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understood as part of a broader struggle around developing national and postnational
forms of democracy. The relationship between culture and nationalism always bears
the traces of those historical, ethical and political forces that constitute the often
shifting and contradictory elements of national identity. (1998, pp. 179-180)
Locating national identity within discourses of citizenship and acknowledging its
collectiveness, Keane writes:
…national identity is a particular form of collective identity in which, despite their
routine lack of physical contact, people consider themselves bound together because
they speak a language or a dialect of a common language, inhabit or are closely
familiar with a defined territory, and experience its ecosystem with some affection;
and because they share a variety of customs, including a measure of memories of the
historical past, which is consequently experiences in the present tense as pride in the
nation’s achievements and, where necessary, an obligation to feel ashamed of the
nation’s failings. (1995, p. 186)
Explicitly linking national identity to citizenship within a republican ideology, Giroux,
writing in a study of multiculturalism in the United States: “…national identity is structured
through a notion of citizenship and patriotism that subordinates ethnic, racial and cultural
differences to the assimilating logic of a common culture, or, more brutally, the ‘melting
pot’” (1998, p. 181). In an essay review, Ahonen links preparation for active citizenship to
school History curriculum, writing:
…authors…advocate history as a preparation for citizenship: through training in
multiperspectival explanation and through the critical handling of evidence. The
massive flood of information through the media requires the same critical literacy as
an encounter with a historical source… (2001, p. 750)
This connection between citizenship and national identity relates to the History curriculum
analysed in this project, as it is through curriculum content that selections of “memories of
the historical past” (Keane, 1995, p. 186) represent to students discourses of their national
history. Whether these are through celebratory discourses or otherwise will emerge in the
data analysis stages, enabling conclusions to be made about the underpinning theories of
national history that have been taught to school students in Queensland over an extended
period of time. Furthermore, understanding nationalism as part of cultural identity is
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