An Indigenous Led Critique of English History Education Research
Katherine Wallace
University College London
Thursday March 21st
7pm UK / 2pm EST
Zoom: https://bit.ly/3SuWAp6
This paper draws on Tuhiwai Smith’s (2021) Indigenous informed outline of Western history to critique the philosophy of history that currently underpins practices in history education in England.
Assigning historical significance to the past is an act of judgement made in the present by an individual human using a specific historical method. Owing to the problem of the concept of the (hu)man in Western history (Braidotti, 2013; Maclure, 2013; Varga, 2022; Weinstein & Colebrook, 2017) there is a need to consider how a more than human philosophy for history might provide potential for new ways of thinking historically in history education.
Using ideas and concepts that connect with Indigenous knowledge, particularly agent ontologies (Barad, 2007; Bennet, 2010; Rosiek et al,
2020) and affect (Hickey-Moody, 2013; Massumi, 1995; Massumi, 1996), my project posits the need for a Deleuzian informed philosophy for building a more-than-human history education, one that rests heavily on the Nietzschean concept of eternal return, to theorise historical significance as an affecting force rather than an act of judgement (Deleuze, 1968; Deleuze, 1969; Lundy, 2008; Williams, 2008).
Read Katherine’s abstract here…
New Grounds in Education Theory 