History helps society understand its past and its influence on the present and future. South Africa is a country with a unique history, comprising of varying accounts from the different people that make up its 'rainbow' nation. In 2018, South Africa's Department of Basic Education; announced that history would be a compulsory subject for learners…

Despite extensive research into the function of education in promoting social cohesion, the role of the history curricula in promoting solidarity in South Africa and Zimbabwe remains under-researched. Understanding the history curriculum attempts made at the policy level to promote social cohesion by two postcolonial Sub-Saharan countries could…

Issues of transitional justice are central to countries moving away from identity-based conflict. Research tends to focus on the most well-known forms of transitional justice, like truth commissions. Far less attention has been given to education as a form of transitional justice, and even less to teacher professional development, even though…

This paper brings a sociology of knowledge lens to the practice of school history. It is set against a backdrop of curriculum reform in post-apartheid South Africa, which has embraced a competence curriculum with a strong focus on the generic skills (outcomes) that learners should develop at school. This study argues that history as a discipline…

Drawing on the work of Bernstein and Maton and using a case-study approach, this study explores the formation of an undergraduate history curriculum at the University of Cape Town. This article focuses on two periods of curriculum formation referred to as history as canon and history as social science. With respect to these two curriculum periods…

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…

One of the priorities of societies emerging from identity-based conflict is to signal a new society, with new values that stand in stark contrast with the old. Education policy becomes a critical arena for highlighting these political values when schools, particularly teachers, are identified as key agents of social change. However, the legacy of…

This article examines the use of testimony in the making of a new history in South Africa, situating this phenomenon in the context of public construction of memory and identifying history teachers as critical to the process. Through an ethnographic study of 16 schools that illuminates the use of teacher testimony in Cape Town history classrooms,…

Seen as a vehicle for transforming the pre-tertiary education and training system of South Africa, the new Curriculum Framework of 1997 looks to empower people for participation in a democratic society. This paper contends that, although the Curriculum Framework policy document articulates the need for a partnership between parents, teachers, the…

Expresses concern that history as a school subject will continue to be manipulated by those with political power and will suffer by being diffused among other subject areas in the curriculum. Discusses the government role in the efforts to ensure the future of a history curriculum and the constraints of integrating history. (DAJ)