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An investigation of progression in historical thinking in South African history textbooks.
Get PDFDoctor of Philosophy in Education (History Education)Abstract available in PDF file
A Critical Approach to History Textbook Images
Get PDFThe use of textbooks as critical learning and teaching resources is reinforced in South Africa by the Department of Education’s Revised Annual Teaching Plans for Social Sciences, Term One. In Week One of Grade 6, the 2021 plan states that each learner must receive a Social Studies textbook and be taught the importance of taking care of them (DoE, 2021, p. 1), reinforcing the status of the textbook as an authority on history content and learning. Consequently, research into history textbooks is important. This study produced data about some textbook images which could potentially challenge learner’s ability to construct historical narratives and to think historically. This challenge lies in the way in which these images are used as they form part of the repertoire of historical evidence. Through different time periods we have seen how images and photographs have recorded the past. While images are used to assist leaners understand the past, not all the images are historical evidence. Some are presented as real but are actually drawings of an event, artefact or person. Textbook authors do not distinguish clearly between what is real or not, with some scenes ‘staged’ to create a sense of reality for understanding. The general audience or readership may be under the impression that all the contents of a history textbook are authentic but there should be an awareness of these tendencies. Teachers then know how to move learners when the images are unclear or unsupported in their contexts. Proper captioning and provenance is strongly recommended so that images which are evidence can be classified as historical sources and not just generic representations of the past.
A study of knowledge representations in grade 6 history textbooks before and after 1994.
Get PDFThesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.The purpose of this study is to investigate how the knowledge structures in Grade 6
History textbooks have altered since 1994 and how learners in History may be inducted
differently into the discipline of History. The transformation from a ‘content-heavy’ to
a ‘skills-based’ History curriculum, and the teaching of History as a ‘mode of enquiry’
has resulted in an altered form, shape and character of History, as it exists in the
learning area of the Social Sciences in the National Curriculum Statement.
Bernstein’s concepts of curricula types and discourses as well as Bertram’s ‘historical
gaze’ have been used to frame the study. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy has been used to
identify knowledge types and the cognitive demand of the textbooks. This study is
located within the interpretive paradigm using the methodology of content analysis. It
utilises the mixed-mode approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative methods.
The sampling of the four textbooks (data sources) was purposive due to their popularity,
accessibility, publication and prestige. Similar content in the chapter on the “History
of Medical Science” was analysed across all four textbooks. Whilst the expectation of
the NCS is one of high skill and high knowledge, the findings show that there seems to
be a lack of congruence between curriculum requirements and textbook representations.
An analysis of the two new textbooks indicate that both content of History (substantive
knowledge) and historical procedures (procedural knowledge) are in danger as
everyday knowledge is prioritised in its integration with substantive History knowledge
in Grade 6 History textbooks. The content analysis also reveals an undeveloped sense
of chronology; space and time which has implications for History learners and their
appropriate induction into the discipline of History
Unravelling Second-Order Concepts in South African History Textbooks
Get PDFThis paper explores the progression of second-order concepts in seven purposively sampled South African CAPS-compliant history textbooks. History knowledge encompasses both the substantive and procedural knowledge types, with second-order concepts forming an integral component of the latter. Textbook writers and educators use this knowledge in their domains without a predetermined trajectory. These concepts are not mere skills but fundamental notions guiding historical practice. Their meaningful integration into learning materials forms a necessary toolkit for historical inquiry. Drawing from a broader PhD study, a Bernsteinian (1990) framework and the ‘big six’ concepts articulated by Seixas and Peck (2004) are used to analyse the content of seven chapters, one per book, telling the story of the history of South Africa across grades three to nine in the foundation, intermediate, and senior phases of the South African school curriculum. A continuum was populated, articulating the strengths of the second-order concepts ranging from a powerful presence to those weakly incorporated. The findings indicate a sporadic presence of the six concepts—historical significance, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspectives, and the moral dimension across the textbooks. There is a more inclusive focus in the senior grades and less so in lower grades. The concepts also lack continuous and cumulative development. If these ‘structural’ historical concepts provide the basis for historical thinking, it is unclear how they advance through the grades with increasing levels of complexity. The methodology of history is thus not a universal or one-size-fits-all endeavour but an iterative process inculcating concepts that are nuanced and inherently abstract
Tracing the Substantive Structure of Historical Knowledge in South African School Textbooks
Get PDFThis article argues that complex substantive knowledge in South African school history textbooks may challenge learners who struggle with reading and comprehension. While debates continue about the balance of substantive and procedural knowledge, both fundamental elements of history knowledge (Lee, 2004), this study employs a qualitative analysis of the substantive content within a Bernsteinian framework. Seven purposively sampled history textbooks, covering grade 3 to grade 9, across the foundation, intermediate, and senior phases of the South African school curriculum are analysed using Maton’s (2013) language descriptions of context and semantics as conceptual tools. Additionally, nominalisation techniques (Coffin, 2006) are used to examine language in the text. Findings indicate significant growth in substantive knowledge manifesting through time, space, context, and semantics.1 Substantive knowledge shifts from a rudimentary and contextualised nature to a more abstract and dense form, including domain-specific conceptual knowledge. Advancing grades produce decontextualised knowledge with heightened semantic density. Increased events under study accompany greater participant diversity. A History student working with these materials would need to be highly proficient in language skills and also capable of processing substantial volumes of abstract content knowledge. Alarming statistics from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Department of Basic Education, 2023) reveal that 81% of grade 4 learners struggle with comprehension in any language, ranking South Africa at the bottom of 57 countries. It is likely that learners would encounter difficulties with the substantive knowledge evident in these textbooks
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Using genre to describe the progression of historical thinking in school history textbooks
Get PDFThe focus of this paper is to describe how progression in historical thinking
manifests across seven South African textbooks, one each from Grade 3 to Grade
9. This paper argues that one way in which progression in historical thinking
is signalled in textbooks is by the genre type of the texts with which learners are
required to engage. Our starting premise is that the development of historical
thinking requires both substantive and procedural knowledge, or both first order
and second order historical concepts. This paper presents only the genre analysis of
a broader study which is informed by a combination of concepts from the fields
of history education, sociology of knowledge and the genre approach of Systematic
Functional Linguistics. The findings indicate that in terms of the texts that learners
must read, there is a clear movement from the recording genre to the explaining
genre and then to the interpretation genre across the seven books. The complexity
of the substantive knowledge also increases as it moves from local contextualised
knowledge to knowledge that is removed from the learner’s context in both geography
and time (decontextualized knowledge). In terms of writing demands, it is only
in Grade 6 that learners commence writing explanations and thus engaging with
the concept of cause and effect. It is only in Grade 9 that learners are expected to
engage with writing multi-perspectives or to interpret and argue for a particular
perspective as they are introduced to a range of different sources. This paper argues
that using genre as a methodological tool can illuminate some aspects of progression
of both first order and second order concepts in history.http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2223-0386/2015/nl4a
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