This paper explores the question of what is powerful knowledge in school history, drawing on an analysis of secondary school history curriculum documents from South Africa and Rwanda. The paper engages with how these official curricula make selections regarding history topics, and how conceptual relationships are structured, and then interrogates…

This study examined the role of history education for nation building in Ethiopia, Germany Rwanda, South Africa, Switzerland, and USA using a comparative research method. Student textbooks and syllabi were the main data sources. Document review was the principal data-gathering tool and the data was analysed qualitatively. Findings revealed that…

In recent years, citizenship education has been the subject of much international attention, including two major cross-national studies. However, few reviews of civic education scholarship include research from post-conflict societies. This omission is notable because post-conflict situations offer distinct challenges to instilling both democratic…

A critical question for societies emerging from conflict is what should be done about the traumatic memories of the past. In post-conflict societies political issues of memory and identity are at the same time issues for curriculum construction. Using the examples of post-conflict Rwanda and South Africa, I raise questions about the competing…