From narrative to severed heads : the form and location of white supremacist history in textbooks of the apartheid and post-apartheid eras : a case study

Da Cruz, Peter

From narrative to severed heads : the form and location of white supremacist history in textbooks of the apartheid and post-apartheid eras : a case study

Master Thesis

2005

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This dissertation reveals the enduring willingness of South African history textbooks to legitimate white supremacy. During the apartheid era, a historiographic mythology bearing the stamp of officialdom was propagated by history textbooks. This mythology constituted the era's "white history" - that version of history which serves to legitimate white supremacy in South Africa. Though in specific instances the old mythology has been forsworn, white history survives in the post-aparheid textbooks. The tenets of white history are now delivered individually and indirectly by way of severed heads (primary of secondary sources) that, once recovered and reassembled by student learners, constitute the familiar grand narrative. Two historiographical myths promulgated during apartheid are taken as emblems of white history and adopted for the purposes of study as units of analysis. Their form and location are then traced through one prominent publisher's history textbooks of the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The demonstrated survival of white history in post-apartheid history education is traced to the white stipulations placed upon the post-apartheid curriculum during the reconciliation process. The contemporary trend of progressivist education enabled the phenomenon pedagogically through emphasis on a zealously learner-centred, interactive approach.

Description

Includes bibliographical references.

Keywords

History Education

Reference:

Collections

Masters

Full item page