Memory practices and colonial discourse

On text trajectories and lines of flight

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12877415
AutoresFelicitas Macgilchrist (0000-0002-2828-4127, Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute, autor correspondente), Johanna Ahlrichs (Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute), Patrick Mielke (0000-0001-5934-1668, Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute), Roman Richtera (Leibniz Association)
Ano2017
Volume14
Fascículo4
Páginas341-361
Data de publicação2017-05-30
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCritical Discourse Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1740-5904 • E-ISSN: 1740-5912
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17405904.2017.1325382
OpenAlexW2616937241
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas50

How self-evident is a colonial rationality today? This paper begins by tracing a ‘text trajectory’ about nineteenth century imperialism and colonialism through several educational spaces: curricular guidelines, textbook, teachers’ reflections on history education, material discursive classroom interactions and pupils’ communication about the topic. In a first step, we observe how entrenched and common sensical a great-power discourse about imperialism and colonialism is in current educational practices. We suggest that pupils ‘hyperstate’ a discursive position on colonialism which appears shocking when stated explicitly, but which is already subtly entextualised in curricular and media discourse. However, in a second step, the analysis orients to the molecular lines and foldings, the unexpected intra-connections and unplanned ‘lines of flight’. In this way, the apparent stability of the colonial rationality begins to wobble (just slightly). The memory practices enacted by pupils, curricula, teachers, authors and the material affordances of textbooks repeat entrenched colonial hierarchies and racisms, ‘and also’ exceed any overly simple understanding of how colonial rationality plays out in contemporary discourse

Colonialism · Curriculum · Epistemology · Linguistics · Media studies · Pedagogy · Political science · Rationality · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy