Why national narratives are perpetuated: A literature review on new insights from history textbook research

Maria Grever,Tina van der Vlies

doi:10.18546/lre.15.2.11

Abstract

National narratives have often served to mobilize the masses for war by providing myths and distorted interpretations of the past, while conversely wars were major sources for producing national narratives. Because national history is very likely to remain a central topic in history education, albeit in ways that differ from how the topic was used fifty years ago, it is important to gain a greater understanding of the underlying structures and mechanisms of these narratives in history textbooks. After outlining the historical interconnectedness of the emerging nation states and history teaching, this review article explains the complexity of the history textbook as an educational resource. Next, we identify some current problems and challenges in history textbook research. We continue by discussing promising research trends related mainly to national narratives, such as the analysis of images, the use of digital tools, and studies of the autonomy of textbook narratives and of history textbooks in relation to other media. Another recent reorientation is textbook research that uses a holistic approach. By this we mean studies that examine the history textbook as a whole: composition, periodization, visual intertextuality and chapters that do not at first glance appear to focus on national history. These studies offer new insights and explanations for the perpetuation of national narratives in history textbooks.

Highlights

In the nineteenth century, the emerging nation states buttressed the professionalization of history into a scientific discipline
We have discussed new insights from history textbook research in relation to the perpetuation of national narratives. The reason for this choice is that national history is likely to remain very important for history education
We have identified three challenges: 1) the controversies about history education often focus on what is not in the textbooks, or present in distorted ways, which overshadows the question of what is in the textbooks; 2) research about the impact of history textbooks on how teachers and students view the past is scarce; and 3) we need to know much more about the authorship of history textbooks since that information might shed light on the issue of duplicating ‘old’ stories

Summary

Introduction

The emerging nation states buttressed the professionalization of history into a scientific discipline. Bert Vanhulle (2009), who used a holistic approach in his analysis of the ‘narrative conception’ of Belgian history textbooks in the period 1945–2004, argues: ‘The emphasis lies on the structure and its consequences for the text as a historical representation, not on the portrayal of past events/ groups/identities and the teaching consequences or consequences for the minds of pupils and society at large’ (Vanhulle, 2009: 264). He is interested in locating the start of the narration. To be able to understand the perpetuation of national narratives in history textbooks, we should regard this genre in relation to wider cultural mnemonic schemata

Conclusion

Notes on the contributors