‘Behind the doors of learning’: the transmission of racist and sexist discourses in a History classroom
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Date
2011
Authors
Wilmot, Mark
Naidoo, Devika
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
Now that the doors of historically white schools have officially been opened to Black learners, this
paper presents a critical analysis of discourses of domination transmitted behind the doors of learning
in a History classroom. While the official History curriculum (NCS, 2002) advocates multi-perspectival
epistemological approaches, this paper illustrates the subordination of epistemic goals to racist and
sexist ideological goals through the transmission of racist and sexist discourses. A teacher’s lessons were
observed, audio-taped, transcribed and analysed according to critical discourse theory. The conventional
Grade 10 topic, The conquest of the Aztecs by the Spanish, was mediated through racist and sexist formal
and informal discursive strategies such as the use of teacher power to silence contestation of inaccurate
statements; the use of metaphor, simile, and binary oppositions to convey prejudicial meanings, derogation,
inferiorisation, ridicule, jokes, disclaimers, and stereotyping that subsumed the historical topic being
taught. The analysis exposes the informal yet effective workings of power for the perpetuation of discourses
of domination in the History lesson. Such discourses subjected learners to a form of symbolic violence
which may lead students to ontological misrecognition of self and race.
Description
Keywords
History curriculum, Discourse, Ideology, Racism, Sexism, Symbolic violence
Citation
Wilmot, M., & Naidoo, D. (2011). ‘Behind the doors of learning’: The transmission of racist and sexist discourses in a History classroom. Perspectives in Education, 29(2), 28-38.