Bentrovato Narrating and Teaching the Nation

The Politics of Education in Pre- and Post-Genocide Rwanda
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-8470-0516-2
Verlag: V&R unipress
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 254 Seiten

Reihe: Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe.

The book investigates the politics of education in pre- and post-genocide Rwanda, examining the actors, interests, and discourses that have historically influenced educational policy and practice and in particular the production and revision of history curricula and textbooks.This study combines a systematic historical and comparative analysis of curricula and textbooks in Rwanda, stakeholder interviews, classroom observations, and a large-scale investigation of pupils' understandings of the country's history. Written at a crucial time of transition in Rwanda, it illuminates the role of education as a powerful means of socialisation through which dominant discourses and related belief systems have been transmitted to the younger generations, thus moulding the nation. It outlines emergent challenges and possibilities, urging a move away from the use of history teaching to disseminate a conveniently selective official history towards practices that promote critical thinking and reflect the heterogeneity characteristic of Rwanda's post-genocide society.

Dr Denise Bentrovato is a Research Fellow in the Department of Humanities Education at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the co-founder and co-director of the African Association for History Education (AHE-Afrika).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bentrovato, Denise

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Vergleichende und Empirische Bildungsforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Lehrerausbildung, Unterricht & Didaktik Allgemeine Didaktik Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften (Unterricht & Didaktik)
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Bildungspolitik, Bildungsreform
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Pädagogische Soziologie, Bildungssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Curricula: Planung und Entwicklung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Title Page;4
2;Copyright;5
3;Table of Contents;6
4;Body;8
5;Acknowledgements;8
6;Introduction;10
7;1. History, identity, and the politics of education: a conceptual framework;16
7.1;Historical narratives and social construction;16
7.2;History, identity conflict, and reconciliation;22
7.3;Learning the “right stories”: the politics of education and the “usable past”;26
7.4;Education, conflict, and transitional justice: reforming schooling after violence;29
8;2. Historical background ;38
9;3. Colonial Rwanda;50
9.1;The “Hamitic theory” and the writing of a mythical ethno-history;50
9.2;Colonial schools as a breeding ground of racial Hamitic ideology;55
9.2.1;Teaching about the greatness of the Hamitic Tutsi ancestors;56
9.2.2;Educational inequality and the enactment of the myth of Tutsi superiority;58
10;4. Post-colonial Rwanda;62
10.1;Hutu ethno-nationalism and the recycled “Hamitic theory”;62
10.2;Pre-genocide schooling and the institutionalisation of “ethnism”;66
10.2.1;Teaching a cult of difference;67
10.2.2;Educational policies and the reversal of inequality;80
11;5. Post-genocide Rwanda;84
11.1;Building a “New Rwanda”: (re-)writing history in the service of national unity;84
11.2;Mass (re-)education and the legalised censorship of alternative truths;93
11.3;The pedagogical function of state-sponsored transitional justice;98
11.3.1;Rwanda's vast “memory industry”: between remembering and forgetting;98
11.3.2;Writing history out of justice: public trials and the pursuit of a victor's truth;106
11.4;Never again? Reforming schools after genocide;110
11.4.1;Promoting equality and a culture of peace and national unity;111
11.4.2;The post-genocide challenges of teaching the nation's history;115
12;6. School voices: Young people's narratives of Rwanda's past and present;162
12.1;The field research process;164
12.2;Analysis of the survey;175
12.2.1;Structure and content of the narratives;176
12.2.2;Constructing identities: nationhood and the banality of ethnicity;177
12.2.3;Accounting for violence: externalization of blame and the myth of national rebirth;181
12.3;The power of education: moulding a new generation after genocide;205
13;7. Charting a way forward: what lessons for the future?;212
13.1;Assessing history teaching in post-genocide Rwanda: success or failure?;216
13.2;Looking forwards: the promises of reforming history education;219
14;Bibliography;226
15;Glossary;252

Über Autor(innen)

Bentrovato, Denise
Dr Denise Bentrovato is a Research Fellow in the Department of Humanities Education at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the co-founder and co-director of the African Association for History Education (AHE-Afrika).