Education and Historical Justice : Redress, Reparations and Reconciliation in the Classroom

Education and Historical Justice explores the growing relationship between historical justice and education in comparative transnational contexts.

It argues that in the period since the early-1990s – known as the ‘age of apology’– processes of redress, repair, and reconciliation have become common in liberal-democratic nation-states. Yet, education’s role in, and relationship to, historical justice is a relatively under researched issue. This book addresses that gap, exploring key questions for policy makers, curriculum writers, teachers, and students who are being mobilised and mobilising towards historical justice within cultures of redress. This includes analyses of educational reforms and policy changes in Australia, Canada, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. The book considers how agendas of historical justice relate to and potentially challenge established purposes of history and citizenship education. It outlines three potential orientations history education might take and is already taking in response to agendas of historical justice. Chapters engage perennial debates in the field– time, narrative, and collective responsibility – exploring conceptual dilemmas that arise when engaging questions of historical justice. This book draws out key opportunities and challenges for educators and learners within cultures of redress, who are being positioned to engage historical justice movements and imagine reparative futures.