‘Thinking Each Other’s History’ Can Facing the Past Contribute to Education for Human Rights and Democracy?

Abstract At the core of curriculum reform in post-apartheid South Africa has been the desire to transform both education and society. In the introduction to the Revised National Curriculum Statements adopted in 2002, the stated aim is to ensure that ‘a national South African identity is built on values very different from those that underpinned apartheid education. ’ It is hoped that learners will be inspired by these values and will ‘act in the interests of a society based on respect for democracy, equality, human dignity and social justice’. The overall aim is for schools to be transformed into sites where learners live out the negotiated values of the South African Constitution and the Bill of Rights. History has been identified as a particularly appropriate carrier subject for fulfilling these aims. However, little attention has been paid to the attitudes and values of teachers which will impact on implementation. All South Africans who lived under apartheid have been conditioned in varying degrees to the attitudes and the prejudices of the apartheid society. If we are to embrace this values-driven curriculum and develop in learners a respect for human dignity, equality and social justice, then teachers need to develop these same values first and use them to transform their classrooms and teaching. This paper discusses a pilot project, Facing the Past – Transforming the Future which aims to support teachers and learners in education for human rights and democracy through history, with Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa as case studies. Grade 9 teachers from 12 diverse schools in Cape Town are participating in the project