Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What History Should Schools Teach in a Postcolonial Context?: Reimagining Secondary School History Curriculum for Democratic Practice in Zimbabwe

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of History and Social Studies Education

  • 1026 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explores the nexus between the history education curriculum and democratic practice in the context of the Zimbabwean postcolonial nation-state. The concern with the Zimbabwean national history curriculum arises principally because nation-states have tended to draw on the history curriculum to forge a sense of nationhood and patriotism against the backdrop of the contestations that inevitably characterize postcolonial nation-states. Zimbabwe has a national history curriculum, which has been mobilized to promote nationalist historiographies that promote the nation’s story at the expense of critical thinking and democratic practice. The argument developed is that the Zimbabwean nation-state requires a critical disciplinary school history curriculum that has potential to teach students to think historically, through engaging in historical inquiry as a way of developing the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary for active, informed, and critical citizenship. Finally, suggestions are made for pedagogical strategies for engaging in critical history teaching.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Catherine Doherty, Re-imagining and Re-imaging the Nation Through the History curriculum (2008).

  2. 2.

    Paul Hirst, Knowledge and the Curriculum: A Collection of Philosophical Papers. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1975).

  3. 3.

    Peter Seixas, Schweigen! die Kinder! Or, Does Postmodern History Have a Place In the Schools? Knowing Teaching & Learning History: National and International Perspectives. Edited by Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and S. Wineburg (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 19–37.

  4. 4.

    Arie, H.J. Wilschut, History at the Mercy of Politicians and Ideologies: Germany, England, and the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th Centuries, (Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2010), 693.

  5. 5.

    A. Wilschut, History at The Mercy of Politicians and Ideologies: Germany, England, and the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th centuries, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 693.

  6. 6.

    Anna Clark, Teaching the Nation’s Story: Comparing Public Debates and Classroom Perspectives on History Education in Australia and Canada. (Journal of Curriculum Studies, 41, 6, 2009).

  7. 7.

    Zheng Wang, National Humiliation, History Education, and the Politics of Historical Memory: Patriotic Education Campaign in China (International Studies Quarterly 2008).

  8. 8.

    Maria Grever, “Fear of Plurality Historical Culture and Historiographical Canonization in Western Europe.” In Angelika Epple and Angelika Schaser, eds., Gendering Historiography: Beyond National Canons (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), 45.

  9. 9.

    Lily Mafela, Hegemony and Accommodation in the History Curriculum in Colonial Botswana Journal of Educational Administration and History 46, no. 4 (2014), 424.

  10. 10.

    Samantha Cutrara, “To Placate or Provoke? A Critical Review of Disciplines Approach to History Teaching,” Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies 7 no. 2 (2009), 86–109.

  11. 11.

    Paul Zeleza, “The Democratic Transition in Africa and the Anglophone Writer.” Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 28 no. 3 (1994), 479.

  12. 12.

    Anver Segall, “Critical History: Implications for History/Social Studies Education.” Theory and Research in Social Education, 27 no. 3 (1999). 364.

  13. 13.

    Mafela, 428.

  14. 14.

    Philip Corrigan, Social Forms/Human Capacities (London: Routledge, 1990), 156.

  15. 15.

    Toby T. Moyana, Education, Liberation, and the Creative Act (Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1989).

  16. 16.

    Steven Vickers, “The Politics of History Education in Hong Kong: The Case of Local History,” International Journal of Educational Research 36 nos. 6 & 7 (2002), 3–4.

  17. 17.

    Preben Kaarsholm “The Past as Battlefield in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe: The Struggle of Competing Nationalisms over History from Colonization to Independence.” In M. Harbsmeier and M. Trolle Larsen, Eds., Culture & History 6: Confronting Cultures (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1991), 156.

  18. 18.

    Peter Seixas, “National History and Beyond, Journal of Curriculum Studies,” 41, no. 6 (2009).

  19. 19.

    Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1983).

  20. 20.

    Brain Raftopoulos and Alois Mlambo, Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the Pre-colonial Period to 2008 (Harare, Zimbabwe: Weaver Press, 2010), xvii.

  21. 21.

    Seixas, “Schweigen!”.

  22. 22.

    Zeus Leonardo, “The Souls of White Folk: Critical Pedagogy, Whiteness Studies, and Globalization Discourse,” Race Ethnicity and Education, 5 no. 1 (2002), 31.

  23. 23.

    Robert Parkes, “Reading History Curriculum as Post-Colonial Text: Towards a Curricular Response to the History Wars in Australia and Beyond.” Curriculum Inquiry 37 no. 4 (2007), 383–384.

  24. 24.

    John Breuilly, “Nationalism and the Making of Nations.” In Susana Carvalho and François Gemenne, eds. Nations and their Histories: Constructions and Representations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 21.

  25. 25.

    Anver Segall, “Critical History: Implications for History/Social Studies Education,” Theory and Research in Social Education, 27 no. 3 (1999), 364.

  26. 26.

    Zimbabwe’s education system follows the British system with both Ordinary level and Advanced level. Advanced level is the preuniversity entry level.

  27. 27.

    Glen Bowen, “Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method,” Qualitative Research Journal 9, no. 2 (2009), 27.

  28. 28.

    Zina O’Leary, The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2014).

  29. 29.

    Richard Bain, Rounding up Unusual Suspects. Teachers College Record, 108 no. 10 (2006), 2080.

  30. 30.

    Bruce VanSledright, “Narratives of Nation-State, Historical Knowledge, and School History,” Review of Research in Education 32 no. 1 (2008), 109.

  31. 31.

    Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991).

  32. 32.

    Lily Mafela, “Hegemony and Accommodation in the History Curriculum in Colonial Botswana,” Journal of Educational Administration and History, 46, no. 4 (2014), 435.

  33. 33.

    Bernadette Baker, “Introduction.” In B. Baker, ed. New Curriculum History (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2009), ix–xvi.

  34. 34.

    Cynthia Joseph and Julie Matthews, Understanding the Cultural Politics of South East Asian Education through Postcolonial Theory (London: Routledge, 2014).

  35. 35.

    Norrel A. London, “Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Development of Colonial Imagination: A Subversive Agenda.” Canadian and International Education, 30 no. 1 (2000).

  36. 36.

    Bernadette Baker, “Introduction.” In B. Baker, ed., New Curriculum History (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2009), xv.

  37. 37.

    Bernadette Baker, “The Purposes of History? Curriculum Studies, Invisible Objects and Twenty-first Century Societies,” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 29 no. 1 (2013), 44.

  38. 38.

    Ibid.

  39. 39.

    Ivor Goodson, “Becoming a School Subject,” In Ivor Goodson, ed. The Making of Curriculum: Collected Essays (London: Routledge, 1988).

  40. 40.

    Fazal Rizvi, Bob Lingard and Jennifer Lavia, “Postcolonialism and Education: Negotiating a Contested Terrain,” Pedagogy, Culture and Society 14, no. 3 (2006), 250.

  41. 41.

    Cynthia Joseph and Julie Matthews, “Understanding the Cultural Politics of Southeast Asian Education through Postcolonial Theory.” In Cynthia Joseph and Julie Matthews, eds. Equity, Opportunity and Education in Postcolonial Southeast Asia (London: Routledge, 2014), 14.

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., 12–14.

  44. 44.

    London, “Curriculum and Pedagogy”.

  45. 45.

    T.T. Moyana, Education, Liberation, and the Creative Act (Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1989), 48.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., 51.

  47. 47.

    Mark Ginsburg and Sangeeta Kamat, “Political Sociology of Teachers’ Work.” In L. J. Saha, eds., International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education (New York: Pergamon, 1997), 657.

  48. 48.

    London, “Curriculum and Pedagogy”.

  49. 49.

    Moyana, “Education,” 52.

  50. 50.

    “Chief Inspector’s Circular No 27, 1969,” cited in Moyana, “Education”.

  51. 51.

    Ibid.

  52. 52.

    Henry Giroux, “Cultural Studies, Public Pedagogy, and the Responsibility of Intellectuals,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 1, no. 1 (2004), 55.

  53. 53.

    London, “Curriculum and Pedagogy”.

  54. 54.

    UNESCO, “Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa” Project, Elaboration of the common pedagogical content for use in African schools, First meeting of the drafting teams, Harare, Zimbabwe (September 4–9, 2011).

  55. 55.

    Robert Mugabe, “Inside the Third Chimurenga,” Government of Zimbabwe (Harare, Zimbabwe, 2001), 64.

  56. 56.

    Preben Kaarsholm, The Past as Battlefield in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe: The Struggle of Competing Nationalisms over History from Colonization to Independence, In Harbsmeier, M. & Trolle Larsen, M., Eds, Culture & History 6: Confronting Cultures (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1991), 156.

  57. 57.

    The word Chimurenga is a Shona term which means war of liberation. It has since found its way in Zimbabwean history as a descriptor of the war(s) of liberation waged in Zimbabwe.

  58. 58.

    Terrence, O. Ranger, Constructions of Zimbabwe, Journal of Southern African Studies, (2010), 505.

  59. 59.

    Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977 (New York: Pantheon, 1980), 133.

  60. 60.

    Kaya Yilmaz, Social Studies Teachers’ Conceptions of History: Calling on Historiography, (The Journal of Educational Research, 2008).

  61. 61.

    Ibid, 158.

  62. 62.

    Richard Harris and Rosemary Reynolds, “The History Curriculum and its personal Connection to Students From Minority Ethnic Backgrounds,” Journal of Curriculum Studies 46, no. 4 (2014), 467.

  63. 63.

    Peter Seixas Schweigen! die Kinder! Or, “Does Postmodern History Have a Place in the Schools?” In Stearns, P.N. Seixas, P., & Wineburg, S. (Eds.), Knowing teaching & learning history: National and international Perspectives (New York: New York University Press 2000), 23.

  64. 64.

    Richard Harris and Rosemary Reynolds, “The History Curriculum and its personal Connection to Students From Minority Ethnic Backgrounds,” 467.

  65. 65.

    Mary Price, “History in danger,” History 53, no. 179 (1968): 342–347.

  66. 66.

    Schools Council History Project 1976 is associated with Lawrence Stenhouse’s Humanities Council Project in the United Kingdom.

  67. 67.

    Ruth Sandwell, “History is a Verb: Teaching Historical Practice to Teacher Education Students” in Penney Clark, Eds., New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011), 224–242.

  68. 68.

    Richard Bain, Rounding Up The Usual Suspects (Teachers’ College Record, 2006), 2091.

  69. 69.

    Anver Segall, “What’s the purpose of teaching a discipline, anyway?” In A. Segall, E. E. Heilman & C. H. Cherryholmes, Eds., Social Studies – The Next Generation: Researching in The Postmodern (New York, Peter Lang, 2006), 138–139.

  70. 70.

    Ibid, 149.

  71. 71.

    Dude Jankie, When Post-colonial Critique Meets Curriculum History: The Possibilities and Limits of Post-Independence Nation-building, Curriculum Reform, and the Politics of Language and Literacy Education, In Bernadette Baker, Eds (Rotterdam. Sense Publishers, 2009), 241–272.

  72. 72.

    Ibid, 245.

  73. 73.

    Henry Giroux, “Cultural Studies, Public Pedagogy, and the Responsibility of Intellectuals,” Communication and Critical Cultural Studies 1, no. 1 (2004), 68.

  74. 74.

    Robert Parkes and Debra Donnelly, “Changing Conceptions of Historical Thinking in History Education: An Australian Case Study” Revista Tempo e Argumento 6, no. 11 (2014), 69.

  75. 75.

    Ibid.

  76. 76.

    Ordinary level Syllabus 2166, (1996), 2.

  77. 77.

    Hardy Chitate, “Post-independent Zimbabwe’s new ‘O’ Level History syllabus 2166: a crisis of expectations,” Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research 17 no. 3 (2005), 234–257.

  78. 78.

    Kent Heyer, and Alexandra Fidyk, “Configuring Historical Facts Through Historical Fiction: Agency, Art-In-Fact, and Imagination as Stepping Stones between Then and Now,” Educational Theory, 57, No. 2 (2007), 149.

  79. 79.

    David Coltart cited in Tendi, Blessing Miles (2009) A review of “Becoming Zimbabwe. A History, c.850–2009.” http://www.davidcoltart.com/2009/11/zimbabwean-history-in-context-a-comparison-of-the-history-book-with-existent-history-curriculum-and-teaching

  80. 80.

    Alan Reid. “Social Justice, and Senior Secondary Education: Reflections on Undemocratic Schooling,” Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 27, No. 4, (2006), 557.

  81. 81.

    Anver Segall. “What’s The Purpose of Teaching a Discipline, Anyway?”.

  82. 82.

    Ibid, 133.

  83. 83.

    Itai Muwati, Interface of History and Fiction: The Zimbabwean Liberation War Novel (Unpublished DPhil Thesis, UNISA 2009), 141.

  84. 84.

    Sirkka Ahonen, “Education in Post-Conflict Societies,” Historical Encounters 1, no. 1, (2014), 86.

  85. 85.

    Wilfred Carr, “Curriculum in and for a Democracy,” Curriculum Studies 6, no. 3, (1988), 336.

  86. 86.

    Klas Roth, “Deliberation in National and Post-National Education,” Journal of Curriculum Studies 38, no. 5, (2006), 588.

Bibliography

  • Ahonen, Sirkka. 2014. History Education in Post-Conflict Societies. Historical Encounters 1 (1): 75–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 2006. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bain, Robert B. 2006. Rounding Up Unusual Suspects: Facing the Authority Hidden in the History Classroom. Teachers College Record 108 (10): 2080–2114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Bernadette. 2009. Introduction. In New Curriculum History, ed. B. Baker, ix–xvi. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. The Purposes of History? Curriculum Studies, Invisible Objects and Twenty-First Century Societies. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 29 (1): 26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, Teresa. 2007. ‘History Has to Play Its Role’: Constructions of Race and Reconciliation in Secondary School Historiography in Zimbabwe, 1980–2002. Journal of Southern African Studies 33 (3): 633–651.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, Glen A. 2009. Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method. Qualitative Research Journal 9 (2): 27–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breuilly, John. 2009. Nationalism and the Making of National Pasts. In Nations and Their Histories: Constructions and Representations, ed. Susana Carvalho and François Germenne, 7–29. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Carr, Wilfred. 1998. The Curriculum in and for a Democratic Society. Curriculum Studies 6 (3): 323–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chitate, Hardy. 2005. Post-Independent Zimbabwe’s New ‘O’ Level History Syllabus 2166: A Crisis of Expectations. Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research 17 (3): 234–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christou, Theodore. 2000. The Language of Patriotism: Sacred History and Dangerous Memories. British Journal of Sociology of Education 28 (6): 709–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Anna. 2004. Teaching the Nation: Politics and Pedagogy in Australian History. PhD Thesis (Unpublished) the University of Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. Teaching the Nation’s Story: Comparing Public Debates and Classroom Perspectives on History Education in Australia and Canada. Journal of Curriculum Studies 41 (6): 745–762.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Politicians Use History. Australian Journal of Politics and History 56 (1): 120–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Penney, ed. 2011. New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coloma, Roland Sintos. 2009. Postcolonial Challenges in Education. New York: USA Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corrigan, Philip. 1990. Social Forms/Human Capacities. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutrara, Samantha. 2009. To Placate or Provoke? A Critical Review of the Disciplines Approach to History Curriculum. Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies 7 (2): 86–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Den Heyer, Kent, and Fidyk Alexandra. 2007. Configuring Historical Facts Through Historical Fiction: Agency, Art-In-Fact, and Imagination as Stepping Stones Between Then and Now. Educational Theory 57 (2): 141–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doherty, Catherine A. 2008. Re-imagining and Re-imaging the Nation Through the History Curriculum. Paper Presented at Changing Climates: Education for Sustainable Futures, Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE 2008), (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 30 November–4 December).

    Google Scholar 

  • Falola, Toyin. 2005. Writing and Teaching National History in Africa in an Era of Global History. Africa Spectrum 40 (3): 499–519.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frederic, Jameson. 1981. The Political Unconscious Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg, Mark B., and Sangeeta G. Kamat. 1997. Political Sociology of Teachers’ Work. In International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education, ed. Lingard J. Saha. New York: Pergamon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giroux, Henry A. 2004. Cultural Studies, Public Pedagogy, and the Responsibility of Intellectuals. Communication and Critical=Cultural Studies 1 (1): 59–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glesne, Clen. 2015. Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodson, Ivor. 1988. Becoming a School Subject. In The Making of Curriculum: Collected Essays, ed. Ivor Goodson, 89–106. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, Bill, and Phil Cormack. 2008. Curriculum History, ‘English’ and the New Education; or, Installing the Empire of English? Pedagogy, Culture & Society 16 (3): 253–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grever, Maria. 2009. Fear of Plurality. Historical Culture and Historiographical Canonization in Western Europe. In Gendering Historiography: Beyond National Canons, ed. Angelika Epple and Angelika Schaser, 45–62. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Richard, and Rosemary Reynolds. 2014. The History Curriculum and Its Personal Connection to Students from Minority Ethnic Backgrounds. Journal of Curriculum Studies 46 (4): 464–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirst, Paul. 1975. Knowledge and the Curriculum: A Collection of Philosophical Papers. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jankie, Dudu. 2009. When Post-colonial Critique Meets Curriculum History: The Possibilities and Limits of Post-Independence Nation-Building, Curriculum Reform, and the Politics of Language and Literacy Education. In New Curriculum History, ed. Bernadette Baker, 241–272. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, Keith. 1991. Re-thinking History. London: EC4P 4EE. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, Cynthia, and Julie Matthews. 2014. Understanding the Cultural Politics of Southeast Asian Education Through Postcolonial Theory. In Equity, Opportunity and Education in Postcolonial Southeast Asia, ed. C. Joseph and J. Matthews, 12–32. London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kaarsholm, Preben. 1991. The Past as Battlefield in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe: The Struggle of Competing Nationalisms Over History From Colonization to Independence. In Culture & History 6: Confronting Cultures, ed. M. Harbsmeier and M. Trolle Larsen, 156–186. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanu, Yatta. 2006. Curriculum as Cultural Practice: Postcolonial Imaginations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo, Zeus. 2002. The Souls of White Folk: Critical Pedagogy, Whiteness Studies, and Globalization Discourse. Race Ethnicity and Education 5 (1): 29–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • London, Norrel A. 2002. Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Development of Colonial Imagination: A Case Study. Pedagogy, Culture & Society 10 (1): 95–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mafela, Lily. 2014. Hegemony and Accommodation in the History Curriculum in Colonial Botswana. Journal of Educational Administration and History 46 (4): 424–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyana, Toby Tafirenyika. 1989. Education, Liberation, and the Creative Act. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mugabe, Robert. 2001. Inside the Third Chimurenga. Harare: Government of Zimbabwe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muwati, Itai. 2009. Interface of History and Fiction: The Zimbabwean Liberation War Novel. Unpublished DPhil Thesis, UNISA.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Leary, Zina. 2014. The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ordinary Level History Syllabus 2166. 1996. Ministry of Education and Culture. Harare: Curriculum Development Unit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ordinary Level History Syllabus 2167. 2002. Ministry of Education and Culture. Harare: Curriculum Development, Unit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, Robert J. 2007. Reading History Curriculum as Post-Colonial Text: Towards a Curricular Response to the History Wars in Australia and Beyond. Curriculum Inquiry 37 (4): 384–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, Robert J., and Debra Donnelly. 2014. Changing Conceptions of Historical Thinking in History Education: An Australian Case Study. Revista Tempo e Argumento 6 (11): 113–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, Mary. 1968. History in Danger. History 53 (179): 342–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raftopoulos, Brain, and Alois Mlambo. 2010. Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the Pre-colonial Period to 2008. Harare: Weaver Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranger, Terrence O. 2004. Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: The Struggle Over the Past in Zimbabwe. Journal of Southern African Studies 30 (2): 215–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. The Politics of Memorialisation in Zimbabwe. In Nations and Their Histories: Constructions and Representations, ed. S. Carvalho and F. Germenne, 62–76. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Constructions of Zimbabwe. Journal of Southern African Studies 36 (2): 505–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid, Alan. 2006. Social Justice, and Senior Secondary Education: Reflections on Undemocratic Schooling. Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 27 (4): 551–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rizvi, Fazal, Bob Lingard, and Jennifer Lavia. 2006. Postcolonialism and Education: Negotiating a Contested Terrain. Pedagogy, Culture & Society 14 (3): 249–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth, Klas. 2006. Deliberation in National and Post-National Education. Journal of Curriculum Studies 38 (5): 569–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandwell, Ruth. 2011. History Is a Verb: Teaching Historical Practice to Teacher Education Students. In New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada, ed. Penney Clark, 224–242. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segall, Avner. 1999. Critical History: Implications for History/Social Studies Education. Theory & Research in Social Education 27 (3): 358–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Segall, Anver. 2006. What’s the Purpose of Teaching a Discipline, Anyway? In Social Studies – The Next Generation: Researching in the Postmodern, ed. A. Segall, E.E. Heilman, and C.H. Cherryholmes, 138–139. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, Peter. 2000. Schweigen! Die Kinder! or. “Does Postmodern History Have a Place in the Schools?”. In Knowing Teaching & Learning History: National and International Perspectives, ed. P.N. Stearns, P. Seixas, and S. Wineburg. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2006. What Is Historical Consciousness? In To the Past: History Education, Public Memory, and Citizenship in Canada, ed. R. Sandwell. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. National History and Beyond. Journal of Curriculum Studies 41 (6): 719–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sethi, Rumina. 2011. The Politics of Postcolonialism: Empire, Nation and Resistance. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stéphane, Lévesque. 2008. Thinking Historically: Educating Students for the Twenty-First Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Tony, and Robert Guyver. 2012. History Wars and the Classroom: Global Perspectives. Charlotte: Information Age.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tendi, Blessing Miles. 2009. A Review of “Becoming Zimbabwe. A History, c. 850–2009.”http://www.davidcoltart.com/2009/11/zimbabwean-history-in-context-a-comparison-of-the-history-book-with-existent-history-curriculum-and-teaching/

  • Tendi, B. 2010. Review of Becoming Zimbabwe. Available at http://www.weaverpresszimbabwe.com/latest-reviews/59-becoming-zimbabwe/317-review-of-becoming-zimbabwe-tendai-rtp.html. Accessed 11 Jan 2011.

  • UNESCO. 2011. Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa. Project, Elaboration of the Common Pedagogical Content for Use in African Schools, First Meeting of the Drafting Teams, Harare, Zimbabwe 4–9 September. Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ERI/pdf/Outline_of_the_Meeting_Harare_4-9_Sept.%202011.pdf. Accessed 14 June 2012.

  • Van Hover, Stephanie, David Hicks, and Stephen Cotton. 2012. “Can You Make ‘Historiography’ Sound More Friendly?”: Towards the Construction of a Reliable and Validated History Teaching Observation Instrument. The History Teacher 45 (4): 603–612.

    Google Scholar 

  • VanSledright, Bruce. 2008. Narratives of Nation-State, Historical Knowledge, and School History Education. Review of Research in Education 32 (1): 109–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vickers, Edward. 2002. The Politics of History Education in Hong Kong: The Case of Local History. International Journal of Educational Research 37 (6 and 7): 587–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Zheng. 2008. National Humiliation, History Education, and the Politics of Historical Memory: Patriotic Education Campaign in China. International Studies Quarterly 52 (4): 783–806.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilschut, Arie H.J. 2010. History at the Mercy of Politicians and Ideologies: Germany, England, and the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Journal of Curriculum Studies. 42: 693–723.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wineburg, Sam. 1991. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yilmaz, Kaya. 2008. Social Studies Teachers’ Conceptions of History: Calling on Historiography. The Journal of Educational Research 101 (3): 158–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeleza, P.T. 1994. The Democratic Transition in Africa and the Anglophone Writer. Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 28 (3): 472–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Mugabe School of Education and Culture, Department of Curriculum Studies, Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe

    Nathan Moyo

Authors
  1. Nathan Moyo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nathan Moyo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Liberal Arts, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, Denver, CO, USA

    Christopher W. Berg

  2. The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership, Walden University, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Christopher W. Berg

  3. Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Theodore M. Christou

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Moyo, N. (2020). What History Should Schools Teach in a Postcolonial Context?: Reimagining Secondary School History Curriculum for Democratic Practice in Zimbabwe. In: Berg, C.W., Christou, T.M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of History and Social Studies Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37210-1_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37210-1_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37209-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-37210-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation