Secondary School History Textbooks Research Articles

From a “Glorious Reparation” to a “Wretched Adventure”: The Second Italo-Ethiopian War in Italian History Textbooks (1936-2020)

ABSTRACT Conducted against the backdrop of international debates on colonial and racist crimes, this study examines representations of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in Italian secondary school history textbooks from the fascist period to the present. In a systematic analysis, the article explores how textbooks, as key “memory-makers,” depict the motivations, context, course, and consequences of a colonial war frequently subject to amnesia in Italy. We explore the distortions, omissions, and demystification textbooks have promoted over time, measuring them against historiographical advancements. Overall, we observe growing recognition of arbitrary Italian aggression and the illegal use of chemical weapons, but fluctuations in the assessment of European responsibilities and Mussolini’s involvement in the Second World War and the Holocaust. Silencing, minimization of responsibility, and a strong Italo- and Eurocentric tendency persist in the textbooks, whose lacunae and inaccuracies appear to feed into the enduring myth of the “good Italian.”

“Minorities”, the nation and Europe in the history textbooks of Germany, Spain and Turkey

A feature of the concept of “minorities” is the invisibility and stigmatization of communities, more so within the idea of the nation. The European Union project stimulated new vistas, and offers challenges to reconcile peoples under a new political, social and economic concept. However, in the midst of crisis and war in Europe, mistrust and hostility are increasing, incited by right-wing populism and nationalism and these aims of the last century are slowly making their way into history textbooks. This article analyses the representation and construction of these complex concepts in eight German, Turkish and Spanish secondary school history textbooks. In times of strengthening nationalism, it is also discussed here whether the representations convey essentialist ideas and imperialistic structures hidden between the lines in school textbooks, or whether they reflect the concept of “minorities” as a component of a pluralistic and hybrid European society. The research is divided into two areas: 1) A quantitative analysis of textbooks: A comparative research will be carried out on the representation of 'minorities' in English, German, Turkish and Spanish history textbooks. The textbook research is temporally limited to the period from the sixteenth until the twenty-first centuries.

Convergence and divergence: Depictions of indigenous peoples in secondary school history textbooks from Brazil and Norway

This study explores and compares the ways in which indigenous peoples are depicted in current secondary school history textbooks in Brazil and Norway. This study seeks to show both convergence and divergence in narrative patterns by employing qualitative data analysis. Convergence is found, in particular, in: the mandatory inclusion of the topic of indigenous peoples in national curricula; school textbooks describe these groups as homogeneous groups and ethnic minorities that still suffer discrimination and exclusion. Regarding divergence, we highlight that: the definition of indigenous peoples is context dependent. In Brazil, textbooks are explicit regarding violence, while the Norwegian ones provide minimal descriptions of it; in Brazilian textbooks, indigenous peoples are depicted as part of the Brazilian society, both victims and agents of their destiny, while the Norwegian ones depicted them as “the other” and focused on their victimization. The article reflects on the social implications of these narrative patterns for these groups.

(Mis)educating England: eurocentric narratives in secondary school history textbooks

ABSTRACT The shortcomings of the current English secondary school history curriculum have been widely discussed since its inception in 2013. Less widely explored, however, are the narratives underpinning a key classroom resource: textbooks. In this paper, I review nine history textbooks currently in use in schools across the country, drawing on post-colonial theories in order to assess the extent to which the narratives of these textbooks are fundamentally rooted in Eurocentric discourses of superiority. Findings demonstrate that textbooks across the sample draw on outdated tropes when discussing Others in a global and historical context, ultimately reifying notions of ‘Oriental’ barbarism, despotism, and religious fanaticism, ‘African’ servility and submissiveness, and ‘native’ savagery and backwardness, whilst also emphasising ideas around European civility and advanced development. Accordingly, with few exceptions, the ‘master narratives’ of these textbooks wholly conform to the model I identify for Eurocentric worldviews, being (i) totalistic; (ii) oppositional; and (iii) teleological.

Shaping Memory through Visuality

Abstract This article focuses on war photography as a cultural phenomenon as used in secondary school history textbooks in the context of post-1989 Poland. It argues that the focus on the Second World War, its military aspects, and the threads previously erased from public memory, was specific to the Polish context. It also proves that the visuality of Polish textbooks after 1989 tends to correspond with the broader Western iconosphere as a result of political and cultural transformation. The mechanisms of visual communication underpinning these tendencies consist in several overlapping layers of experiencing and perceiving photography, such as studium, punctum (Roland Barthes), and spectrality (Michel de Certeau, Maciej Bugajewski). The article also postulates a visual literacy that holistically considers all of these aspects.

Representation of the Kazakhstani famine (1931–33) in secondary school history textbooks, 1992–2021

ABSTRACT This paper studies the role of textbook authors when portraying the Kazakhstani famine of 1931–33 in textbooks printed between 1992 and 2021 for the secondary school subject ‘The History of Kazakhstan’. Drawing on a multilayered and inter-discursive analysis of seven of these textbooks, and after 10 interviews with curriculum developers and textbook authors, this paper argues that authorship agencies have reflected a level of ambivalence: on the cause(s) of the famine; on their evaluation of it as a tragedy or as a genocide; on the identification of the perpetrators and victims; and the people’s revolt against the collectivization. The textbook authors have echoed the narratives from the cautious approach to the famine’s commemoration portrayed in state-led nation-building, to those in Kazakh nationalist narratives and the academic history. The results of this paper oppose the general assumption that textbook narratives are merely constructed from ‘above’ in a non-democratic state such as Kazakhstan.

TARİH, PANDEMİ, ORTAÖĞRETİM TARİH DERS KİTAPLARI

İlk olarak Çin’de başlayan coranavirüs pandemisi bütün dünyada toplumsal hayatı durma noktasına getirmiştir. Pandemi her ne kadar tıbbın konusu gibi görünse bile eğitim ile ilişkisi de bulunmaktadır. Özellikle tarih eğitimi ile. Mazideki salgın hastalık vakalarına ilişkin bilgileri öğretmediysek bireylerden bugünkü durumu anlamlandırabilmeleri, muhakeme etmeleri, tutarlı davranışlar sergilemelerini beklemek rasyonel olur mu? Hakkında yeterince bilgi sahibi olmadığınız bir olayla karşılaştığınızda tepkileriniz nasıl olurdu? Bir şeyin geçmişteki parçalarıyla ilgili enformasyon verilip, bütünü hakkında yeterince fikir sahibi olamadıysanız hatayı nerede aramak gerekirdi? Bu makalede bu sorulara yanıt verilmeye çalışılmıştır. Nitel araştırma yöntemi baz alınarak yapılan bu araştırmada veriler betimsel analiz tekniği ile analiz edilmiş ve değerlendirmeler yapılmıştır. Araştırmaya örneklem teşkil eden dokümanlar 2019-2020 yılı zorunlu ve seçmeli ortaöğretim tarih ders kitapları ile sınırlanmıştır. Dolayısıyla araştırmanın bulgu ve sonuçları yalnızca söz konusu yıllardaki ders kitapları ile sınırlı olup, diğer dönem ve sınıf kitaplarını kapsamamaktadır. Araştırma sonucuna göre ortaöğretim tarih ders kitaplarında geçmişteki salgın vakalarını kapsayan konular üzerinde yeterince durulmadığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Ayrıca, öğrencilere salgın hastalık vakalarının geçmişteki örneklerini ve atalarının bu vakalarla nasıl yüzleştiklerini öğretmenin aktüel bir ihtiyaç olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Hem onların geçmiş vakalardan ders çıkarmalarına hem de gelecekte oluşması muhtemel salgın vakalarına karşı daha bilgili ve hazırlıklı olmalarına tarih ders kitapları ile katkı yapmak olasıdır.

The history of Islam and the early Ottoman Empire in Australian secondary school history textbooks

This article examines Year 8 history textbooks (13–14-year-old students) that follow the Australian National and Victorian Curricula. It argues that the sometimes inaccurate accounts they give of Islam and the early modern Ottoman Empire largely have their origins in the detailed prescriptions given in the history curricula.

Representations of the Spanish Hunger Years (1939–1952) in recent secondary school history textbooks

ABSTRACTBased on the potential of educational materials to forge and shape the collective memory, this article analyses the representations of the Francoist Hunger Years (1939–1952) in recent history textbooks for secondary schools by a wide range of publishers. The main thesis of the paper is that while there are textbooks that provide a complex narrative of the hunger experiences, others – even some of the most recent ones – depict the period in an oversimplified and historiographically outdated way and fail to address various social perspectives. This article also argues that it is possible to detect the persistence of the official Francoist discourse on the years of hunger in some textbooks that continue to implicitly perpetuate the distortion and oblivion the Franco dictatorship tried to impose on the famine.

Silenced and Invisible Historical Figures in Zambia: An Analysis of the Visual Portrayal of Women in Senior Secondary School History Textbooks

ABSTRACT Despite their significant contribution to the country's historical development, women's influence is commonly underestimated and ignored in Zambian history literature. Subsequently, their role remains undocumented in secondary school textbooks to the extent that the sex blindness of traditional historiography, which sustains male dominance in history, remains unchallenged in the books. Through a qualitative approach and purposive sampling of two Zambian secondary school Grade 12 learners' history textbooks, the study examined the portrayal of women. Located within the decoloniality paradigm, it counters the coloniality of power manifested through the insularity of dominant patriarchal historical narratives entrenched in the secondary school history curriculum, largely reflecting the remnants of colonial epistemologies and historiographical traditions. The findings in both textbooks reveal that the female characters are silenced and invisible compared to their male counterparts, reflecting the patriarchy hegemony in the secondary school Zambian history curriculum. In decolonising colonial power manifested in the curriculum, the study recommends mainstreaming gender equality in the history curricula and teaching and learning materials, mainly the learners' textbooks, to reflect women's achievements. Keywords: Decoloniality; Visual images; Gender; History textbooks; Secondary school; Women; Zambia.

Representations of the Holocaust in Albanian Secondary School History Textbooks since the Educational Reform of 2004

This article examines the extent to and the ways in which the Holocaust is presented in Albanian secondary school history textbooks. It offers a quantitative analysis of the space devoted to the Holocaust in proportion to the textbooks’ overall content and a qualitative content analysis based on the narrative patterns outlined in the UNESCO report The International Status of Education about the Holocaust: A Global Mapping of Textbooks and Curricula. It demonstrates that Albanian textbooks offer scant coverage of the Holocaust, but that some changes regarding the conceptualization, contextualization, and narrative of the Holocaust have been implemented since the curricular reform of 2004.

Narratives and Multiperspectivity in Dutch Secondary School History Textbooks

School history textbooks provide an important source of information for learners of history. Textbook narratives of a nation’s past often present a limited frame of reference, which impedes the aim of teaching history from multiple perspectives. This article examines the representation of the Dutch Revolt in two Dutch and two Flemish history textbooks. By taking sentences as our unit of analysis, we analyzed narrative elements and metaphors, which informed us about the level of multiperspectivity in these narratives. We found that Dutch textbooks, in contrast to Flemish textbooks, create their emplotment of the narrative of the Dutch Revolt by focusing on the first ten years of the conflict and mostly lack multiperspectivity. We hope that the insights generated by this analysis may inform textbook authors who seek to do justice to multiple perspectives.

Racialized narratives in Dutch history textbooks: a critical race examination

El presente artículo es un análisis cualitativo de las narrativas racializadas en los libros de texto holandeses (1968-2017), ilustrado por ocho representaciones de personas negras seleccionadas de una muestra de 200 libros de texto holandeses de educación secundaria. Puesto que las imágenes son indicadores de racialización, la autora se centra en las narrativas visuales. El artículo concluye que la racialización se despliega a través de dos tipos de estructuras narrativas: a) la racialización a través de la alteridad usando identidades estereotípicas unilaterales y jerarquía racial y b) la racialización a través de la semejanza mantenida a través de marcos ciegos al color, narrativas racializadas y minimización de la referencia a las razas. El artículo además reflexiona sobre el uso de la teoría crítica de la raza (CRT) como marco y el uso de la metodología crítica de la raza (CRM) en combinación con métodos discursivos para el análisis visual y de los libros de texto. Insertando narrativas contrarias, este artículo ilustra que el campo de la historia de la educación, especialmente en Europa, puede hacer un uso mayor de los marcos críticos (de la raza) y de las herramientas de investigación que no disocian los sucesos históricos de las injusticias contemporáneas y persistentes.

Comparative Analysis of the Secondary School History Textbooks of the V4 Countries – an Overview of Genocides in the History of the 20thCentury

The study deals with the comparative analysis of the secondary school history textbooks of the V4 countries from the perspective of teaching about the genocides of the 20th century. In the beginning of our work, we introduce the research sample of genocides and discuss the issue of textbooks itself. Thereafter, we characterize the content analysis as one of the fundamental aspects of our work and present the examined textbook sample. Every examined genocide is elaborated separately focusing mainly on the specific elements of each textbook. Regarding the Holocaust and its complexity, we primarily focus on the content-unique aspects embodied in the history textbooks of the V4 countries which represent their individual, life-sustaining experience with this issue.

Analysing the Presentation of the 1976 Soweto Uprising in Grade 9 History Textbooks

The Soweto Uprising comprised a series of protests led by secondary school students in South Africa that began on 16 June 1976. Historians and political analysts concur that the Soweto Uprising was a watershed in the national liberation struggle and ushered in the demise of the apartheid system. This article examines the presentation of the Soweto Uprising and related events in five purposefully selected South African secondary school history textbooks for Grade 9 learners using the four dimensions of Morgan and Henning's textbook analytical model. The aim of the study was to identify the omission/inclusion of certain historical facts and the implications for the development of learners’ critical thinking skills. The findings indicated that the omission of historical facts concerning the causes of the Soweto Uprising limits learners’ opportunity to make evidence-based, reasoned judgments about the topic; the use of primary and secondary sources to mediate the affective aspects of the Soweto Uprising is inadequate; the textual community that the history textbooks depicts lacks multiple voices and perspectives; and the narratives do not fully engage learners in complex and contested issues. It is recommended that history textbook authors adopt a multiple text approach to encourage critical thinking and to enable learners to assess historical claims and assertions independently.

Portrayals of the Holocaust in English history textbooks, 1991–2016: continuities, challenges and concerns

ABSTRACTThis study examines portrayals of the Holocaust in a sample of 21 secondary school history textbooks published in England between 1991 and 2016. Evaluated against internationally recognized criteria and guidelines, the content of most textbooks proved very problematic. Typically, textbooks failed to provide clear chronological and geographical frameworks and adopted simplistic Hitler-centric, perpetrator-oriented narratives. Furthermore, textbooks paid limited attention to pre-war Jewish life, the roots of antisemitism, the complicity of local populations and collaborationist regimes, and the impact of the Holocaust on people across Europe. Based on these critical findings, the article concludes by offering initial recommendations for textbook improvement.

FROM KERAJAAN (KINGDOM) TO KERAJAAN (GOVERNMENT)

Although research has been done on Malaysia’s history textbooks, much of it focuses on the Malay/non-Malay dichotomy and the imbalances between the two. And while there is much in agreement of a Malay hegemony in the history narrative, little is said about the Malay thought present within the textbooks as a standalone. This paper aims to cover a portion of this Malay thought, specifically that of the kerajaan narrative through a discourse analysis of the secondary school History textbooks. The analysis shows a largely superficial veneration of the sultans in contrast to the reverence afforded to them within the boundaries of Malayness. Instead, a modern Malay nation-state is emphasised with the kerajaan serving as; 1) a means to validate an already present pre-colonial Malay civilisation; 2) to frame and redefine certain concepts within the confines of the nation-state; and 3) efforts to downplay Western influences within Malaysia, despite the textbooks inability to fully detach from the former. This discourse analysis provides a further nuance to the understanding of our History education and Malay identity, beyond mere dominance of one ethnic narrative over others. By exploring the discourse of the kerajaan present within the textbooks, this paper aims to contribute towards the body of research that explores the continual engagement between Malayness and an ever changing world today.

An analysis of the visual portrayal of women in junior secondary Malawian school history textbooks

Visual images are important in textbooks because they are a vital part of the symbiotic relationship with the written text. Most importantly, visual images are essential in history textbooks because they render human experiences less abstract. This article analyses the visual images of women contained in three junior secondary school history textbooks used in Malawi. The purpose being to explore how women are portrayed visually and why they are portrayed the way they are. The article is based on empirical research and employed feminist theory which is premised on the oppression and subordination of women in society. The visual images were analysed quantitatively through visual content analysis and qualitatively using visual semiotic analysis. We argue in this article that women are generally oppressed, under-represented and subordinated in their portrayal in the visual images in the textbooks analysed. As textbooks are authoritative in nature this kind of portrayal can send a certain message about women as historical characters to textbook users. We furthermore argue that our research findings in an African context speak to similar findings in other parts of the world and can for the most part be attributed to similar reasons the powerful influences of patriarchy on both history and history textbooks.

The Role of Visual Tools in the Process of Teaching and Learning History: An Analysis of Croatian Humanistic Secondary School History Textbooks

Despite the inclusion of various media in the teaching process, textbooks remain an important tool in the education process. One of the reasons behind this is that textbooks represent the starting point of structuring, organising and directing the teaching and learning process. The question of whether or not a particular textbook fulfils the aforementioned roles can be ascertained through, first and foremost, analysing its didactic-methodological conception. The didactic-methodological conception of a textbook is determined based on a specific textbook instrumentarium and the set didactic-methodological criteria of its planning. One of the largest instrumentaria of every textbook is its visual tools. Hence, the attention of this paper is to specify desirable didactic-methodological criteria of visual tool presentation in textbooks. Using this criteria, the main aim is to detect which of the visual tools are represented in the Croatian humanistic secondary school’s history textbooks, to determine whether they fulfil their potential roles in the process of teaching and learning history, as well as to ascertain whether there are any differences in terms of the aforementioned between the Croatian humanistic secondary school history textbooks which teachers choose most often and the ones they choose the least.

The Ottoman Age in Southern Central Europe as Represented in Secondary School History Textbooks in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia

Local populations in Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, and to a lesser degree in the Czech Republic, experienced much interaction with Muslims throughout the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Ottomans, as well as the Crimean Tatars, invaded the Kingdom of Hungary and waged wars against the Polish-Lithuanian state and the Habsburg Hereditary Lands. The Ottoman era has usually been reflected in the history textbooks of these four countries under the headings "Turkish Wars" or "Ottoman Expansion." Since the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, all four ex-communist states have been involved in rewriting textbooks, although the perception of the Ottomans and Muslims has not changed in all cases. Without claiming to map the entire historical presentation of the Ottomans, this article demonstrates the polyphony found in the textbooks of this region. By analyzing secondary school educational materials in all four languages, it is possible to identify stereotypes, prejudices, and distortions within the perception of the Ottoman Turks.