Education as a site of memory: Developing a research agenda

Julia Paulson*, Nelson A. Abiti, Julian Bermeo Osorio, Carlos Arturo Charria Hernandez, Duong Keo, Peter Manning, Lizzi O. Milligan, Kate Moles, Catriona Pennell, Sangar Salih, Kelsey Shanks

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
170 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The field of memory studies tends to focus attention on the ‘3Ms’ – museums, monuments, memorials – as sites where memories are constructed, communicated, and contested. Where education is identified as a site for memory, the focus is often narrowly on what is or is not communicated within curricula or textbooks, assuming that schools simply pass on messages agreed or struggled over elsewhere. This article explores the possibilities opened when educative processes are not taken as stable and authoritative sites for transmitting historical narratives, but instead as spaces of contestation, negotiation and cultural production. With a focus on ‘difficult histories’ of recent conflict and historical injustice, we develop a research agenda for education as a site of memory and show how this can illuminate struggles over dominant historical narratives at various scales, highlighting agencies that educational actors bring to making sense of the past.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages23
JournalInternational Studies in Sociology of Education
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Apr 2020

Research Groups and Themes

  • SoE Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education

Keywords

  • Memory studies
  • history teaching
  • difficult histories
  • education and conflict
  • historical memory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Education as a site of memory: Developing a research agenda'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
  • Transformative History Education

    Paulson, J. (Principal Investigator), Manning, P. (Co-Investigator), Charria Hernandez, C. A. (Co-Investigator), Bermeo Osorio, J. (Co-Investigator), Keo, D. (Co-Investigator), Abiti, N. A. (Co-Investigator), Salih, S. (Co-Investigator), Milligan, L. (Co-Investigator), Moles, K. (Co-Investigator), Shanks, K. (Co-Investigator) & Pennell, C. (Co-Investigator)

    1/11/1731/10/19

    Project: Research

Cite this