Teaching History in Post-Coup Myanmar: Reading Textbooks Upside Down and Sideways

• In Event: Experiences from China, Uganda, and Myanmar

Proposal

Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of primary and secondary education teachers and students have participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) by boycotting government schools, instead joining or adding onto the parallel education system developed by ethnic armed organizations in border regions during the past several decades of civil war (Frontier, 2022; Saito, 2021). These schools face difficult choices regarding curriculum. Government textbooks, especially those related to history, are widely acknowledged to perpetuate discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities (Author, 2012; Cheesman, 2002). Since the coup, this type of ethnocentric nationalism is increasingly regarded by pro-democratic forces as unacceptable (Ebead & Hirakawa, 2022).

Given the lack of alternatives, many teachers must continue using government textbooks despite concerns about their ideological context. Yet teachers and schools have differing degrees of freedom in changing or adding to this curriculum. In this complex “learning ecosystem” (Mosaik Education, 2021), a uniform approach cannot address the heterogeneous situations that exiled or displaced educators face on the ground.

In this paper, I present observations from preliminary workshops with teachers along the Thai-Myanmar border in 2022, in which we explored ways of using government textbooks contrary to the intentions of their authors—a practice I call “reading textbooks upside down and sideways.” While Myanmar government textbooks promote narrow nationalism and a social hierarchy that disadvantages minority groups, we used role plays, discussions, and additional source material to help students develop a critical perspective and an inclusive mindset. These activities fit into a set of methods I have developed with Myanmar colleagues (Author, 2022) drawing on Augusto Boal’s (2003) “theater of the oppressed,” which allow educators and students to experiment with new ways of seeing the past and solving social conflicts. These techniques are relevant to educators in situations of conflict around the world, where textbook revision is impractical but existing materials may be inappropriate.

Author

• Rosalie Metro, University of Missouri