ERIC Number: EJ1369851
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Oct
Pages: 34
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2518-6833
"Whether and How?" History Education about Recent and Ongoing Conflict: A Review of Research
Paulson, Julia
Journal on Education in Emergencies, v1 n1 p115-141 Oct 2015
This article reviews research on history education that addresses recent or ongoing conflict since 1990. History education is recognized as a key site for constructing identity, transmitting collective memory, and shaping "imagined communities," which makes its revision or reform a complex and important part of education in emergencies work. The article reviews 42 empirical studies from 11 countries, exploring whether recent conflict forms part of national curricula and, where it does, how this teaching is approached. Young people learn about recent conflict in all of the cases reviewed; in the majority, curriculum is one source for this learning, but in some cases the history of recent conflict is taught without curricular guidance or not at all. Where recent conflict is taught, the review finds a reliance on a traditional, collective memory approach to disseminating national narratives, although often in social studies rather than history classrooms. In many cases, these narratives are top-down and ethno-nationalist and rely on devices like mythical past unity and the exceptionalism of conflict. The review concludes by suggesting that actors undertaking a revision or reform of history curriculum attend to recent conflict as an "active past" and offers some promising ideas for approaching such a past in history curricula.
Descriptors: History Instruction, Conflict, Nationalism, Self Concept, Memory, Educational Change, National Curriculum, Ethnic Groups, Teaching Methods, Curriculum Development, Teacher Student Relationship, School Segregation, Foreign Countries, Textbooks, War, Elementary Secondary Education, Moral Development, International Cooperation, Peace, Conflict Resolution
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. 122 East 42nd Street, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10168. e-mail: journal@inee.org; Web site: https://inee.org/evidence/journal
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Guatemala; Israel; Peru; Rwanda; Cyprus; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Yemen; Lebanon; Sri Lanka; United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A