Ignored Histories: The Politics of History Education and Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and Kanaky/New Caledonia

Angélique Stastny

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2022

Ignored Histories

The Politics of History Education and Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia and Kanaky/New Caledonia

Angélique Stastny

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824890353

Overview
Contents

About this book

How is colonial history taught in schools? And how do education systems impact power relations between Indigenous people and settlers? This book provides a unique contribution to international discussions about knowledge production and the teaching of colonial history in schools with a comparative analysis of two neighboring settler-colonial societies of the South Pacific. Angélique Stastny argues that school systems in Australia and Kanaky/New Caledonia continue to enact British/Australian and French colonialism, respectively, by leveraging historical narratives that fail to comprehend and willfully ignore the mechanisms and contemporaneity of settler colonialism. Settler regimes of ignorance are sustaining the political status quo of settler-colonial power. Stastny’s work examines this weaponization of ignorance in systems so often focused on the production of knowledge to deepen our understanding of how and why settler-colonial agendas operate in public primary and secondary schools.

Ignored Histories takes the reader through the evolution of policy directives for history curricula, historiography and the narratives produced and disseminated in textbooks, and the author’s own ethnography on teachers’ actual practices and experiences. As the story unfolds, it traces the recounts of colonial wars and massacres in textbooks; presents modern accounts of the continuing marginalization—and outright exclusion—of Indigenous historians, practitioners, and knowledge from both curriculum development and pedagogy; problematizes students’ disengagement from learning about their own histories; and brings to light lingering effects of white supremacy and ways to counter them.

Some history teachers, on an individual level, engage in insurgent educational strategies in an attempt to shift power relations between Indigenous people and settlers. From the interviews Stastny conducted, we learn that some of these teachers were fired; others successfully developed methods to destabilize and rethink institutional practices and effect change in the classroom. Ultimately, Stastny argues for a system-wide transformation that decolonizes history curricula and the teaching of history by prioritizing Indigenous resurgence, understandings, and knowledge; acknowledging and addressing the difficult truths of the past; and ethically shaping the stories of today.

Author / Editor information

Stastny Angélique :

Angélique Stastny is an independent researcher whose work focuses on (anti)colonialism and decolonization in the Pacific, Indigenous politics, racism, and critical whiteness.Angélique Stastny is an independent researcher whose work focuses on (anti)colonialism and decolonization in the Pacific, Indigenous politics, racism, and critical whiteness.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
Author’s Note Publicly Available Download PDF	xvi
Introduction: Power, the School System, and Ignorance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Settler Colonialism and Decolonization: The Societal Debates, the Academic Field, and the Research Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
Part I Policy and Directives
2 History Curriculum Development and Reforms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3 Staffing and Teacher Training Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
Part II Textbooks: Teachers’ Historiographical Inheritance
4 Textbook Production and Authorship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
5 Textbook Narratives and Stereotyping Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Part III Pedagogy: Teaching Indigenous-Settler History
6 Compliant and Insurgent Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
7 Further Obstacles and Possible Pathways Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Appendix 1. Selected History Textbooks (in chronological order) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Appendix 2. History Teachers Interviewed (February 2016–November 2016) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 280
Illustrations
- Other: 2 maps
Keywords: Australia; Kanaky (New Calcedonia); political science; post-colonialism; school systems in the Pacific; South Pacific

eBook

Published: February 28, 2022
ISBN: 9780824890353