Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.za/rss.php?pid=2223-038620200002&lang=en vol. num. 24 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=S2223-03862020000200001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In this article we examine the textbook narratives of the colonial past and the nation-building process in Mozambique, a Southern African country which gained its independence in 1975. One of the priorities after independence was to redesign the state apparatus and social system in order to decolonise people S minds, foster patriotism and strengthen national cohesion. We have conducted a discourse analysis of the verbal and iconic content of two Mozambican history textbooks, which are exclusively dedicated to national history: one published during the single-party or "socialist" phase; and the other published in the multi-party or "neoliberal" phase and currently in use. For this purpose, we developed an analytic framework to unveil how the textbooks' written and visual repertoires, and the combination thereof convey (or otherwise) a diverse and inclusive vision of the nation. Our findings reveal that although there have been changes in the types of language and images used, the general account of Mozambican history remains identical, emphasising the need for national unity under the leadership of the ruling political elite and recounting the History of Mozambique from the perspective of a single Liberation script, that completely overlooks the agency of women. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The Tutsi, the Twa and the Hutu are three social groups that have enjoyed a monoculture and lived on the same land. In 1994, around one million Tutsi were killed in a genocide organised by the then interim government. It is almost impossible to find any category of people who resisted participating in these killings, which have had tremendous long-lasting consequences. The extent of the killings made the genocide against the Tutsi one of the most researched topics in the history of Rwanda. However, only a few studies have focused on the teaching of this topic. In this article, I argue that the teaching of the genocide against the Tutsi is not an easy task because the teacher has to be careful not only in the choice of the methodology but also in selecting words to be used in a history class and taking into consideration the Rwandan socio-political context. In order to understand the phenomenon of teaching the genocide against the Tutsi, this study adopted a qualitative approach with a career life story methodology. This approach helps us to understand one history teacher's views on his experience of teaching the aforementioned phenomenon. The selected teacher's views cannot be generalised. However, they can give insight into the situation. Rukundo is one of the eleven Rwandan history teachers interviewed in 2013 and again in 2020 in Rwanda during and after my PhD research. This story was chosen because Rukundo is one of the four out of eleven history teachers who indicated that they predominantly used the learner-centred approach recommended by the 2008 and 2010 history curricula and the current competence-based curriculum. The choice of the above participant can help the readers to understand not only the complexity of teaching the genocide against the Tutsi in history in Rwandan secondary schools but also the way the career life story used in this article was constructed to explain Rukundo's lived experience. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Interactive and collaborative learning in 'live' and online (synchronous and asynchronous) environments generates an influence on the perception, motivation and outcomes of learning among students. From that theory, the aim of this contribution is to analyse the effects of different teaching approaches unexpectedly provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The object of this study is a master's course titled "History and Education" of which half the classes were taught via synchronous live lectures in an interactive and collaborative group condition and half via asynchronous digital modules to be individually completed without interaction or collaboration. The effects of those different conditions on students' perception of the comprehensibility and ease of studying the course, on students' interest, motivation and efforts, and on their learning performance was examined via a descriptive and exploratory case study using a questionnaire and the outcomes of a written examination. In the questionnaire, the course students had to score both conditions for several issues and explain their scores. The results show that the live lectures obtained better average scores than the digital modules, except for the perception of the ease of studying the course. Also, more students attributed higher scores to the live lectures on each issue, again except for the perception of the ease of studying the course. The learning performances did not generate differences between the two conditions. These results are discussed within the existing research and reflected upon in the light of the continuous pandemic forcing higher education to combine different shapes of teaching. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article offers a qualitative case study of how COVID has changed an existing international education partnership between the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa and Western Sydney University (WSU) in Australia which involves collaboration with the not-for-profit Nsasani Trust and focuses on sustainability. Before COVID, both universities ran joint student mobility programs in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and were developing further plans for staff mobility and co-developed postgrad programs involving residency in both countries. These plans changed as a result of the COVID pandemic, which started in early 2020. Societal responses to the COVID pandemic, including national border closures, have forced academics, administrators and students to reconsider how internationalisation programs function during and after the pandemic. Using a qualitative case study based on personal experience, we argue that pre-existing university-to-university connections built before COVID will sustain linkages, but that the previous structure of engagement -based on physical mobility - can shift to new arrangements that can be run fully digitally or used to support limited mobility when international travel resumes in the future. We position the UJ-WSU relationship in the historical context of internationalisation to both highlight the enduring nature of international engagements and suggest that changes are required to make international education sustainable. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Educational transformation is an ongoing process. However, in 2020 the transformation in South Africa was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This global health threat was inadvertently a catalyst for considerable change within the field of education. Considering that the nature of COVID-19 was infectious, the best mode of delivery for education to students during the pandemic was digital platforms. For the History Education department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), this was a significant transition from the conventional contact methods. While digital platforms were used under normal conditions to complement contact lectures, the transition meant that all teaching was completely dependent on digital platforms. Navigating this change was both interesting and challenging for me as a teacher and supervisor of History Education. This paper is a self-study of my experiences of engaging with online History Education at postgraduate and undergraduate levels within Higher Education. History Education modules had to be re-engineered, and pedagogical considerations had to be explored to align with the use of digital software. The online transition was not seamless and was accompanied by challenges that ranged from technological inaccessibility and teacher training for online education to academic disparities. At the onset of the transition, technology proved to exacerbate existing geo-social and educational inequalities within the learning community at the UKZN's History Education department. It undeniably took a considerable amount of time to acclimatise to the new digital platforms for online education. Eventually, there were visible successes. For instance, new online pedagogies proved effective in traversing History Education modules via online education. Training in the use of software and applications was also useful in achieving the learning objectives of History Education modules. Online resources, such as multimedia, were easier to incorporate into History Education lectures. This provided an integrative shift between theory and real-life experiences. Arguably, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for embracing digital platforms, which we, as educationalists, may not have otherwise implemented were it not a necessity. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In this article I argue that Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) has necessitated and produced some transformative teaching methods, using the frameworks of Freire and hooks. However, I argue, that their methods are incongruous with this moment of online learning because of the 'invisibilisation' of the marginalised and vulnerable students, who can and do easily disappear into the void of online learning. This makes dialogic teaching (Freire) and teaching in community (hooks) impossible. I use examples of two undergraduate history and history method (teaching history) classes, specifically looking at the teaching methods and the assessment methods. I draw thematically on what the students produced in their assessments, analysing their texts (poems, creative essays, artistic submissions), looking at how they engaged with the assignment (method) and what emerged in the assignment, reading specifically for political engagement. In this discussion, I look at both the possibilities and the limitations of online teaching. Ultimately, I argue, that the limitations outweigh the possibilities of online teaching, and that there is a danger in claiming victories or even good teaching standards in this context. The danger is that the students who disappear are written out of the script of the University, and the promises (however precarious) that post-university life in South Africa offers. My argument here, using two specific courses as evidence, is thus a contradiction and a balance: for exploring this portal, and everything it offers, but pushing back vehemently against complete online migration because, in a country as unequal as South Africa, it is unethical, unjust, and anti-critical pedagogy. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This paper intends to share empirical challenges of Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) History students faced during COVID-19. COVID-19 was characterised by, amongst other things, social distancing, which put lectures on hold in favour of online learning. A group of 32 students participated in the study. Data were collected through narrative inquiry, and a thematic data analysis method was used. The study revealed that PGCE history students faced challenges of adapting to and accessing online learning and library materials, an expectation to do a lot of academic work, individual instead of classroom or library learning, unconducive home learning space, lack ofparental support, and financial constraints. Therefore, this study concludes that students struggled to cope with online learning and recommends that institutions of higher learning should consider the above challenges when undertaking online learning under COVID-19 conditions in future. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. This announcement came as a shock to countries around the world. Diverse responses across the globe exposed an ill-prepared world that lacks the historical consciousness and capacity to manage and fight off a global pandemic. Mitigation of COVID-19 requires, inter alia, knowledge of best practices, in which case memory of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic comes to mind. This event claimed the lives of 50 million people,¹ which is more than the number of people who died during the two 20th century world wars. Responding to the arguably poor historical knowledge of pandemics, this article presents an exploratory proposal to integrate historical knowledge of pandemics with History teaching at school. Considering Bernstein's pedagogical device as a conceptual framework, the article responds to the question: how can historical knowledge of pandemics be integrated with History teaching? A small qualitative sample of online responses from History teachers (N=15) was used to gather a sense of how practicing History teachers relate to historical pandemics in the context of COVID-19. Their responses assisted in opening a discussion around knowledge production, recontexualisation and reproduction during the design process. Based on the expectation that knowledge of pandemics will be taught in the history classroom, recommendations for teacher education are suggested. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en It seems obvious that while others around us are concerned with trying to understand the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which it has disrupted so much of our lives and professional work, history educators should be concerned rather to look back, to study previous epidemics for the light that they can shed on today. The 1918 'Spanish 'flu is a logical starting place. But it presents two obstacles: first, that there is so little that is truly comparable to the 2020 experience and, secondly, that the material of 1918 in South Africa is potentially so difficult to use in the classroom. How does one, for instance, teach about the number of cases where people narrowly avoided being buried alive, escaping in the nick of time. (And what about those who were not as fortunate?) This is an exploration of uncharted territory that presents an initial map to anyone who might be tempted to follow suit and put it to the test. As there is no ready model at hand to use to teach about dying and death in the history classroom, a sequence of five themes is proposed as a way in which one can approach the issue of mortality without coming at it head-on. The themes are explained and justified and an exemplar of a possible class activity is provided for each. The question posed is whether one should teach about dying and death in this way. The conclusion suggests what the possible benefits accruing might be. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200011&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The effects of the Covid 19 pandemic on higher education in South Africa and the University of Pretoria iinspired this brief investigation into how the university responded to the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. This article looks at some of the traces of the effects of the Spanish Flu found in the University of Pretoria Archives. These include, apart from official documents, a handful of student reminiscences of the times which give some insights into how students in particular experienced the epidemic. These will be contrasted to personal impressions of how Covid 19 has impacted the 2020 class at the University of Pretoria. This brief comparison points to the far reaching impact the current pandemic has had on the university and higher education more generally. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200012&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en On March 16th, 20201 commenced my new job as a lecturer on History Education at Stellenbosch University (US), the very same day the University went into lockdown due to COVID-19. I have been a high school teacher for 11 years and so, moving to the University sectors brought with its own challenges. Added to these obstacles was now the addition of remote learning and the complete upheaval of University life. I have attempted to unpack my own experiences as a junior staff member during a nationwide pandemic lockdown and my experiences with remote teaching and learning. This is a personal reflection which outlines my experiences, as well as lessons I have taken away from the transition to online teaching. There are many obstacles that new lecturers face however, these challenges have been exacerbated due to the sudden transition to remote teaching and learning. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200013&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Collaboration is key to an effective history classroom. Discussion, peer work and learner engagement facilitate the development of historical thinking skills, understanding ofhistorical content and a careful engagement with the ethical issues posed in studying history. The realities of teaching online and then in a blended learning environment during COVID-19 have created challenges for maintaining this collaborative environment. The article discusses a number of techniques that have been employed to foster general engagement and also to scaffold assessment. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200014&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has caused a crisis in education, with the digital divide becoming ever more prevalent in a society which is as unequal and fractured as South Africa. While ex-Model C and private schools made the transition onto online learning with comparative ease at the beginning of the first lockdown, the majority of students and teachers in South Africa were, and continue to be, faced with a lack of internet access and resources to allow for the continuation of teaching and learning. While headlines celebrated a '21st century revolution in education' - essentially undermining the professionalism of teachers and calling into question the value of face-to-face interaction - the oft-neglected global majority continued to be marginalised. This is not to denigrate the innovative methods which teachers in both underprivileged and privileged settings have adopted in the face of the crisis, which range from compressing videos and sending notes via Whatsapp to spending hours on screen teaching synchronous lessons, but rather to highlight the challenges which deserve greater focus in the contemporary socioeconomic milieu. For a subject such as History, this is an opportune moment not only to draw parallels to events such as the Spanish Flu (which too demanded the wearing of protective masks), but also to highlight issues of social justice which are emerging on both a local and global scale. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200015&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Teaching history during lockdown at an elite private school during the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges and opportunities to draw on history and to learn new technologies. Challenges went beyond the content of history and included mental stress amongst students as a result of isolation but also empathy for victims of deepening poverty and police violence. Opportunities included international and local webinars, conferences, staff development and increased online resources. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200016&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This is an academic yet personal and subjective piece written to analyse and reflect upon personal experiences with regard to the teaching and learning of history under the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout this paper, I delve into my professional and personal experiences within different contexts, namely that of teaching history at a high school in a township called Soshanguve, and that of learning history as one of my modules in a postgraduate programme that I undertook at the University of Pretoria before and during the outbreak of COVID-19. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200017&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The closure of educational institutions following the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic called for the adoption of online teaching and learning. For decades, education has suffered in sub-Saharan Africa due to inadequate resources and the nation's inability to invest in continuous professional development that aims to keep practitioners abreast ofthefield. Most higher education institutions had not anticipated the shift to online teaching on such a massive scale and the sector was not well prepared for the challenge. This hands-on article is a reflection on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on History Education in higher education in Eswatini. The reflection intends to bring to light the challenges encountered and the opportunities offered for a new digital pedagogy for History Education in Eswatini as a new educational landscape emerged. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200018&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This paper discusses the unfolding of COVID-19 in Zambia between March and August 2020. Zambians were aware that international networks would lead to Zambia being affected by a disease that had caused much devastation in China. The discussion also demonstrates the ambiguous nature of economic means for survival. Thus, the search for means of survival would also become transmission lines of a deadly disease. The state used a mixture of liberal and authoritarian ways to deal with the spreading of the infections. The pandemic revealed the inadequacy of medical facilities. The discussion combined limited oral information, newspapers and published primary sources. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200019&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and then the provincial and national Departments of Basic and Higher Education to decolonise. Decolonisation is often talked about in the abstract, it is separated out into curricula, pedagogy, or university spaces. This charter takes the argument into schools and explores several aspects of decolonisation in a substantial and detailed way. The charter was developed as a collective exercise in a history methodology class by third and fourth year Bachelor of Education students training to be histori(an) teachers. The idea from the charter emanated from the students, and was initially, pre-Covid, guided by the lecturer (see footnote 1); however, once Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) began, the students took complete ownership of the project. The lecturer's only role was to make the charter an assignment, to give students impetus to carry on with the task. Students could work collectively on the Decolonial History Teacher's Charter, or work on and submit individual assignments. This is important because the desire, the heart, the intellectual work, and the collectivity all emanated from the students. The below document can serve, in our collective view, as an important guide to new and serving history teachers, students, learners, and scholars. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200020&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and then the provincial and national Departments of Basic and Higher Education to decolonise. Decolonisation is often talked about in the abstract, it is separated out into curricula, pedagogy, or university spaces. This charter takes the argument into schools and explores several aspects of decolonisation in a substantial and detailed way. The charter was developed as a collective exercise in a history methodology class by third and fourth year Bachelor of Education students training to be histori(an) teachers. The idea from the charter emanated from the students, and was initially, pre-Covid, guided by the lecturer (see footnote 1); however, once Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) began, the students took complete ownership of the project. The lecturer's only role was to make the charter an assignment, to give students impetus to carry on with the task. Students could work collectively on the Decolonial History Teacher's Charter, or work on and submit individual assignments. This is important because the desire, the heart, the intellectual work, and the collectivity all emanated from the students. The below document can serve, in our collective view, as an important guide to new and serving history teachers, students, learners, and scholars. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200021&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and then the provincial and national Departments of Basic and Higher Education to decolonise. Decolonisation is often talked about in the abstract, it is separated out into curricula, pedagogy, or university spaces. This charter takes the argument into schools and explores several aspects of decolonisation in a substantial and detailed way. The charter was developed as a collective exercise in a history methodology class by third and fourth year Bachelor of Education students training to be histori(an) teachers. The idea from the charter emanated from the students, and was initially, pre-Covid, guided by the lecturer (see footnote 1); however, once Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) began, the students took complete ownership of the project. The lecturer's only role was to make the charter an assignment, to give students impetus to carry on with the task. Students could work collectively on the Decolonial History Teacher's Charter, or work on and submit individual assignments. This is important because the desire, the heart, the intellectual work, and the collectivity all emanated from the students. The below document can serve, in our collective view, as an important guide to new and serving history teachers, students, learners, and scholars. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862020000200022&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The below text is a practical charter which calls for history teachers, students, learners and then the provincial and national Departments of Basic and Higher Education to decolonise. Decolonisation is often talked about in the abstract, it is separated out into curricula, pedagogy, or university spaces. This charter takes the argument into schools and explores several aspects of decolonisation in a substantial and detailed way. The charter was developed as a collective exercise in a history methodology class by third and fourth year Bachelor of Education students training to be histori(an) teachers. The idea from the charter emanated from the students, and was initially, pre-Covid, guided by the lecturer (see footnote 1); however, once Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) began, the students took complete ownership of the project. The lecturer's only role was to make the charter an assignment, to give students impetus to carry on with the task. Students could work collectively on the Decolonial History Teacher's Charter, or work on and submit individual assignments. This is important because the desire, the heart, the intellectual work, and the collectivity all emanated from the students. The below document can serve, in our collective view, as an important guide to new and serving history teachers, students, learners, and scholars.