Hegemony or History? Technologies of Colonial Power in History Classrooms

• In Event: 32.069 - The Postcolonial And: Interstices and Liberation Across Educational Spaces

Abstract

I examine the ways that colonialism continues to manifest within history classrooms. I focus on three technologies of colonial power that students face on a routine basis: 1) Textbook history and the construction of the “freedom-quest narrative” (VanSledright, 2008); 2) Testing as a means to rehearse and entrench the freedom-quest narrative and obfuscate voices that disrupt the freedom-quest narrative (Taubman, 2009; Viruru, 2009); and 3) Teaching as a mechanism that reinforces Othering through the lack of allyship teachers provide to marginalized people. The theoretical notion of the Othering gaze (Fanon, 1952) employed within the context of schools as panoptic settings (Foucault, 1977) allows for a deconstruction of technologies of colonial power. This approach demonstrates the forms of vigilant normalization that students face and in turn, the challenges that beset disrupting the hegemony of this historical power. As these various forms of surveillance work to ensure stability within the freedom-quest narrative, it also simultaneously renders irrelevant any voices that undermine, casting them to the fringes of learning and the classroom. Thus, students whose identities and histories work against the freedom-quest narrative are marginalized by being left out of history texts, earning lower marks on assessments, and being controlled by the silence of teachers.
For this essay I begin by drawing upon the literature about history teaching and testing. I continue with my own phenomenological research on the lived experiences of history classes from three students that identify as historically marginalized. I also include my own self-reflexivity to disrupt normative writing moves (Fine, 1998), offering challenges to the interstices I occupy as a person of color, teacher, and scholar to think more deeply about how resistance might look and feel. This synthesis of existing literature and empirical narratives illustrate the realities of colonialism in history classes and the danger such historical oppression continues to present. Moving from this, in turn, I call for seeing the importance that recognition (Daza, 2009) has in addressing these difficult realities of our educational systems.

References
Fanon, F. (1952). Black skin, white masks. New York, NY: Grove Press.
Fine, M. (1998). Working the hyphens: Reinventing the self and other in qualitative research.
The Landscape of Qualitative Research Theories and Issues, 130-155.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prison. New York, NY: Random House.
Taubman, P. (2009). Teaching by numbers: Deconstructing the discourse of standards and accountability in education. New York, NY: Routledge.
Vansledright, B. (2008). “Narratives of Nation-State, Historical Knowledge, and School History Education. Review of Research in Education. Vol 32. 109-146. DOI: 10.3102/0091732X07311065.
Viruru, R. (2009). “Postcolonial Technologies of Power: Standardized Testing and Representing Diverse Young Children.” Postcolonial challenges in education. (Vol. 369) 100-118. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Author

• Ryan Oto, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities