Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.za/rss.php?pid=2223-038620180002&lang=en vol. num. 20 lang. en http://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.za http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Despite South Africa's shift to democracy, there are ongoingdifficulties in relationships both in the broader society and schools. An official response to this situation was the establishment of the History Ministerial Task Team (MTT), which recommended: that history should be made a compulsory subject for learners in all phases at school; and, that the history curriculum should be revised using an African nationalist paradigm, informed by the framework of Ubuntu. This article uses the findings of a research project conducted in history classrooms at three primary schools in Johannesburg to illustrate some of the difficulties in relationships in the history classroom. It argues that compulsory history at school level will not necessarily be a panacea for South Africa's social ills, especially as this proposal has reawakened fears of how history education was abused during apartheid. A strength of the History MTT's report is that it emphasises the importance of multi-perspectives in history, while favouring an approach that uses an African nationalist paradigm, informed by Ubuntu, to assist with nation-building. However, the notion of Ubuntu needs to be reconstituted, and when applied in conjunction with reconciliation pedagogy, it provides an alternative way, during teacher development workshops, for in-service history teachers to reflect on their own residual prejudices about "the other", so that, in turn, they are able to facilitate meaningful changes in relationships in the history classroom. This approach might be applicable not only in South Africa, but also to history teachers in post-conflict countries which experience similar problems. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Despite South Africa's shift to democracy, there are ongoingdifficulties in relationships both in the broader society and schools. An official response to this situation was the establishment of the History Ministerial Task Team (MTT), which recommended: that history should be made a compulsory subject for learners in all phases at school; and, that the history curriculum should be revised using an African nationalist paradigm, informed by the framework of Ubuntu. This article uses the findings of a research project conducted in history classrooms at three primary schools in Johannesburg to illustrate some of the difficulties in relationships in the history classroom. It argues that compulsory history at school level will not necessarily be a panacea for South Africa's social ills, especially as this proposal has reawakened fears of how history education was abused during apartheid. A strength of the History MTT's report is that it emphasises the importance of multi-perspectives in history, while favouring an approach that uses an African nationalist paradigm, informed by Ubuntu, to assist with nation-building. However, the notion of Ubuntu needs to be reconstituted, and when applied in conjunction with reconciliation pedagogy, it provides an alternative way, during teacher development workshops, for in-service history teachers to reflect on their own residual prejudices about "the other", so that, in turn, they are able to facilitate meaningful changes in relationships in the history classroom. This approach might be applicable not only in South Africa, but also to history teachers in post-conflict countries which experience similar problems. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The research explores the understanding of the concept Historical empathy as conceptualised by the two teachers sampled in this study. The article analyses the pedagogical practices of two Grade 12 History teachers who used the theme of the Vietnam War of 1954 to 1975, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This is one of the new themes included in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) to cultivate tenets of Historical empathy in their classrooms. The research utilises a qualitative research paradigm to enable the researchers to interview teachers at their schools and observe them interacting with the phenomenon being investigated in their natural environment in the classrooms. The article uses the dual theoretical framework designed by Barton and Levstik (2004) which embodies both elements of affective and cognitive domains to evaluate the perspectives of two teachers and their pedagogical practices in the classroom. According to the findings, both teachers used suitable and relevantprimary and secondary sources during the lesson presentations. Teachers demonstrated characteristics of emotional and cognitive empathy during the interviews and these divergent elements were displayed during the teaching of the Vietnam War. Quite often learners were encouraged by one teacher to sympathise and align with the victims of the war which is caused by their past agony and psychological trauma resulting from the experiences of their communities during the apartheid government and this demonstrated shared normalcy. The second teacher empathised with the Vietnamese soldiers and saw them as gallant soldiers against the strong US troops rather than as victims thereby displaying some elements of cognitive Historical empathy. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The research explores the understanding of the concept Historical empathy as conceptualised by the two teachers sampled in this study. The article analyses the pedagogical practices of two Grade 12 History teachers who used the theme of the Vietnam War of 1954 to 1975, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This is one of the new themes included in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) to cultivate tenets of Historical empathy in their classrooms. The research utilises a qualitative research paradigm to enable the researchers to interview teachers at their schools and observe them interacting with the phenomenon being investigated in their natural environment in the classrooms. The article uses the dual theoretical framework designed by Barton and Levstik (2004) which embodies both elements of affective and cognitive domains to evaluate the perspectives of two teachers and their pedagogical practices in the classroom. According to the findings, both teachers used suitable and relevantprimary and secondary sources during the lesson presentations. Teachers demonstrated characteristics of emotional and cognitive empathy during the interviews and these divergent elements were displayed during the teaching of the Vietnam War. Quite often learners were encouraged by one teacher to sympathise and align with the victims of the war which is caused by their past agony and psychological trauma resulting from the experiences of their communities during the apartheid government and this demonstrated shared normalcy. The second teacher empathised with the Vietnamese soldiers and saw them as gallant soldiers against the strong US troops rather than as victims thereby displaying some elements of cognitive Historical empathy. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The teaching of history in countries that have experienced colonisation has come under serious scrutiny at different times in their history. Worries about the contents of history programmes have been raised by politicians as well as educational technocrats who question the relevance of what is being taught as history to those on the classroom pews. In Cameroon, and particularly for the Anglophone subsystem of education, this debate is far from over despite the fact that the destiny of the country has rested in the hands of those who fought against colonialism for over fifty years now. This paper emanates from the premise that the colonial curriculum did not meet the realities of the new country since 1961. Consequently, there was a consensus of opinion that curriculum reform should focus on the teaching of local and national contents. By adopting the critical Decolonial perspective and living theory methodology the study focuses on history as one of those subjects which was used by the colonial authorities to entrench coloniality (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013; Marsden, 2013; Rodney, 1982; Fanon, 1963) and was therefore in dire need of postcolonial reform. The study examines the extent to which this has been achieved in the Anglophone subsystem of Education by presenting what was learnt in the colonial history classroom in the British Southern Cameroons between 1916 and 1961. It then goes on to discuss the process of reform in the History curriculum of the Anglophone subsystem of education in Cameroon since independence. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The teaching and learningprocess is becoming a big challenge at Higher Education Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is mainly due to the constraints created by the liberalisation of university education and the implied surge in student numbers. In the area of History education particularly, the challenge of large student numbers has forced lecturers to predominantly use behaviourist teaching methods such as lecture and recitation. These methods are characterised by constrained dialogical conversations between lecturers and students, memorising of History facts, dates and limit students' capacity to think historically, which in turn compromises the quality of learning about the past. This article argues for the use of Mobile phone forums as lenses from the present that afford dialogical construction of meanings about the past. A qualitative approach with a case study design was used limited to pre-service teachers (students) at the Makerere University, Uganda. A Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data obtained from the students' engagement on the Mobile phone forum by means of the winksite application. The key research findings demonstrated that mobile phone forums enhance interactions between lecturers-students, students-students as a helpful precondition for collaborative learning and reflection about the human past. Conclusions was drawn with a recommendation for History educators to embrace mobile phone forums as a sustainable innovation at the African higher educational context with a potential to enhance dialogical conversations between the past the present and the anticipated future. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en A renewed interest in decolonising the university curriculum in South Africa was sparked by the student protests of 2015. University faculties and departments throughout the country responded. Sport Science departments, the home of sport history modules, remained, however, aloof and removed from this development. This paper attempts to rupture this silence by addressing decolonisation of sport history at a conceptual curriculum level through the lenses of the National Question. After an introduction, a discussion of decolonisation and decoloniality is presented. This is followed by a conversation on sport history curriculum. Finally, I venture to suggest theoretical underpinnings for a decolonised sport history curriculum. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The challenges of the contemporary demands for the decolonisation history in South African schools and universities require careful attention to the background of history education in our context. This article explores traces of that heritage as it influenced Xhosa language schools in the Eastern Cape during the first half of the twentieth century. Through the examination of the writing of Xhosa history by local scholars it demonstrates a rich tradition of writing that has to date been largely neglected by historians, and presents the potential challenge of this work for an understanding of identity and patriotism both then and now. Through a preliminary examination of school textbooks of the time, with specific reference to the Lovedale Press Stewart Xhosa Readers, I offer suggestions for future research that might be able to inform contemporary debates. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Currently the educational system is experiencing a process in which different teaching and learning methods are being used in conjunction with several forms of technology with the aim of improving the educational process. This is only a natural aspect of the educational process when looking at it within a larger societal sphere. When placing focus on subjects - specifically History - it should be noted that History as subject requires the incorporation of more modern technology in order to move away from the traditional method of chalk and talk History instruction. There are various teaching and learning aids like interactive whiteboards and data projectors but they are however not the latest forms of technology that can be used as a pedagogy tool that place is reserved for Virtual Reality (VR) and the goggles that accompanies it. Virtual Reality is a computer simulated environment - cyberspace/ augmented reality - with which the technology user can interact. Within this cyberspace the user focuses on virtual sights and virtual sounds in an attempt to create immersive experiences through the application of technologies like VR-Goggles which are also known as Head Mounted Displays (HMD's). The aim of this article is to introduce Virtual Reality and the accompanying goggles to History educators and look at possibilities on how it can be utilised. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200011&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Currently the educational system is experiencing a process in which different teaching and learning methods are being used in conjunction with several forms of technology with the aim of improving the educational process. This is only a natural aspect of the educational process when looking at it within a larger societal sphere. When placing focus on subjects - specifically History - it should be noted that History as subject requires the incorporation of more modern technology in order to move away from the traditional method of chalk and talk History instruction. There are various teaching and learning aids like interactive whiteboards and data projectors but they are however not the latest forms of technology that can be used as a pedagogy tool that place is reserved for Virtual Reality (VR) and the goggles that accompanies it. Virtual Reality is a computer simulated environment - cyberspace/ augmented reality - with which the technology user can interact. Within this cyberspace the user focuses on virtual sights and virtual sounds in an attempt to create immersive experiences through the application of technologies like VR-Goggles which are also known as Head Mounted Displays (HMD's). The aim of this article is to introduce Virtual Reality and the accompanying goggles to History educators and look at possibilities on how it can be utilised. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862018000200012&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Currently the educational system is experiencing a process in which different teaching and learning methods are being used in conjunction with several forms of technology with the aim of improving the educational process. This is only a natural aspect of the educational process when looking at it within a larger societal sphere. When placing focus on subjects - specifically History - it should be noted that History as subject requires the incorporation of more modern technology in order to move away from the traditional method of chalk and talk History instruction. There are various teaching and learning aids like interactive whiteboards and data projectors but they are however not the latest forms of technology that can be used as a pedagogy tool that place is reserved for Virtual Reality (VR) and the goggles that accompanies it. Virtual Reality is a computer simulated environment - cyberspace/ augmented reality - with which the technology user can interact. Within this cyberspace the user focuses on virtual sights and virtual sounds in an attempt to create immersive experiences through the application of technologies like VR-Goggles which are also known as Head Mounted Displays (HMD's). The aim of this article is to introduce Virtual Reality and the accompanying goggles to History educators and look at possibilities on how it can be utilised.