Race, citizenship and national identity in The School Paper, 1946-1968

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore representations of Aboriginal people, in particular children, in the Victorian government's school reader The School Paper, from the end of the Second World War until its publication ceased in 1968. The author interrogates these representations within the framework of pedagogies of citizenship training and the development of national identity, to reveal the role Aboriginal people and their culture were accorded within the "imagined community" of Australian nationhood and its heritage and history. Design/methodology/approach -The paper draws on the rich material available in the Victorian Department of Education's school reader, The School Paper, from 1946 to 1968 (when the publication ceased), and on the Department's annual reports. These are read within the context of scholarship on race, education and citizenship formation in the post-war years. Findings -State government policies of assimilation following the Second World War tied in with pedagogies and curricula regarding citizenship and belonging, which became a key focus of education departments following the Second World War. The informal pedagogies of The School Paper's representations of Aboriginal children and their families, the author argues, excluded Aboriginal communities from understandings of Australian nationhood, and from conceptions of the ideal Australian citizen-in-formation. Instead, representations of Aboriginal people relegated them to the outdoors in ways that racialised Australian spaces: Aboriginal cultures are portrayed as historical yet timeless, linked with the natural/native rather than civic/political environment. Originality/value -This paper builds on scholarship on the relationship between education, reading pedagogies and citizenship formation in Australia in the post-war years to develop our knowledge of how conceptions of the ideal Australian citizen of the futurethat is, Australian studentswere inherently racialised. It makes a new contribution to scholarship on the assimilation project in Australia, through revealing the relationship between government policies towards Aboriginal people and the racial and cultural qualities being taught in ...

Ontology, sovereignty, legitimacy: two key moments when history curriculum was challenged in public discourse and the curricular effects, Australia 1950s and 2000s

“…Numerous scholars have shown how nation-states utilise education systems, and history education particularly, to convey a nationalist historical master-narrative aimed at inspiring loyalty and patriotism in its subjects (Carretero, 2011; Hutchins, 2016). In the Australian context, numerous scholars have shown how history curriculum has historically been organised to foster a white, settler national identity, from which Indigenous people, ontologies and epistemologies have been excluded (Marsden, 2018; Bradford, 2001; Healy, 2015; MacKnight, 2007). This exclusion has been repeatedly identified by Indigenous authors, scholars and leaders (Herbert, 2015).…”

“…This exclusion has been repeatedly identified by Indigenous authors, scholars and leaders (Herbert, 2015). While some scholars have engaged with Australia's position as a settler-colonial state and with the issue of race (Healy, 2015; McLean, 2013), other works inexplicably fail to acknowledge this (see, for example, Cormack, 2013; MacKnight, 2007). Historians grappling with difference and othering in 20th century curriculum and schooling more readily reference the presence of migrant children in Australian schools.…”

“…This included narratives that explicitly addressed the presence of migrant children in Australian society and schools. A key aspect of this was the role of Australia in helping refugees and migrants to adjust to life in Australia in a performance of citizenship as legitimate “original” Australians, in binary opposition with “new Australians” (Healy, 2015). Compared with the option for teachers to “use their discretion” about whether to give any attention to contemporary Aboriginal people or society (as well as the absence of any representation in the School Paper ) there was a wide and sustained engagement with migrant children and culture.…”