Attitudes to history and senses of the past among grade 12 learners in a selection of schools in the Durban area, 2004 : a pilot study.
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Date
2004
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
Abstract
This study explores attitudes to school history and 'senses of the past' among a sample of
Grade 12 learners in a selection of six schools in the Durban area. It traces the history of
history education in South Africa from its formal introduction to the Cape Colony in 1839 to
the debates surrounding the revision of the history syllabus and the introduction of
Curriculum 2005 in the present day. It makes the point that the context within which school
history in South Africa arose and developed has led history education authorities to view
school history as a subject with 'problems' for which they need to find 'solutions' from the
top down. Thus, learners who come to school with an insufficient knowledge or awareness of
the past must be encouraged to become more 'historically aware'.
Recent developments within western academic history have led a number of historians to
acknowledge the significance of histories produced outside the realms ofthe academy. Some
of their literature points to complex and diverse ways in which ordinary people make and use
the past in their everyday lives. These developments are of particular relevance when one
considers learners at school because school history education authorities have given very little
attention to the ways in which learners make and use histories in their everyday lives.
This study set out to explore whether further investigations into learners' attitudes to history,
their senses of the past and the relationship between the two would be a valuable line of
enquiry for future research. It concludes that adolescents are just as much 'producers' of
pasts as they are 'learners' of history and that far from showing how little learners know
about the past, these senses tell us much about how learners feel in the present.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.
Keywords
History--Study and teaching (Secondary)--South Africa., Theses--History.