Teaching the Violent Past

History Education and Reconciliation

Contributions by Julian Dierkes, Takashi Yoshida, Penney Clark, Alison Kitson, Rafael Valls, Elizabeth Oglesby, Thomas Sherlock, Roland Bleiker, Young-ju Hoang, Jon Dorschner, Audrey Chapman Edited by Elizabeth A. Cole

Publication date:

04 October 2007

Length of book:

376 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

228x155mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742551435

During an armed conflict or period of gross human rights violations, the first priority is a cessation of violence. For the cease-fire to be more than a lull in hostilities and atrocities, however, it must be accompanied by a plan for political transition and social reconstruction. Essential to this long-term reconciliation process is education reform that teaches future generations information repressed under dictatorial regimes and offers new representations of former enemies. In Teaching the Violent Past, Cole has gathered nine case studies exploring the use of history education to promote tolerance, inclusiveness, and critical thinking in nations around the world. Online Book Companion is available at: http://www.cceia.org/resources/for_educators_and_students/teaching_the_violent_past/index.html

Chapter 1 Introduction: History Education and Sociopolitical Reconciliation
Part 2 Part I: As Generations Pass: The Challenges of Long-Term Reconciliation in History Textbooks
Chapter 3 Chapter One: The Trajectory of Reconciliation through History Education in Post-Unification Germany
Chapter 4 Chapter Two: Teaching the Pacific War in Japanese Secondary Schools
Chapter 5 Chapter Three: Canadian History Textbooks and the Portrayal of Canada's First Nations
Part 6 Part II: Reconciliation in Process
Chapter 7 Chapter Four: History Teaching and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland
Chapter 8 Chapter Five: The Civil War and Franco Dictatorship in Spanish Secondary School History Textbooks
Chapter 9 Chapter Six: Education and the Politics of History in Guatemala: Integrating "Memory of Silence" into the Curriculum?
Part 10 Part III: Reconciliation Jeopardized, Undone or Not Yet Attained: Aspirational and Counter-Reconciliatory Cases
Chapter 11 Chapter Seven: Secondary School History Texts: the Case of Russia
Chapter 12 Chapter Eight: From Confrontation to Cooperation in the Two Koreas: The Role of History Education in Promoting Reconciliation
Chapter 13 Chapter Nine: History Education and Reconciliation Issues In Contemporary India and Pakistan
Chapter 14 Afterword

Can high school history texts "facilitate nonviolent coexistence among people divided by the memory of pain and death"? These case studies from ten countries are rich in hopeful, cautious, mixed answers. High school history teachers should take courage from this book, for theirs is a mission not often publicly celebrated: their part in the healing of the wounds in our body politic. No country should boast that it has no such wounds.