The current relevance of populist history in schools : the attitudes of Cape Town youth to history

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This thesis exanunes whether the historical consciousness of grade 10 youth wouldincrease should there be an intervention facilitated for this purpose, that is that theywould show a heightened consciousness of the relation between school history andcurrent affairs, politics and other societal issues. This intervention comprises the My NewWorld text produced within the populist historiographical tradition in South Africa. Thenotion of historical consciousness is defined as the complex relation between aninterpretation of the past, a perspective of the present and expectations of the futureROsen (1989; 1994).The investigation comprised a theoretical and empirical component. The theoreticalcomponent is informed by the theories of epistemology, knowledge, schooling andcurriculum. The empirical component is based on the Youth and History Surveyconducted on historical consciousness amongst youth in Europe in the early 1990s. Boththis study and the European study were conducted during periods of political transition.The chosen research methodology was that of triangulation, combining quantitative withqualitative methods. The quantitative component was based on the measurement used inthe European study, and comprised an experimental pre-test and post-test researchdesign, measuring inside school and outside school historical consciousness. Thestudy was conducted in 8 grade 10 classrooms at 8 schools in Cape Town, representativeof class, race, language and gender. The teachers acted as facilitators of the intervention.The conclusion reached in the research is that although the intervention resulted in anincreased enthusiasm amongst individuals for school history and interest in politicalissues and an understanding for the present as in evidence from the qualitative data, thiswas not reflected in the quantitative data which showed no significant increase in theinside school nor outside school historical consciousness amongst youth of average15 years in grade 10 history classrooms in Cape Town. It can therefore not be empiricallyconcluded that when youth are exposed to populist history over a limited period that they would show an increased outside school or inside school historical consciousnesseven though an intervention might aim to increase such a consciousness. A significantfinding is that the case for an already existent historical consciousness related to thevariables of class and gender holds. Instead of increasing the levels of historicalconsciousness, the intervention resulted in a surfacing of long-held attitudes, perceptionsand beliefs of people, society, the past, the present and the future. The interventionsucceeded in bringing these complex layers of variables and related factors that impact onperceptions and attitudes to the surface. Given this complexity, it was also concluded thatan empirical study of historical consciousness amongst youth through an interventionover a limited period of time is risky, if not of little value.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University