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  • © 2016

(Re)Constructing Memory: Textbooks, Identity, Nation, and State

  • Williams and Bokhorst-Heng provide a unique study of 13 cases around the world where school textbooks are used, alternately, to include or exclude social and cultural groups from the national portrait
  • The book shows how school textbooks portray indigenous peoples, ordinary good citizens, LGBT people, and other “others” in 17 regions
  • The book provides a comparative examination of shifts in the protrayal of “self” and “other” during periods of social change in 17 countries

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    1. Introduction

      • Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng
      Pages 1-24
  2. Who Are We? Textbooks, Visibility, and Membership in the State

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25
    2. Are Mexico’s Indigenous People Mexican?

      • Sarah Corona Berkin
      Pages 27-48
    3. The Struggle to be Seen

      • Carolyn A. Brown
      Pages 49-72
    4. Normalizing Subordination

      • Ronald E. Butchart
      Pages 73-91
    5. From Ingenious to Ignorant, From Idyllic to Backwards

      • Aimee Howley, Karen Eppley, Marged H. Dudek
      Pages 93-119
    6. “Within the Sound of Silence”

      • Sandra J. Schmidt
      Pages 121-139
  3. Who are We? US and Them

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 141-141
    2. The Portrayal of “The Other” in Pakistani and Indian School Textbooks

      • Basabi Khan Banerjee, Georg Stöber
      Pages 143-176
    3. Asian Bodies, English Values

      • Adeline Koh
      Pages 177-198
    4. History and Civic Education in the Rainbow Nation

      • Carol Anne Spreen, Chrissie Monaghan
      Pages 199-218
    5. Re-Imagining Brotherhood

      • Travis Nesbitt, Val Rust
      Pages 219-236
  4. Who are We? (Re)negotiating Complex Identities

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 237-237
    2. Democratic Citizenship Education in Textbooks in Spain and England

      • Claudia Messina, Vanita Sundaram, Ian Davies
      Pages 239-261
    3. Textbook and Identity

      • Joe Tin-Yau Lo
      Pages 263-294
    4. Reframing The National Narrative

      • Kevin R. Mcclure, Bedrettin Yazan, Ali Fuad Yazan
      Pages 295-321
    5. Vacuum in the Classroom?

      • Teresa Barnes, Munyaradzi Nyakudya, Government Christopher Phiri
      Pages 323-341
  5. Conclusions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 343-343
    2. Defining and Debating the Common “We”

      • Laura C. Engel
      Pages 345-353

About this book

This book engages readers in thirteen conversations presented by authors from around the world regarding the role that textbooks play in helping readers imagine membership in the nation. Authors’ voices come from a variety of contexts – some historical, some contemporary, some providing analyses over time. But they all consider the changing portrayal of diversity, belonging and exclusion in multiethnic and diverse societies where silenced, invisible, marginalized members have struggled to make their voices heard and to have their identities incorporated into the national narrative. The authors discuss portrayals of past exclusions around religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, as they look at the shifting boundaries of insider and outsider. This book is thus about “who we are” not only demographically, but also in terms of the past, especially how and whether we teach discredited pasts through textbooks. The concluding chapters provides ways forward in thinking about what can bedone to promote curricula that are more inclusive, critical and positively bonding, in increasingly larger and more inclusive contexts. 






Editors and Affiliations

  • The George Washington University Washington, DC, USA

    James H. Williams

  • Crandall University, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

    Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: (Re)Constructing Memory: Textbooks, Identity, Nation, and State

  • Editors: James H. Williams, Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-509-8

  • Publisher: SensePublishers Rotterdam

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature B.V. 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-6300-509-8Published: 08 July 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 380

  • Topics: Education, general

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access