; The Two World Histories, Ross E. Dunn; SECTION II: THE PERSISTENCE OF TRADITIONAL CURRICULA; Yearning for Yesterday: Efforts of History Professionals in Europe at Designing Meaningful and Effective School History Curricula, Joke van der Leeuw-Roord; Containing and Regulating Knowledge: Some Thoughts on Standards and Canonization as a Response to the Complex Demands of a Globalizing World, Hanna Schissler; SECTION III: THE EDUCATIONAL DEBATE OVER HOW TO TEACH HISTORY; Canonical Standards or Orientational Frames of Reference? The Cultural and the Educational Approach to the Debate About Standards in History Teaching, Arie Wilschut; Drinking an Ocean and Pissing a Cupful: How Adolescents Make Sense of History, Denis Shemilt; ""Two Out of Five Did Not Know That Henry VIII Had Six Wives:"" History Education, Historical Literacy, and Historical Consciousness, Peter Lee and Jonathan Howson; SECTION IV: THE DEBATE OVER HOW STUDENTS LEARN HISTORY; The Denial of Desire: How to Make History Education Meaningless, Keith Barton; Competence in Historical Thinking, Mastering of a Historical Framework, or Knowledge of the Historical Canon, Bodo von Borries; Closing Comments, Wijnand M. Mijnhardt; About the Authors.

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Book SynopsisABOUT THE BOOK The book is entitled History Wars and the Classroom: Global Perspectives and examines how ten separate countries have experienced debates and disputes over the contested nature of the subject, for example the 'Black Armband' and 'Whitewash' factions in Australia who adopt opposingly celebratory or denigratory views of Australian history, especially when evaluating episodes of poor racial relations. There are also tensions between traditional/patriotic views of history teaching and reformed or 'new' history. There are issues of political control of the curriculum and parallel issues of who writes it (very topical in England at the moment over two expat 'big picture' historians who work at Harvard and Columbia (Niall Ferguson and Simon Schama)). ENDORSEMENTS: "An important collection for anyone seeking to understand the incendiary nature of the history curriculum across the globe." Sam Wineburg, Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and History, Stanford University, USA. "A powerfully and impressively wide-ranging collection of essays, which vividly remind us that the debates on the teaching of history are global rather than merely national". Sir David Cannadine, Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University, USA. CONTENTS: Acknowledgements. Introduction, Tony Taylor and Robert Guyver. Preface Peter Seixas. Legacies, Ruptures and Inertias: History in the Argentine School System, Maria Paula Gonzalez. Under Siege from Right and Left: A Tale of the Australian School History Wars, Tony Taylor. "We Were Allowed to Disagree, Because We Couldn't Agree on Anything": Seventeen Voices in Canadian Debates over History Education, Ruth Sandwell. Controversiality and Consciousness: Contemporary History Education in Germany, Sylvia Semmet. Denial in the Classroom: Political Origins of the Japanese Textbook Controversy, Tony Taylor. "Little Is Taught or Learned in Schools": Debates over the Place of History in the New Zealand School Curriculum. Mark Sheehan. Transforming Images of Nation-Building: Ideology and Nationalism in History School Textbooks in Putin's Russia, 2001-2010, Joseph Zajda. Dealing with a Reign of Virtue: The Post-Apartheid South African School History Curriculum, Rob Sieborger. The History Working Group and Beyond: A Case Study in the UK's History Quarrels, Robert Guyver. Wars and Rumors of War: The Rhetoric and Reality of History Education in the United States, Keith Barton. About the Contributors...

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