Changing the landscape of school history education in post-apartheid South Africa: prospects and challenges, 2000-2002

By Yonah Seleti

 

 

The purpose of this paper is to inform about the National Curriculum Statement on history for the Further Education and Training Band and discuss what role the professional historians should play in the quest for a better history education in South Africa. The impetus to revive and restore the status and value of history in South Africa society was championed by the former Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal. That there is great interest in history within the government is underscored by the Presidential project through the work of the South African Democratic Trust on political biographies and history of the liberation movement. The former Speaker of the National Parliament, Dr Giniwala, spearheaded and launched the African Millennium Project. It is no longer doubtful that history is seen as an essential resource in the enterprise of nation building.

 

This paper explores the crisis in history education in the country by summarising the findings of the Report of the History/Archaeology Panel to the Minister of Education. The appointment of the Ministerial Committee on History in August 2001 by Professor Kader Asmal was a response to one of the recommendations of the History and Archaeological Panel, the establishment of the History Commission. The paper examines to what extent the Ministerial Committee on History and the South African History Project are measuring up to the task enumerated in the History and Archaeology Report. To understand the opportunities and challenges faced by the SAHP the discussion should take cognisance of the whole spectrum of transformative work in the education sector. The paper will provide an analysis of the status of curriculum development, especially as it applies to history. Finally, the paper signals the need for broader and long-term strategies for addressing the systemic crisis around history provision.

 

Deep-seated and systemic crisis in history education

The Report of the History/Archaeology Panel to the Minister of Education could arguably be considered as a significant turning point for history education in South Africa. It is through the recommendation of the Panel that the former Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, appointed a Ministerial Committee on History in August 2001 with the mandate of reviving interest in history in all of South African society and especially in schools. Professor Asmal’s appointment of a Ministerial Committee on History was a culmination of a process, which had its roots in the struggles against the poor teaching, and marginalisation of history in the schooling system before and after 1994.[1]

 

The work of the History and Archaeology Panel and subsequently that of the South African History project constitutes part of the Values in Education Initiative. Early in 2000 Professor Kader Asmal appointed a Working Group on Values in Education which produced a report entitled “Values, Education and Democracy” in April 2000. The report had a lot to say about the place of history in the promotion of core values that are essential for education and also for a thriving democracy. A couple of these statements below illustrate the significance attributed to the significance of history in the promotion of values in education and in a democracy. The reported noted that:

“History is one of the memory systems that shape our values and morality, for it studies, records, and diffuses knowledge of human failure and achievement over millennia”.[2]

That history is championed as a means to attaining the strategic goal of promoting human values is also clearly articulated in the same report. The History and Archaeology Report summarises the point as follows:

“Good history put to good use, including ‘the history of human evolution’, has a particularly fortifying role in the growth of human culture for ‘when taught by imaginative teachers, the richness of history has a greater capacity than any other discipline to promote reconciliation and reciprocal respect of a meaningful kind, because it encourages a knowledge of the other, the unknown and different”.[3]

 

The History and Archaeology Panel Report highlighted five key points. Firstly, a study of history is not only an educational imperative but also as a vital aid against amnesia, and a warning against any triumphalism of the present. Secondly, it elucidated that historical studies are experiencing a deep-seated and systemic crisis at various teaching and learning levels. Thirdly, it reported on the mixed quality of teaching in schools, focusing on teacher skills and capacity and on the recent marginalisation of the status of history in learning. Fourthly, it pinpointed a subtle point that history is deprived of the space and scholarly stature it needs in order to play its full role in changing racial and other mythologies that are still prevalent in society. The fifth point is that there are serious deficiencies in teacher training and capacity shortages that militates against the growth of improved teaching methods in schools. The final point highlights the urgent need for the provision of better learner support materials for schools including textbooks. The report concludes with recommendations beginning with strengthening the substance and scope of the curriculum, strengthening of teacher training and the building of overall capacity.[4]

The panellists, who were aware of the urgent enlargement of space for history in the country, called for a radical initiative, running well beyond the high school curriculum, to bolster capacity to improve the grim situation. The panellist final strategic recommendation was for the establishment of a National History Commission drawing on the assembled expertise of researchers in the field of education, history, archaeology, heritage studies, anthropology and sociology.[5] They also recommended that the History Commission should not only explore the ways of strengthening the teaching of history but should have a long-term brief to address the crisis around history provision as it impinges upon such key issues as the linkages between schools and tertiary institutions and beyond. A dimension that needed to be articulated and advanced in the report was to interrogate the role of professional historians in nurturing not only university history teaching but going beyond into the school and society at large. This conference should explore the myriad of complexes facing the professional historians, but should not forget that they have a responsibility towards nurturing school-based history education.

 

The South African History Project

The SAHP was launched on 27 August 2001 as a part of the Values in Education Initiative. In 2001 then Minister Asmal took a bold step with the launching of the implementation programme for Tirisano with the goals of creating greater equity and quality of learning conditions, and improving standards and learner outcomes. The Values in Education initiative is known as Programme No. 6 under Tirisano.[6] The SAHP falls within the Directorate of Race and Values in Education that attempts to answer the question of what kind of learner does the Department of Education or the nation want to produce at the end of schooling? The Values in Education Programme focuses on two issues that came from values debate, namely, the national symbols and the history project. From this vantage point the SAHP was put very high on the government agenda, it is viewed clearly as instrumental in attaining a sixth pillar of a comprehensive programme. It is entrusted with the responsibility of coming up with strategic initiatives of shaping the values to be infused in the whole schooling system that would impact on all the school children.

The SAHP is shorthand for two bodies, the Ministerial Committee on History (MCH) and the South African History Project (SAHP) based at the National Department of Education in Pretoria within the Directorate of Race and Values. The MCH is a voluntary Board and is responsible for providing the intellectual and strategic vision and direction of the SAHP. The MCH central task is to advise and assist the Education Ministry with the implementation of the strengthening of history in education in South Africa through the (re)writing of textbooks and oral history, advocacy and communication, educator development and curriculum development. It is accountable to the Minister of Education and is required to submit regular reports through the Chairman of the committee. It is worth noting that since the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is appointed against a post on the level of Director within the DoE (Department of Education). The DoE provides operational support for the project, strategic support for the implementation of the projects’ goals in the provinces and schools, colleges, higher education, etc.

The work of the MCH is carried out through the ongoing work of its substructures, subcommittees on (i) curriculum (ii) educator development (iii) Learning support materials (iv) advocacy and communication and (v) Oral history and indigenous knowledge.

 

Initial challenges of the ministerial committee on history

The Ministerial Committee faced teething problems at the beginning. In the process of working out the terms of reference Mr Mark Visser and Dr Mulaudzi resigned from the MCH. Although the terms of reference have been agreed upon communication between the CEO and MCH needed to be streamlined. The situation was compounded by the fact that the CEO was caught between her responsibilities to the MCH and the Directorate with its own performance criteria and indicators. There was little appreciation from the MCH of the difficulties of the CEO negotiating between the imperatives of the MCH agenda and the directorate’s demands. The arrangement has left the CEO’s task to be extremely challenging.

Asmal’s appointment of a Ministerial Committee instead of a Commission as a recommendation by the History and Archaeology Report was a watering down of the status and hence the scope of work. From this perspective the MCH’s capacity to implement all the recommendations from the History and Archaeology Report is also prescribed from the inception. Additionally, setting up a voluntary board without adequate financial compensation for the members’ effort has meant that limited time is made available for the work of the committee.

 

The History and Archaeological Report’s recommendations did not translate into the plan of action for the Ministerial Committee. The plan of action for the MCH was derived from the funding proposal submitted to the Carnegie Corporation. The project design and activities under this banner were spelt out as (i) History Curriculum Project (ii) History Writing and Oral History Project (iii) History Roundtable and (iv) Communication and Advocacy Network. The Carnegie Proposal deemphasized the setting up of the National History Network and but introduced the idea of history roundtables. Although most of the programmes under The Carnegie Proposal overlap with the recommendations of the History and Archaeological Report it is beyond doubt to me that the recommendations were more far reaching than the programme adopted later in the funding proposal. It is equally true to maintain that the action plan based on the Carnegie proposal need not have determined what the MCH could do. That the MCH based its strategies with a few changes on the Carnegie proposal was chosen for reasons of convenient management of the project and a commitment to a minimalist agenda.

 

Implementation of the SAHP activities

The section will be organised according to the five areas under-which the work is divided.

 

The History Curriculum Project

Both the History and Archaeology Report and the South African History Project proposal to the Carnegie Corporation strongly recognised the necessity to strategically transform the place and status of history at both the GET and FET levels. The History and Archaeology Report to the Minister of Education (HARME) went further by spelling out the type of history they hoped to see taught in schools. The report recommended:

“…the approach to understanding the past has to be informed by the notion of critical scholarship. The critical approach to history views the past from different perspectives which alter with the viewer and with time, seeing history as a continuous argument between the present and the past, based on new assessments, positions and source material.”[7]

The most fundamental intervention championed by the HARME in curriculum transformation was to turn the spotlight on teaching the method of doing history and not the content. It is important to restate the point:

Accordingly, the aim must be to ensure that whatever the content, it is taught well, to teach the method of studying and analysing history so that the student acquires the ability to do it independently at a level appropriate to his or her age-range.[8]

This statement of the aim of history education is revolutionary for South Africa and has directed the work of the SAHP in its contribution to the transformation of the curriculum as will be demonstrated shortly. But for now let us divide the process of curriculum development into the GET and FET bands.

 

GET band

The recommendation of the Chisholm report that History and Geography be taught as defined Social Sciences at the General Education and Training Phase with the time allocation increased from 10% to 15% of the curriculum was endorsed by the HARME.[9] Hitherto, Curriculum 2005 had introduced the Social Science as an integrated learning area that yoked history and geography unequally. Although the introduction of the Curriculum 2005 brought positive features in the fight against the outmoded methods of rote-learning, it also led to the marginalisation of history as its disciplinary uniqueness was dissolved into the integrated Human and Social Science learning area. This dilution of history at the GET phase had a multiplier effect that created the perception that history was redundant. The consequences have been drastic leading to history teachers becoming redundant, decline in university enrolment for the study of history and history teacher training. The full scale is only realised with reports confirming that in 2002 at the Potchefstroom College of Education, for the first time in the history of the college, there are no first year students registered for History.[10] Reports from eight provincial workshops run by the SAHP earlier this year confirm the declining numbers in history classes.

 

The recommendation of the Chisholm Report has been fully taken up in the Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9 to be launched in 2004. History and Geography are presented in Social Sciences as separate but linked disciplines. There are separate learning outcomes for history that focus on (i) enquiry skills to invest the past and present (ii) historical knowledge and understanding and (iii) historical interpretation skills. To help build capacity and confidence in the teacher and to provide meaning to the skills and concepts, chapter 5 of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) R-9 (Schools), Social Science, sets out the minimum core content that will provide the context in which learners will achieve the Learning outcomes and Assessment standards. The Revised NCS is a simplified version of the OBE but is built on the same principles as Curriculum 2005.

 

The unique features and scope for history is that the highlighted skills and knowledge allow the teacher to encourage values and to use approaches that promote social justice and human rights at school and wider society. In the NCS Grades R-9 history emphasises the following:

• The experience of ordinary people.
• Events of historical significance.
• Important historical processes (e.g. industrialisation).
• An approach which locates South Africa in Africa and the wider world.
• Local studies which integrate history, geography, environmental education and democracy education.
• Inclusion of lost voices and processes in history.

 

The Social Science learning area has been designed to give space to the silent voices of history and the marginalised communities. It is infused with values and human rights issues that should provide insights in issues of sustainable living and non-violent responses to conflict.[11] The layout of the document is much friendlier than Curriculum 2005. The remaining challenge is the readiness for implementation.

 

Transformation of the FET band

The transformation of the History Curriculum at this level is rather complex as it entails three processes. First and foremost is the development of the National Curriculum Statement for grades 10-12 as a sequel to the NCS grades R-9. The aim and purpose is to replace the old apartheid curriculum framework, christened as the Interim Curriculum in 1995. While Curriculum 2005 was introduced up to grade 9, there has been nothing introduced to replace the Interim Syllabus (also known as NATED 550) that was allowed to continue with very minor changes. The second process called “Phasing OBE in the FET Grade 10: Managing the Transition” was aimed at managing the anticipated crisis of grades 9 in 2002 under Curriculum 2005 progressing to grade 10 but doing the Interim Syllabus (NATED 550) in 2003. To avoid such an eventuality a crisis management team has been set up to phase OBE teaching and assessment methodologies into grade 10. The issue has already become a political debate in the media and measures to manage it are in place.[12] The third tier of this transformation comes with History becoming the 6^th subject to be examined nationally. Initially the examinations at FET exit level were provincialised but in the past two years the trend is being reversed gradually with the increasing number of national senior certificate examinations.

 

All these activities were initiated 2002 and they are developing at breakneck speeds. The South African History project was strategically placed to participate in all the three process through its representatives on the several committees. The co-ordinators for curriculum (Gail Weldon), learner support materials (Claire Dyer) and educator development (Pototo Sangoni) were appointed to the NCS FET writing process. Gail Weldon was appointed convenor of the writing team. When Professor Magubane declined the consideration for appointment as field expert for the Social Sciences, I was appointed to the FET as a replacement. In all the above-mentioned processes I was the common denominator seeing to it that there is a common approach to history. I came with a baggage of experience built over a decade through conferences, establishment of a teachers’ forum in KZN, championing the role and status of history in various forms and a publication critiquing curriculum 2005.[13] Many members on the committee have long been advocates of critical approach to the teaching of history in schools.[14]

 

The Implementation working group monitors the implications of the NCS for the schooling system and also the Human Rights, Exclusivity and HIV/Aids working group that monitors and ensures that all NCS have infused in them human rights, inclusivity issues and a promotion of an awareness of HIV/aids. This group is also checking out for the integration of indigenous knowledge in the curriculum. At this level of the process were the so called political intervention is taking place. This intervention is tolerable because it is based on the values enshrined in the country’s constitution. In as far as teacher education is concerned, its planning and direction is located in the GET Band. It should suffice to mention that no clear policy has been articulated by the Department of Education as yet.

 

The second strategic recommendation made in the HARME was that history be taught as an independent disciplinary subject at FET and that a new curriculum be developed for this purpose. Among other things recommended was that the curriculum should include a statutory study of post-1973 South African history, running into the post-apartheid era and the post 1994 trajectory. The approach here by HARME of recommending content differs from the principle underpinning the NCS process at FET. The design features of the NCS does not allow for content to determine the outcome nor the assessment standards. Outcome based approach describes the skills, knowledge, understanding and values that are the result of learning. This approach replaces the existing content-based approach. The NCS for the FET band will be delivered by involving learners in a series of outcomes based learning programmes, each of which describes a set of learning outcomes that learners need to achieve at levels described by assessment standards that explain what each outcome requires. The OBE principles underpinning the GET process will continue into the FET Sector. A number of organising principles for OBE implementation are worthy recalling as building blocks in the NCS – FET. The key organising principles are:

• Integration and progression.
• Application.
• Learner-centred approach to learning.
• Source-based teaching.
• Assessment.
• Portability.
• Credibility, Efficiency and Relevance.
• High levels of knowledge and skills for all.
• These key principles will continue to serve the Further Education and Training sector.

 

The NCS writing processes started at the end of May 2002 for the FET band. This was way after the NCS for Grades R-9 had been completed. The convenor of the writing team in History, Gail Weldon, provided the continuity between the GET and FET. There is still scope to incorporate the recommendations of the History and Archaeology Report. It is important to point out that the inclusion of an outcome on heritage is a new feature that broadens the field. Within the assessment standards the field of archaeology could also find its expression.

 

Phasing OBE in Grade 10

The aim of the phasing of OBE into grade 10 is directed at bridging the gap in the approaches necessitated by the envisage move by the current grade 9 learners under the OBE curriculum (curriculum 2005) to NATED 550 (Interim curriculum). In 2004 the Grade 10 learner will face the second Version of C2005 (National Curriculum Statement Grades - NCS R-12). The project on managing the transition aims at training educators to be better managers of learning in the classrooms. It is acknowledged that the skills gaps among educators could be serious and this could affect the transition. The time available is also limited and might not be sufficient for the training of grade 10 educators on OBE approaches. The provincial departments’ readiness varies from province to province. It is touch and go.

 

The Learning Area of Social Sciences in the GET band brought together subjects such as history, civics and geography together in an integrated manner. C2005 covered themes from pre-colonial Africa through to globalisation. It focused on the making of the modern world. The learners were exposed to most themes in African and world history. The NATED grade 10 syllabus does not cover the history of Africa. The syllabus continues to look at history from a Eurocentric perspective. It is indeed time to begin to make changes in the approaches to history. In this regard a section on 19^th century Africa history was recommended even though we were not supposed to add to the Interim Curriculum.

 

It is important to stress that outcomes-based education will focus on doing history. Its central contribution to the study of history in schools is to shift the trend from content based towards introducing the historian’s craft in the classroom. It will be learner centred, it will integrate high skills with content, it will be resource based.

 

The time frame for the implementation of the programme is very tight. However, the training of educators is a provincial competence and they will implement the transition. At the National Orientation and Training Workshop 13-16 August 2002 in Warmbaths, the provincial representatives came up with programmes to put in motion the transition to OBE at grade 10. The levels of preparedness was very different with the Western Cape, KZN, Gauteng and Mpumalanga demonstrating that they are ready to roll. Many of the participants however, moaned that the time available was inadequate.

 

The National History Examination for the Senior Certificate

The Education Minister decided August 2001 to introduce a National History Examination for the Senior Certificate from 2003. The decision to establish a national history examination is both challenging and exciting.

 

The underlying principles that are shaping the development of the national history examination process are listed below:

• The importance of Southern Africa and Africa in general should be given recognition.
• The transition processes will be based on the interim core syllabus.
• This process takes into cognisance the constraints and challenges under which educators and learners operate.
• These processes allow for a gradual developmental shift towards the outcomes based approach.
• There is an understanding that History encourages and assists constructive debate through careful evaluation of evidence and a range of points of view.
• That historical truth consists of a multiplicity of voices expressing varying and often contradictory versions of the same history.
• That the discipline of History involves the construction of knowledge based on evidence gained from a wide variety of sources: written, oral, visual and material.

 

As the Interim Curriculum is policy we were not expected to change the contents of the curriculum drastically. However, at a meeting in the examination directorate we made it clear that the grade 12-history syllabus should be changed to bring in the marginalised voices. We also made some changes that emphasized some themes of the curriculum while de-emphasizing some with more focus on whites only history. To “sensitive viewer” this will be seen as taking decisions that are politically correct.

 

The Ministerial committee at its meetings had discussed some strategies to influence the type of assessments needed to transform the landscape of history teaching. At the meeting to finalise the document for the national examination we had two members of the MCH involved in the deliberations, Dr. T. Tisani and Y. Seleti. The two MCH members played an role in creating conditions for co-operation among the officials from competing provinces and thus were able produce a framework for the national examination for senior certificate in 2003.

 

Learning support material

The continued use of apartheid textbooks in schools has attracted much attention. It is an area where the Minister of Education has received questions from members of parliament. It is also an area that the History and Archaeology Report commented upon and made recommendations. The HARME acknowledged that new and innovative work in the development of alternative textbooks had been going on.

The SAHP had taken this problem seriously and wished to ascertain the extent of the problem. The History workshop was contracted to undertake an audit of textbooks and carry out an analysis of the textbooks for the content and also the approaches.

 

Written comments came from publishers, independent authors, and publishers bemoaning the lack of orders on their new books and from the concerned members of the public. Some notable submissions would include Dr R.E. van der Ross former South Africa ambassador to Spain and Mr Edward Tsolo who argued that 80% of the school textbooks are based on European lifestyles and called for the participation of the traditional leaders in the determination of which textbooks are suitable for use in South African schools.

 

Several publishing houses used the opportunity to draw attention to the work they have been undertaking. Big publishers such as Oxford University Press sent in copies of their materials. Maskew Miller Longman sent in a list and explanation of their new series. New publishing houses with alternative textbooks written after 1994 also made submissions. Teachers or school-based historians also responded suggesting some content for the syllabus. Ms Dube writing from Kgadime-Matsepe Secondary School in Shoshonguve complained against the continued use of textbooks that are Eurocentric in perspective. Provincial officials also responded to the call for submissions. The Acting Superintend-General for kwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture wrote in with a list of 4 new textbooks that they have recommended for grades 11 and 12 school history.

 

The response from the universities was extremely poor. Rob Siebörger was the exception. In his submission he reminded us of the recommendations of a curriculum conference way back in 1993 that highlighted the role of textbooks in the history curriculum. The points that were made in this submission included the SAHP providing criteria for textbook selection at provincial levels, the making of the process of textbook procurement transparent, and that members of any government committees should not be allowed to use their position to gain materially as a result of decisions of the committee in respect of textbooks. These comments were extremely useful and contributed to extending the agenda of the SAHP.

 

The Audit analysis is contained in a special report. The report analysed the public submissions and lists 14 areas of concern. It engages the question of what an apartheid textbook is. It then provides an initial audit of the FET textbooks. These texts are analysed in terms of their ideology and methodology. The report concludes that despite the clear apartheid bias of these textbooks there is evidence that some of them continue to be used in the classroom because they are familiar and reassuring to the educators. The report is more positive by highlighting a substantial number of new textbooks published in the last decade. The analysis shows that these textbooks tackle African and South African history in a critical way, using different sources and methodologies from those employed in the apartheid textbooks. The report concludes that it is clear that there is a range of new history textbooks that provide a significant alternative to apartheid textbooks but have not made much headway in the market. The report concludes by calling for a reassuring of educators and guidance in terms of the curriculum and examination.[15]

 

It will not be the work of the SAHP to produce textbooks. This will continue to be the space for individuals and publishers. The SAHP will develop guidelines but it should be remembered that the procurement of textbooks is a provincial competence.

The Minister of Education has a vision of providing for every school child in 2004 an apartheid text that will serve to educate them about the evils of apartheid. This task has not been finalised. However, work in the SAHP has begun to draw up terms for such a text.

 

Teacher education

During 2002 the SAHP toured all the nine provinces consulting with teachers on their needs as educators of history. The provincial teachers conferences aimed at initiating the process of establishing a History Teachers Network, preparation for a national history teachers’ workshop to be used to showcase the best teaching models. A national teachers workshop was viewed by the MCH as the beginning of the process of infusing best practices into classroom teaching through practical demonstration. Three of the findings from the Provincial Workshops will suffice to indicate the quality of information coming out of this process and the magnitude of the task before us. The key complaint we held from many provinces was that the school principals’ attitudes toward the subject were cited as one of the major challenges that directly affected history in schools. The teachers at the workshops suggested tackling the problem urgently as principals are perceived to be very influential as school managers in determining what is or is not relevant in the schools. The second critical finding from these workshops was that the majority of history teachers were either unqualified or under qualified. In some cases Geography teachers teach History or are appointed as subject Heads for History. The lack of information on curriculum issues and weak teaching methodologies were cited as other stumbling blocks to good history teaching in schools.

The SAHP and the Ministerial Committee see the teacher as the most important agent for change. The provincial conferences served the need to motivate history teachers and to orientate them towards the coming change with the new version of the C2005.

An important intervention from the sub-committee on educator development is that the office staff are using radio shows reach out to history teachers. The national radio, Umhlobo Wenene, provides a teachers’ forum where they call in sharing their ideas about history teaching and the challenges they face in the classrooms.

 

Advocacy and communication

That the SAHP is now a household name in South Africa is owed to its high profile in society. The work here is very wide-ranging and at times expensive. It is expensive to publish anything in the newspapers. In any case a relationship with SABC Television and Radio has proved profitable as they televised one programme, Unchained Memories, produced by SAHP but edited by SABC. Several members of the committee, especially Professor Guy and Dr June Bam, have had radio interviews about the SAHP. There are two projects underway for future television broadcast in the near future.[16]

 

The advocacy sub-committee came up with the idea of linking advocacy with a major public holidays. The strategy is that whenever there is a public holiday we should link its celebration to its history. The SAHP has a programme of who and when the appropriate articles should be written and placed in the newspapers. Although we have not always succeeded in placing the articles in newspapers we have the materials published in “TheTeacher” and “Educators’ Voice” to disseminate the information. The SAHP produced a substantive and impressive newsletter to commemorate Women’s Day on August 9. The publication focused on Sarah Baartman whose remains were buried on the same day in Eastern Cape.

 

In partnership with the Directorate of Race and Values, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, with the sponsorship of Spoornet, we worked on a national celebration of History and heritage, values and creativity in September 2002. The activities included a national school competition. Through this partnership September was declared a history and Heritage month. The school competition had four categories: (i) visual artworks (ii) written works which could be in the form of an essay, poem or prose as the learner may decide (iii) Oral history presentation which could be a researched piece of community history or local history and (iv) Educators’ portfolio and other evidence of good history teaching informed by the theme of “Our Roots Are Speaking”.

 

Indigenous knowledge and oral history

The SAHP and the MCH considered work in this area to be strategic way of infusing all that we undertake with indigenous knowledge. The oral history co-ordinator is therefore seen as a catalyst in the promotion of indigenous knowledge within the framework of SAHP. The SAHP has established links with several institutions engaged in oral history. A roundtable workshop on oral history and the history curriculum has been made. One of the useful links is with the SADET Oral History Project in Cape Town that is training teachers on the use of oral history in the classroom and also in the curriculum. This is not an easy task and the assistance of professional historians to the SAHP could lead this work in very productive directions.

 

Professional Historians and Curriculum Development

The SAHP cannot achieve the aims and objectives alone, it requires partnerships with institutions, members of the civil society, academic, journalist, traditional leaders. In this regard the SAHP should be guided by contributions from professional historians.

 

The new curriculum will require that the rich body of South African historiography be integrated in the school history education. The dichotomy between school history and university history continue to perpetuate silo mentalities that allowed the fall in the status and role of history as a discipline in society.

The issue of presenting many perspectives of the past in the classroom requires the involved of the experts in their fields of research to write in simple and accessible language for learners in our schools. I have no innovative suggestions except to note the absence of professional historians in school-based curriculum.

 

The limited engagement of professional historians with the school history education needs to be interrogated. What are the reasons that have created this gulf between history educators in schools and institutions of higher learning? When we travelled around provinces to introduce the SAHP and commence the work of establishing a History Teachers Network, very few educators from institutions of higher learning attended these workshops. Only a handful of academics in Bloemfontein, Rustenburg, Polokwane, and Cape Town attended the workshops. I would like to stress that what the teachers require most is morale. With the professional historians playing a critical role in advocacy work, they would be contributing tremendous to raising the morale of history educators in the school system.

 

I have already mentioned the need for support in the area of indigenous knowledge and its infusion in the history curriculum. Some could probably come up with in-service training materials for integrating oral history in classroom activities. I often get this impression from many upstarts in oral history that they project themselves as pioneering work etc. when in fact this is an area that was foundation to the rise of Africanist historiography some forty odd years ago. This expertise is there in the community of scholars but needs to be disseminated widely. The intervention of professional historians in this arena will contribute to rigour in the field and its application and availability for school based history curriculum. It is one thing to create an enabling environment, yet it is another to make it happen.

 

In this paper I have sketched out the scope of the SAHP work. I have also called for assistance at different levels from the professional historians. The survival of academic history at universities will depend on how well it is taught at the school level, an investment today in the SAHP will be tomorrow’s returns for institutions of Higher Education.

 

Tirisano: Working together to build a South African education and training for the 21^st Century!!!