Background

Since the end of the the brutal segregation which emerged as “Apartheid“, South Africa has entered a substantial reformation process with the aim of building a democratic, multi-cultural society. The necessary reforms have influenced almost every sphere of life in the country. The first majority government aimed to overcome the historical injustices implemented through the white Apartheid Regime for over four decades and identified the education sector as a key area for change.

The 1990s were full of uncertainty as to the direction in which South Africa would develop and whether the negotiated revolution would work in the long run. Significant discussion took place – in the newspapers, in the streets and in university lecture halls. The overall question was how to deal with South Africa´s own past, if there should be a way of openness and naming of the cruelties or rather a “cut” and a new start from scratch. The Georg Eckert Institute was also involved in this essential debate: it carried out conferences on the question of how future history textbooks for the “new” South Africa should be designed.

It was also in the early 1990s that the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” (TRC) started its comprehensive work. Its aim was to give voice to the unheard and bring victims and perpetrators together, speaking about motifs and happenings of the past. The Commission gave recommendations on constitutional development which were highly influential and had an impact on school development.

Finally, in 1998 the new syllabus named “Curriculum 2005” was presented, marking a definite change in the culture of schooling. As officials saw a bigger necessity to provide pupils with life-based and advancable skills instead of undynamic content knowledge, the role of history teaching was minimized and paid little attention to as it was still regarded as “backwards” and rubbing salt into the nation´s slowly healing wounds. As magic word evolved “outcomes”, emphasizing the measurability of school achievements and concrete practical knowledge for an economized world order.

 

The Study

The study presented will undertake two steps. The first step will be to contextualize the three presented “discussion spheres”, historian´s debate, TRC and OBE, and outline how they have influenced the current history curriculum. Which debates, contradictions and argumentations have shaped the current curriculum? What kind of political power underlies the actual contents? Has the curriculum in its shape emancipated South Africa from its dark Apartheid education policy?

The study´s second step will be ethnographic research on the teaching process of younger South African history, meaning the Apartheid era. This research aims to focus on peer-interaction, non-formal communicative exchanges and possible conflict/discussion solutions. Classroom studies have so far been neglected and studies on South African curriculum have mainly taken place at a policy analysis level. Therefore, there is generally little knowledge on how the classroom actually reacts to history, especially if it contains “dangerous” contents like race separation. It also remains to be explored which perception students have of their own history and how the latter can reconcile/divide racially mixed classes.

This will be explored through ethnographic studies. By the means of participant observation the inner logic of the field, the motifs of the actors and possible explanations for conflicts or argumentations about opinions and tendencies about Apartheid will be explored more closely.

Funding

German Academic National Foundation [Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes]

Duration

10/2009-09/2011

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