Curricular Nationalism: Facing White American Ideology in the Social Studies

• In Event: 43.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Six - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 43.080-1 - Contestations of the Nation-State: Ownership and Answerability in Curriculum

Abstract

This position paper discusses the central role that history education has played in White processes of nation-building, and proposes a turn to alternative conceptions of the state that could limit narrow, socializing projects of K-12 social studies and expand curricular discourse. The paper provides a brief review of social studies’ attachment to exclusive conceptions of nationalism, and its central importance in understanding how nationalism works in curriculum. This is followed by a consideration of some alternative conceptions and a call to include more targeted critiques of the American nation-state in our recommendations for curriculum.

Author

• Christoph Stutts, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill