Ever since Cicero’s quote on history being “life’s teacher”, we keep asking ourselves rhetorically whether we learn anything from history. At the same time, we take great pleasure in repeating ad nauseam how history keeps repeating itself. The two stipulations are in themselves contradictory, for if we had learned anything from history, we surely would not keep repeating all of our historical mistakes.

EJ949423 - Remembering George Washington: What Do Instructional Materials Teach Us about Washington.

In this chapter we discuss how people in present societies construct historical narratives. This topic, related to the field of the teaching and learning of history, extends to the debates in the last decade about the “history wars” maintained in numerous societies. All these cases share a process of consumption and production of historical narratives. To this respect, school history master narratives are analyzed in terms of six common features. On the other hand, a theoretical distinction between Romantic and Enlightened functions of teaching of history is presented. From this point of view, significant educational developments and research in this field are analyzed, showing the limitations and possibilities of both functions. Finally, the relevance of socio-cultural theories for the field of learning and teaching history is also presented, along with future developments in this area of study. Keywords: teaching/learning, history, narrative, Romantic model, enlightenment model

American history textbooks for the USA's public schools act as quasi-official loci for the renegotiation of national identity and are, as such, subject to much controversy. The choice of heroes and the way in which textbooks depict them display the interplay between competing visions of popular ethno-history and scholarly historiography. This article examines contemporary renegotiation of the national narrative through an analysis of the evolving representation of the USA's two most prominent traditional national heroes – George Washington and Abraham Lincoln – in history textbooks for elementary-school students published from the early 1980s to 2003. This period marks the development of the multiculturalist movement and its subsequent conservative backlash, with debates intensifying in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001.

This chapter, published in "Self-Censorship in Contexts of Conflict", focuses on the mechanism of intentionally omitting any teachings—content, ideas, and perspectives—that are seen as contradictory to the national narrative. Specifically, we examine the process by which teachers opt to self-censor factual truths that contradict the themes of these narratives, particularly in societies involved in intractable conflict. The chapter presents self-censorship as an important concept for consideration in the study of education in societies undergoing conflict. The intentional and voluntary decision of individuals throughout the educational process to avoid teaching content that contradicts or questions national narratives promotes the maintenance of these narratives among generations of students. Thus, instead of offering opportunities for critical thinking and perspective taking that may lead to conflict resolution and reconciliation, education actually reinforces the ethos of conflict and contributes to its perpetuation.

This brief paper will critically examine the contentions of Japanese nationalist intellectuals whose stated goal is to restore the Japanese people’s pride in their nation through the rehabilitation of patriotism at home, consolidation of a state-centric view of Japan, and pursuit of a more assertive foreign policy. In particular, what roles do China and Korea play in the nationalists’ arguments? The paper demonstrates that the nationalists engage in a selective use of ideas, events, and institutions of historical significance and that they reconstruct a past Japan in their ideal image and use that image to frame their discourse on the major political and foreign policy challenges facing Japan today. It concludes that the more critical the Chinese and Korean criticisms of Japan are, the more determined the nationalists will be in their rejection of those criticisms and appeals to the general public.