Re-imagining History Teaching by Challenging National Narratives

Abstract

This chapter argues that national grand narratives are part of both the substantive and syntactic structures of the history of history teaching. Such narratives, we argue, persist due to interactions between the government-mandated curriculum, textbooks, and the choices individual teachers make in their classrooms. We present a brief history of history education in France to challenge the reader to consider the ways in which the national narrative, or roman national, was developed and maintained, and was resistant to change within France’s education system. In so doing, we underscore the argument that history teacher educators and history teachers need to expressly develop teaching approaches that aid their students in the recognition, interpretation, and challenge of national narratives. We believe that one way to do so is, as we have done, present the development of a national narrative in a less familiar context.