Dare we know the nation? Considering the nexus of discursive leveraging and identity

Abstract

The public history museum holds an inherent pedagogical purpose to define the nation through a history considered collectively supported by its citizenry. Widely acknowledged criticism often accompanies such exhibits and prompts calls for a more critical examination of the narratives advanced through the affirmed educational intent held by museums. How scholars are engaging the question of how – and even whether – history can succeed in interrogating the strategies utilized by the public history museum means reconsidering what role social education holds in advancing a critical sensibility about how nation is defined. This article offers a theoretical analysis that reviews the inherent nationalist purpose advanced by the public museum, and the tensions educators could face when seeking to better understand how it affirms a particular understanding of history and of the nation. This article suggests that social education needs to address its role to engage critically the complicity the public history museum holds in defining and guarding the nation, and in confronting the museum authority of history and exhibition practices.