Abstract
This volume examines the problems and challenges of negotiating spaces given to the stories and perspectives of ethnically non-dominant groups in history education in multiethnic countries. The theme lies at the intersection of the politics of multiculturalism and history education policy. This chapter provides an overview of the issues and debates in relation to the two subjects. It first examines the divergent patterns in the politics of multiculturalism between established Western democracies and multicultural Asian countries. It then traces historical shifts in the concern for the political role of history education—from curbing the potential impact of overzealous nationalism on interstate hostility to introspection and contention over the way official/dominant textbook narratives articulate the nation’s past in relation to its “diverse self”. We then delve into the heart of the volume: exploring history textbook and curricular narratives as part of the figured world of nationhood, a site of negotiating national identity, and whether history education is an apt vehicle for fostering a shared national identity. The chapter ends by surveying the ways various countries navigate between the exigencies of promoting national cohesion in the face of ethnic diversity in their textbook narratives, indicating the moral compass of the nation.
I wish to register my sincere thanks to Luigi Cajani, Edward Vickers and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the initial drafts.
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Notes
- 1.
After Barth (1969), we understand ethnicity as the social organisation of cultural difference through the use of cultural practices, ethnic markers and boundaries—not all cultural practices and forms have equal social or political significance for an ethnic group (and) over time.
- 2.
For an application of this theoretical framework in Malaysia, see Ting (2014b).
- 3.
The use of the word “nationalistic” or “nationalism” usually carries an exclusive connotation of a quest for or assertion of boundaries of the putative “nation,” either internationally or domestically, although identity necessarily requires differentiation from the “Other.” In the case of domestic ethnic politics, “nationalist” or “nationalism” refers to a monoethnic vision of the putative nation. National identity, on the other hand, refers to the identity of the nation-state encompassing the whole citizenry. See the subsequent section for a further discussion on our understanding of national identity.
- 4.
- 5.
The concept of historical consciousness was initially developed by the German history education theorist Jörn Rüsen and has since been defined and explored variously by scholars and educationists in different countries, notably Peter Seixas. The literature is too wide-ranging to be discussed here, but we use it here in a broad, anthropological sense to denote all ways in which people from different sociocultural, temporal and individual contexts relate to the past, as favoured by Korber (2016). See also Rüsen (1987).
- 6.
Based on similar ideas, the extensive research of Jocelyn Létourneau on francophone Québécois students’ historical consciousness has identified a converging pattern of the basic plot of their narrative template of the history of Quebec. See for instance Létourneau and Moisan (2004) and Lévesque et al. (2013).
- 7.
- 8.
Lévesque and Létourneau (2019) report that the strength of identification of francophone students with their provincial linguistic communities is associated closely with the extent of their complete adoption of the typical French nationalist historical narrative following la survivance (the survival) template. This corresponds well with how a person becomes closely engaged and identifies with a particular figured world (Holland et al. 2001).
- 9.
The findings of Létourneau and Gani (2017) indicate this dissociation with or rejection of the official historical narrative on the Quebec nation.
- 10.
Ahonen (2017) proposes a slight variation of the three fields of history making: academic historiography, social memory and public history. History education is regarded as a subset of public history.
- 11.
Studies in Argentina and Spain found a “clear coincidence between formal schooling and informal uses and representations of history among citizens” (Carretero 2017, p. 518).
- 12.
- 13.
See also Chap. 7 for the case of Canada, which suggests how the teaching of critical historical thinking skills can help in navigating the domestic politics of multiculturalism.
- 14.
Cf. Létourneau (2017).
- 15.
Note the similar way in which deliberative communication was attempted by Ahonen (2017) to bridge identity narratives in the classrooms of BaH.
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Ting, H.M.H. (2023). Introduction: Negotiating Ethnic Diversity with National Identity in History Education. In: Ting, H.M.H., Cajani, L. (eds) Negotiating Ethnic Diversity and National Identity in History Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12535-5_1
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