Globalisation and the politics of education reforms: History education

Abstract

This chapter offers an overview of the nexus between globalisation and education reforms in history education around the world. Recent research on globalisation, history education and curriculum reforms has indicated that forces of globalisation and dominant ideologies have affected the nature and the content of historical narratives and the social and political value of school textbooks. Recent and continuing public and political debates in countries around the world, dealing with understandings of a nation-building and national identity, point out to parallels between the political significance of school history and the history debates globally. The issue of national identity and balanced representations of the past continues to dominate the debate surrounding the content of history textbooks. The existence of competing and contested discourses in historiography, together with diversity in interpretations of events, will make it problematic to reach consensus on the content of history textbooks.