Drawing on two research questions, this study presents an understanding of the nature
of heritage in selected contemporary Grade 10 South African history textbooks, and
elucidates factors responsible for the depiction of heritage in a particular way. The
context that informed this study was that of South Africa as a post-conflict society.
Using the interpretivist paradigm and approached from a qualitative perspective, this
case study produced data on three purposively selected contemporary (post-1994)
South African history textbooks with regards to their representation of heritage.
Lexicalisation, a form of the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was used as method to
analyse the pre generated data from the selected textbooks following Fairclough’s
(2003) three dimensions of describing, interpreting, and explaining the text. The study
adopted a holistic approach to heritage as a conceptual framework whilst following
social constructionism as the lens through which heritage was explored in the selected
textbooks. My findings from this study concluded that although educational policy in the form of the
NCS-History clearly stipulates the expectations to be achieved from the teaching and
learning of heritage at Grade 10 level, there are inconsistencies and contradictions at
the level of implementation of the heritage outcome in the history textbooks. Key among
the finding are the absence of representation of natural heritage, lack of clear
conceptualisation of heritage, many diverse pedagogic approaches towards heritage
depiction, a gender and race representation of heritage that suggests an inclination
towards patriarchy and a desire to retain apartheid and colonial dogma respectively,and finally a confirmation of the tension in the heritage/history relationship. The study
discovered that factors such as the commercial and political nature of textbooks, the
lack of understanding of the debates around the heritage/history partnership, and the
difficulties involved in post-conflict reconstruction are responsible for this type of
heritage depiction in the textbooks. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8495 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Fru, Nkwenti Raymond. |
| Contributors | Wassermann, Johan., Maposa, Marshall Tamuka. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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