The specialisation of historical knowledge in one content area in four Grade 7 Social Sciences textbooks under CAPS

This dissertation considers how historical knowledge is specialised in one chapter in four Grade 7 Social Science textbooks produced under the CAPS curriculum. The four textbooks selected are from two publishers, and the interest was in similarities and differences within and between publishers. Two central categories of analysis were used: the General Structure of the Text, and the Structure of Historical Knowledge. The General Structure of the Text considered the overall organisational differences and similarities between the textbooks in terms ofBemstein's (1977/2000) concepts of classification, selection and sequencing. All four textbooks were found to be highly similar, suggesting strong external framing (Fᵄ⁺)of the textbooks by the curriculum. I examined the weighting of the sections and sub-sections of the textbooks, and found similarity across all four textbooks for the sections but variation for the sub-sections. The Structure of Historical Knowledge considered the specialisation of historical knowledge. I separated the text from the textbooks into Narratives and Activities. Narratives were comprised of Narrative Text and Glossaries, while Activities were composed of Sources and Questions. The analysis of Structure of Historical Knowledge was informed primarily by Seixas' (2006) benchmarks of historical thinking. I found differences related to historical specialisation, specifically with regards to the historical concepts that students are exposed to in the Narrative Text and Activities, and the Conceptual Level which underpins the Activities. The study found that students are exposed to a limited range of historical concepts, especially in certain of the textbooks in the Narrative Text; and students are required to engage with Questions in a way which focuses on comprehension and little inference in the Conceptual Level. There was, however, some variation across textbooks and this is drawn out in the analysis.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Job, Mikhaila

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hoadley, Ursula Kate

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23073

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/23073