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

Whilst this may be an extreme example (so far as its relevance to Australian context is
concerned), Barnard also summarises Anyon’s (1979) seminal study that investigated
textbooks of United States history, highlighting dominant ideologies present in the History
curriculum, and what this revealed about the ‘hidden’ lessons being taught students. Of this,
Barnard writes:
Her [Anyon’s] findings reveal that textbooks contain ideologies, the presence of
which is advantageous to particular groups within society. For example, she writes
that the socialist movement at the turn of the century is either not mentioned, or
downplayed or disparaged; and labour history is almost totally ignored, together with
class conflict and social struggle, while the story of successful capitalists is used as
an object lesson for workers: if you work hard and save money, you too can become
rich. (2003a, pp. 18-19)
An issue that has arisen in recent times and one that clearly demonstrates the contested nature
of History curriculum is the furor that erupted in Israel over the use of the term Nakba which
translates to catastrophe, “an Arabic term used to describe the creation of Israel as a
‘catastrophe’…” (Israel to ban 1948 ‘catastrophe references in Arab Israeli school books,
2009, para. 1). In this, a very contentious issue, the Education Minister, Gideon Saar is
reported as stating “the decision to integrate this idea into teaching for Arab Israeli several
years ago constitutes an error that will be corrected in the next school books currently being
prepared” (Israel to ban 1948 ‘catastrophe references in Arab Israeli school books, 2009,
para. 3). This sparked emotional responses to this particular construction of national identity,
in particular accusations of bias (see, for example, Shulman, 2009). What this and the other
studies briefly outlined in this subsection demonstrate is the widespread contestation of
national identity across individual nation states; and the emotional responses that come about
as a result, especially when connected with the education of each nation’s young citizens.
In addition to the assertion of a mytho-history being presented to school students through
representations of national history made by Barnard (2003a), other studies, such as Hearn
(2005) identify and survey the history of mythmaking in history of Australia as a nation-state.
Smith also refers to myth-making in constructing a national identity, writing:
…generations of a particular community are formed in their collective life through
the memories, myths and traditions of the community into which they are born and
60