First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa
This article is based on a free writing exercise given to 31 first-year History Education students in which they were, asked to write ‘The history of South Africa according to me’. Using narrative enquiry, the stories of the students, who all had History at school up to their final year, were analys...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AOSIS
2018-11-01
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| Series: | The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/585 |
| _version_ | 1818319575074209792 |
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| author | Johan Wassermann |
| author_facet | Johan Wassermann |
| author_sort | Johan Wassermann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article is based on a free writing exercise given to 31 first-year History Education students in which they were, asked to write ‘The history of South Africa according to me’. Using narrative enquiry, the stories of the students, who all had History at school up to their final year, were analysed. What emerged was that South Africa as a political entity is focalised as a place where apartheid took place. Post-apartheid South Africa by contrast is narrated as a free and democratic place. It is focalised by the majority of students as a strong well-established country – a leading example to other nations. In line with this, the vast majority of students tended to limit their account of the history of South Africa to the period prior to the achievement of democracy in 1994. The personal narratives spoke about race being the dominant factor in their historical discourses. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:11:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-03626cbb925f459eae926a60fae6e635 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1817-4434 2415-2005 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:11:17Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | AOSIS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa |
| spelling | doaj.art-03626cbb925f459eae926a60fae6e6352022-12-21T23:51:25ZengAOSISThe Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa1817-44342415-20052018-11-01142e1e810.4102/td.v14i2.585391First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South AfricaJohan Wassermann0Department of Humanities Education, Faculty of Education, University of PretoriaThis article is based on a free writing exercise given to 31 first-year History Education students in which they were, asked to write ‘The history of South Africa according to me’. Using narrative enquiry, the stories of the students, who all had History at school up to their final year, were analysed. What emerged was that South Africa as a political entity is focalised as a place where apartheid took place. Post-apartheid South Africa by contrast is narrated as a free and democratic place. It is focalised by the majority of students as a strong well-established country – a leading example to other nations. In line with this, the vast majority of students tended to limit their account of the history of South Africa to the period prior to the achievement of democracy in 1994. The personal narratives spoke about race being the dominant factor in their historical discourses.https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/585first-yearhistoryeducationSouth-Africa |
| spellingShingle | Johan Wassermann First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa first-year history education South-Africa |
| title | First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa |
| title_full | First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa |
| title_fullStr | First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa |
| title_short | First-year History Education students’ personal narratives of the history of South Africa |
| title_sort | first year history education students personal narratives of the history of south africa |
| topic | first-year history education South-Africa |
| url | https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/585 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT johanwassermann firstyearhistoryeducationstudentspersonalnarrativesofthehistoryofsouthafrica |