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(2003) thesis is that “the textbook remains central to the cause of an improved historical consciousness History education” (p. 258).
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textbooks (Dean, et al., 1983). From his textbook analysis, Auerbach (1965) found an increasing Afrikaner ethnocentrism being portrayed over time and the doctrines of Christian National Education (CNE) being promoted in the contemporary textbooks. According to Waller (2009), Auerbach acknowledged, but did not explore issues of stakeholder involvement in the production of History textbooks. However, this study set a trend in the analysis of issues of prejudice and political ideology in the country’s History textbooks. The focus on issues of CNE ideology and racial prejudice is not surprising since those were some of the most dominant contemporary discourses of the time of the study.
The research by Auerbach (1965) opened the gates for only a few studies in the same field.
According to Chernis (1990), FA Van Jaarsveld followed in Auerbach’s footsteps and dominated the field of History textbook research in South Africa for about 30 years. However, in the view of Dean, et al (1983), Van Jaarsveld was a historian who was not dominant in History textbook analysis per se, but in the writing of History textbooks as he was, in fact, a target of textbook analysts. The major critics of Jaarsveld’s textbooks were Taylor (1971) and Lewson (1975). As with the earlier research by Auerbach, the textbooks were criticised for containing content which was characterised by stereotypes and biases which were consistent with ruling government propaganda.
This criticism of the presence of apartheid ideology in the History textbooks spilled into the 1980s as the Soweto uprisings of 1976 and subsequent school boycotts further exposed the issues of ideology in South African school History (Chisholm, 1981). The subject of identity, stereotypes and prejudices as portrayed in History textbooks however remained topical. For example, Johnson (1982) explained how History textbooks played a part in “establishing and entrenching apartheid” (Waller, 2009, p. 31). Issues of representation were also researched by Mazel and Stewart (1987) who analysed the portrayal of the San in History textbooks. Two of the then most comprehensive studies on History textbooks were conducted by Dean et al.
(1983) and Du Preez Du Preez and Home (1983) who analysed 42 and 53 textbooks respectively. They showed how the history in the textbooks continued to legitimate apartheid and racial prejudice through the occlusion of Black people from the history of South Africa.
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However, the studies did not only focus on textbook analysis, as they also interrogated curricula and experiences of teachers. These two voluminous studies were indicative of the growth of the field of History textbook research in the country.
Although issues of prejudice remained a major aspect of History textbook research in South Africa in the 1980s, new researchers who entered the field also introduced different angles.
Cognisant of the disparities created by apartheid, Martin (1980) focused on comparing market responses to textbooks between White and Black schools. This new angle showed how the context and the teaching and learning of History have an effect on the buying of textbooks.
The most comprehensive research on South African History textbooks was conducted by Chernis (1990) who analysed approximately 100 History textbooks that were used in the country from 1839 to 1990. Chernis (1990) still maintained that by 1990, very little research on History textbooks had been conducted as evidenced by at most 10 postgraduate dissertations which, in his own opinion, mainly contained descriptive and little critical analysis. Examples of the theses include those by Du Plooy (1965), Motshabi (1972) and Raubenheimer (1944).
Although the issues of race, stereotypes and master symbols in the apartheid context were important in contextualising the study, there was evidence of a shift of focus to other issues in History Education. Being a vast survey, the study by Chernis (1990) had many findings including the pedagogical implications of the textbooks that had been used in South Africa over time. For him, the textbooks were crucial in the construction of a historical consciousness which promoted nation building based on the ideals of the incumbent government from colonisation to apartheid. He therefore linked historical consciousness to nationalism, although his conceptualisation of historical consciousness was different from Rüsen’s (1993).
It should be noted that Chernis (1990) produced his PhD thesis at a time when South Africa was beginning a process of marked political change. It can be argued that the uncertainty of the future had a contributing influence to scholars analysing issues other than race and prejudice.
Another example of this move is Matoti (1990) who analysed how the History textbooks enabled learners’ conceptual development and how this correlated with the pass and/or failure
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rates in the schools. The same applied to Evans (1991) whose study examined the role of textbooks in knowledge production and reproduction.
The post-apartheid period has witnessed comparatively increased publication of research on History textbooks, especially in the form of journal articles. This increase accompanied the paradigm shift in the South African History curriculum, thus informing the need for new textbooks (Siebörger, 1994; Siebörger & Reid, 1995). There has been little increase in postgraduate research where, since the 1960s, around only a dozen dissertations have been written on History textbooks in South Africa (Bharath, 2009; Da Cruz, 2005; Engelbrecht, 2009;
Firth, 2013; Fru, 2012; Gambushe, 1998; Koekemoer; 2012; Mashiya, 2000; Morgan, 2011;
Nene, 2014; Nishino, 2006; Ranchod, 2001; van Niekerk, 2014; Von den Steinen, 1997; Waller, 2009). This could partly be explained by the new curriculum’s apparent snub on school History until around 2004 (Siebörger, 2006). Indeed, most of the dissertations are from the period after 2004.
However, political change has not diminished some of the old issues that were researched. The theme of apartheid is still topical as exemplified by the study by Newman and Wassermann (2008) who analysed how South African textbooks in the post-apartheid dispensation constructed apartheid as this had an impact on some learners’ decisions to study History or not.
Similarly, Da Cruz (2005) also analysed the way the History textbooks perpetuated myths with reference to King Shaka and the Voortrekkers. This kind of study is useful when one wants to check if stereotypes that were in History textbooks before 1990 had been eliminated or were continuing – in the same or different form. Therefore apartheid and post-apartheid bias in History textbooks’ representation of content remains a topical research focus (Lieven, 2000).
The concern of bias is also shown in a unique paper by Bam and Visser (1996) which offers a proposed sample of a textbook chapter with a focus on the Xhosa cattle-killing.
Post-apartheid discourses have been characterised by talk of diversity and inclusivity. These discourses can be linked to the continuation of studies on prejudice be it racial, ethnic, gender or other forms of bias. Scholars such as Bundy (1993) Polakow-Suransky (2002) Engelbrecht (2005; 2008) and Siebörger (1994; 1995; 2006) explained how South African History Education
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and History textbooks underwent change from the days of the heavy influence of apartheid ideology to post-apartheid discourses. The notion is that a new political dispensation entails a new collective memory and hence a new historical consciousness meaning that the textbooks still continue a legitimating role, albeit of a new political dispensation. This was not precisely what happened as Polakow-Suransky (2002) argued that many schools continued to use old textbooks several years after the end of apartheid, thus ensuring the continuation of old narratives. The same sentiments were shared by Weldon (2006) who also examined the role of History textbooks in the affirmation of Afrikaner identity.
On the contrary, Pretorius (2007) argues that Afrikaner history does not even feature in the post-apartheid History textbooks. His concern speaks to how History textbooks represent some groups and underrepresent others despite the discourses of inclusivity and democracy.
Research on the dominant official post-apartheid discourse of unity in diversity was also conducted by Mckinney (2005) in a bid to critique the inclusivity of the History textbooks. Such research shows how issues of race continue to be a significant research focus. On issues of race and racism, Morgan (2010a; 2010b) has conducted significant research. Related to racism is sexism, which has been studied with a focus on the representation of women in post-apartheid History textbooks (Schoeman, 2009;Fardon & Schoeman, 2010).
The issues of content and representation that have been studied in South African History textbook research mainly pertain to the dominant discourses of the day such as issues of race and diversity discussed above. In addition, contemporary events have also triggered research on other aspects. For example, the textbook burning incident previously discussed motivated some research with scholars such as Siebörger (2008), Van Eeden (2008) and Wassermann (2008) writing in response to the event, and pointing to the possible consequences of the incident and the subsequent reaction of the concerned textbook publishers. Another example of event-motivated textbook research is by Chisholm (2008) who analysed issues of migration and citizenship in South African History textbooks in response to sporadic xenophobic incidents in the country which later culminated into larger-scale violence in 2008.
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While there has been considerable analysis of representational content in South African History textbooks, it has been limited on History didactics since the 1990s when scholars such as Matoti (1990) and Evans (1991) conducted such research. The available research includes that conducted by Bertram (2008; 2011) and Waller (2009) with the former studying how History textbooks recontextualised the curriculum, and how they can promote the development of a historical gaze through the substantive and procedural knowledge that they contain. The latter researched the concept of historical literacy and how it was promoted in the History textbooks.
Similarly, Bharath (2009) also analysed issues of knowledge representation in South African History textbooks. Other studies by Morgan (2012; 2014a) focus on the representation of concepts such as empathy rather than content knowledge. Most studies have not been specific to concepts, but some have identified specifics, such as heritage (Fru, Wassermann & Maposa, 2013). Also acknowledging the importance of historical knowledge is Morgan (2014b) who analysed textbooks and found out that South African History textbooks focus more on values than scholarly ends. Concerning values, Mashiya (2000) analysed the old History textbooks to see if they can be used in the post-apartheid dispensation to teach democratic values and found that they can only be useful if they are in critical hands. The studies identified in this paragraph show researchers’ attempts to formulate an answer to what school History, through textbooks, is meant to develop for learners from an educational knowledge point of view.
The production process of History textbooks is also not very well-researched. This process was reviewed by scholars such as Hindle (2004) and Johannesson (2002) who criticise the system of producing poor quality textbooks and identify the challenges in textbook production, distribution and use in South Africa. In addition, Siebörger (2008) and Van Eeden (2010) studied issues related to the production of textbooks, although the production aspect was not the main focus of the studies. The respondents in Van Eeden’s (2010) study complained that the textbook evaluation and approval procedure was neither rigorous nor transparent.
Furthermore, Chisholm (2013) engaged with more than the process of textbook production but also included issues of distribution into the schools. Such research highlighted the need for the government to establish more robust and transparent structures for textbook evaluation and approval to avoid conflict amongst the concerned stakeholders.
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Another area of textbook research which has not seen considerable research pertains to the methodology of History textbook analysis. In most studies, methodological issues are a means to an end rather than being one of the aims of the research. Morgan (2010c) decried this state of affairs in South African History textbook research when she came to this conclusion:
Most South African studies on school textbooks have tended to focus more on the political messages of textbooks than on interrogating the relationship between History as a discipline and the way this is translated into the didactical messages in textbooks. They have largely concentrated on the changing representations of South African History in the textbooks and have not concerned themselves with the theoretical and methodological problems of textbook (or educational media) analysis as such (p. 755).
This gap partly motivated her to focus her PhD on this area. Although she analysed the issue of race in the textbook the issue was the means while methodology was the end. As a follow-up, Morgan and Henning (2012) created a tool which they theorised can be used for the analysis of History textbooks. In conducting textbook analysis, an understanding of the nature of text is a crucial methodological matter. With regard to this, Morgan and Henning (2011) and Morgan (2014) also contributed methodologically by engaging with the nature of text and particularly visual text which she refers to as visual grammar.
Although international textbook research has included bilateral and multilateral projects, there is virtually no evidence of comparative studies involving South Africa. The only comparative study that I found was by Nishino (2006) who analysed the similarities and differences in South African and Japanese History textbooks during periods when the respective countries were under international scrutiny. This means that South African History textbooks have not really been evaluated according to standards from across the border.
I have shown in this section that there are many issues that still have to be researched on South African History textbooks. Of the aspects that have been studied in relation to History textbooks, the issue of Africa has, at best, been a side issue. For example, while the study by Chisholm (2008) mentioned South Africa’s position in Africa, it was mainly aimed at researching issues of migration-induced international diversity and how it was promoted in textbooks. Van Eeden (2010), who analysed the content in South African History textbooks, evaluated the
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inclusion and/or exclusion of content on African and European History, but not in great depth.
It follows therefore that History textbook research in South Africa has not focused on the issue of Africa and the African being. That gap provided an opportunity for me to proceed with this study.
It can be concluded in this section that while research in History textbooks has developed into a significant field internationally, in Africa the situation is different as there has been little research conducted. South Africa has a relatively large body of work by African standards, which is expected considering the gap in development which in Chapters 1 and 2 was argued to have caused the country’s dual exceptionalism in the African context. The limited amount of research on History textbooks in Africa, as compared to international trends, justifies the need to conduct more research in the field.