History of Education

History of Education: The Nation State throughout Material Culture

DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIT:

This unit introduces students to the concept of material culture and the history of education. It is focused on objects in schooling that were chained by action and routines. These artefacts can be sources for a better understanding of history and can show us another way of approaching the past. School artefacts are more than just material things as they communicate ideas, symbolise values, and convey emotions.

In this unit, students will analyse some examples of school artefacts, mainly textbooks used in Spain during Franco’s Dictatorship. These schoolbooks constructed the new national identity in the sense of a dictatorial regime against the ‘Other’ and their texts and images were not truly designed to convey cognitive content to students, but to form their emotional and sentimental being.

Teaching history has been strongly linked to the notions of Nation State, Homeland and Patriotism, with outcomes that have been both good and bad.

The unit can also be seen in connection to the TED-Talk The Danger of a single story and with Edward Relph’s Place and Placelessness (1976).

OBJECTIVES:

Become aware of the rich variety of sources that historians use to explore the past
Evaluate the importance of the study of school objects in order to develop a better understanding of the history of education
Develop skills of critical historical thinking, including the ability to analyse sources and to make comparisons in context
Understand and criticise the effects different history textbooks may have on students
Assess the historical importance of texts and images in textbooks
Reflect on the relationship between Nation State, Place, Insideness and Outsideness and the teaching of history at schools

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

At the end of this unit the learners will have…

… become more sensitive to the complex interrelations between school objects, school actors and the education as well as the social systems
… more awareness for school artefacts and the history of education
.. acquired some theoretical background knowledge related to the history of education and its relevance
… established links between texts and images of history textbooks and the notions of Nation, Nation State, and Homeland
… found more examples from different countries and historical periods
… proposed ways of how to construct history for an inclusive nation that seeks understanding across its own component groups as well as its neighbours
… detected the presence of stereotypes created by the “single story” in some past and present textbooks

APPLIED METHODOLOGIES:

Basic information
Students are asked to give examples of school artefacts that have been relevant in their school history
Students are asked to choose a personal and relevant object that represents insideness and explain the reasons of their choice
Collaborative learning – Students will share their “experiences” about learning history and interpret them in their political and social context
Reflective questions – For example What were you taught about Nation State and Homeland at school? Does it help to develop Insideness? Do you think these concepts must be taught al school? When? How? Why?

REFERENCES:

Boyd, C.P. (1997). Historia Patria. Politics, History, and National Identity for Spain, 1875-1975. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Braster, S., Grosvenor, I. & Pozo, M. (eds.) (2011). The Black Box of Schooling. A Cultural History of the Classroom. Brusells. Peter Lang,
Craig Campbell , Geoffrey Sherington & Margaret White (2007): Borders and Boundaries in the History of Education, Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, 43:1, 1-6. To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00309230601080543
EERA (2014). Education across Europe. A visual Conversation. Network 17 - Histories of Education, Network 17 - Histories of Education, EERA. Retrived from http://hdl.handle.net/10993/18609