PI: Mary C. Waters Co-PI: Chana Teeger Institution: Harvard University
The project examines how apartheid history is taught to and understood by South African middle school students and inquires into the effects of this formal history education on the consolidation of race relations and identities. Using a combination of in-depth interviews with teachers and students, content analyses of textbooks, and observations in classrooms, the study investigates how individuals interpret and adopt formal versions of the past transmitted to them through institutions such as schools.
Broader Impacts: This research attempts to add to our broader knowledge of how to promote post-conflict peace and stability among the post-conflict generation. The findings should therefore be of interest to scholars and policy makers working in a variety of conflict and post-conflict regions across the globe.
A growing body of literature examines how nations represent shameful, traumatic, and difficult pasts (see for example Wagner-Pacifici and Schwartz 1991; Vinitzky-Seroussi 2002; Olick 2007). For the most part, however, this literature has focused on how these pasts are represented on the macro-social level, through museums, monuments, formal rituals and official proclamations. Less attention has been paid to the effects of these representations on individuals. This project addresses this gap in the literature by examining how the history of apartheid is represented to – and understood by – South African high school students, and it explores whether and how such understandings are consequential for race relations and racial identities in the present. In so doing,it moves the empirical agenda away from the dominant focus on "sites of memory"and towards an exploration of the reception and consequences of collective memory for individuals. South Africa presents an especially compelling case for such a case study. In conflict resolution circles, it is often hailed as something of an ideal type of societal transformation. Much of the analysis of the South African case has focused on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – the institution tasked with dealing with the country’s apartheid past. Less attention, however, has been paid to how individuals have dealt with their national past (for an exception see Gibson 2003, 2006). This is especially true for the post-apartheid generation (the so-called "born frees") – those born after the transition and whose memories of the past are mediated through institutions and older members of society. This project examines how the country's apartheid past is dealt with at the micro-social level by looking at how institutionalized narratives are received by individuals. Focusing on the post-apartheid generation, the project aims to add to our understanding of the long-term and individual-level effects of "the South African Option" as a mechanism of transition. In so doing, it adds to our broaden our understanding of how histories with the potential to ignite conflict in the present are taught to the post-conflict generation. To address these issues around the production, reception, and consequences of collective memory, data were collected over an 18-month period in two racially and socioeconomically diverse public schools in Johannesburg, South Africa. The data collection included 6 months of daily observations in 18 distinct history classrooms; observations on school tours to sites such as the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill; collection of textbooks and other written materials used in class;observations of school guided tours to historical sites; semi-structured in-depth interviews with teachers (N=10); and semi-structured in-depth interviews with two racially diverse group of students: one prior to, and one following, exposure to formal history education (N=160). Works Cited Gibson, James L. 2006. "The Contributions of Truth to Reconciliation: Lessons from South Africa." Journal of Conflict Resolution 50(3): 409-423. ______. 2004. "Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation? Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process." American Journal of PoliticalScience 48: 201-217. Olick, Jeffrey K. 2007. The Politics of Regret: OnCollective Memory and Historical Responsibility. New York: Routledge. Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered. 2002. "Commemorating a Difficult past: Yitzhak Rabin's Memorials" American Sociological Review , Vol. 67, No. 1 (Feb., 2002), pp. 30-51 Wagner-Pacifici, Robin and Barry Schwartz.1991. "The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Commemorating a Difficult Past." American Journal of Sociology 97: 376-420.
