Abstract
This article examines the use of testimony in the making of a new history in South Africa, situating this phenomenon in the context of public construction of memory and identifying history teachers as critical to the process. Through an ethnographic study of 16 schools that illuminates the use of teacher testimony in Cape Town history classrooms, the authors explore the nuanced use of testimony as a pedagogic tool and probe the role of history teachers as memory makers. Finally, this article assesses implications of teachers creating space for dialogical memory making in post-apartheid South Africa and outlines lessons of this experience for other countries in democratic transition.
Highlights
Since the early 1990s, a new vision of South African society has been expressed in various forms.i Most powerful among them is the Constitution, the legal and philosophic foundation of the new country, based on democracy and equality, nonracialism and opportunity
Emphasis on oral history has been stronger in South Africa since the fall of apartheid as South Africans have been encouraged to understand the past, especially the recent past, in terms of their own lived experience
In recognising the value of the stories of teachers who fought apartheid or who have made a transformation in its aftermath, one constructs the possibility for using testimony in the process of public construction of memory and of social change in education—the very institutions that we have argued are central to new visions for South Africa taking hold
Summary
TEACHERS AS MEMORY MAKERS: TESTIMONY IN THE MAKING OF A NEW HISTORY IN SOUTH AFRICA
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