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PDF (Whole Thesis) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern ...

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over...an overrun <strong>of</strong> divisive multicultural rhetoric” (Montgomery, 2005, p. 429, emphasis<br />

added).<br />

Creating links between public debates and school curriculum has also featured in recent times<br />

in Malaysia. Although Cullip’s research focuses mainly on structures <strong>of</strong> language within a<br />

school textbook, he does broaden his scope to connect non-school understandings <strong>of</strong> history<br />

to that found in Malaysian textbooks by writing,<br />

...to make history work as a ‘discipline’, the building and organization <strong>of</strong> its<br />

meanings would need to take place with minimal contest from nationalistic and<br />

paternalistic forces...Reform, if serious, must recognize the trade-<strong>of</strong>fs that will need<br />

to be made between disciplinary and pedagogical objectives and conservative<br />

ideological and socio-political motivations and purposes. This will be the dilemma<br />

for a rapidly-changing society struggling with the accommodation <strong>of</strong> diverse<br />

ideologies, and purposes. (Cullip, 2007, p. 210)<br />

What has been presented here is a very brief overview <strong>of</strong> an emerging field <strong>of</strong> study,<br />

particularly <strong>of</strong> interest to researchers in the field <strong>of</strong> functional linguistics and CDA. There are<br />

many more examples <strong>of</strong> the application <strong>of</strong> school History textbook content to specific,<br />

narrowly focused public debates, such as Tampke’s (2006) investigation <strong>of</strong> modern German<br />

history; Moughrabi’s (2001) link to Palestinian history; and Foster and Crawford’s (2006)<br />

collection <strong>of</strong> research essays from a diverse range <strong>of</strong> nations addressing contemporary issues<br />

<strong>of</strong> national identities within textbooks.<br />

A1.4 Major Shifts in the History/Culture Wars<br />

Two distinct sides <strong>of</strong> the history/cultures wars debates are encapsulated through the<br />

following statements by leading commentators, historian Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Blainey (see quote on<br />

page 440) and former Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating.<br />

Those who militantly defend the conservative orthodoxy in Australia see all change<br />

as an affront to the past, especially their view <strong>of</strong> the past. Whereas, knowing the past<br />

and seeing it for what it is with all its blemishes, allows us to divine our destiny for<br />

our appointment with reality. Paul Keating, Keating’s history wars, 5 September<br />

2003 (Keating, 2003, p. 2).<br />

452

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