Reflexive grappling with theory and methods of text analysis : race and racism represented in history textbooks

Theoretical and methodological matters pertaining to school textbook analysis are an under-researched and under-documented area of specialisation. In this article I attempt to contribute to this field by reflecting on my own experience of grappling with these issues as relevant to the study of a number of South African school history textbooks. The topic of investigation is that of race and racism. I use this as a vehicle for operationalising the theoretical and methodological issues at hand. A key issue is whether historians and other ‘scientists’ make the methods of their disciplinary discoveries explicit or not, and the implications this could have for developing historical understanding. In the second part of the article I explain the theoretical position I assume towards the object of my study. It is a hermeneutic realist stance; a stance that attempts to use the researcher’s (own) particular historically and culturally conditioned mindset in the interpretive process. In some cases this led to an interpretation of the messages communicated in the textbook as flat and sterile, reinforcing stereotypes, while in others the reader is drawn into a discourse that tends to appeal to his or her humanity rather than judgement