The Return of the Canon: Transforming Dutch History Teaching
Email: m.devos{at}felisenum.nl
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Abstract |
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In the academic year 2007-8 two new teaching programmes were introduced into Dutch history education: all children between eight and fourteen were to be instructed in the official Canon of Dutch History, comprising fifty items on a timeline reaching from the Stone Age to the introduction of the Euro. Students from fifteen to eighteen who took history as an examination subject were to study the canon of European history, with special attention to Dutch history. This new curriculum was set up to strengthen national identity and to further the integration of minorities by creating a shared knowledge of Dutch history and culture.
Critics of these programmes point to their old-fashioned representation of history and the neglect of new fields of research such as gender history and post-colonial critique. Some critics think the emphasis on Dutch history will alienate students whose backgrounds are not Dutch.
However, a survey of the new textbooks is reassuring. The textbooks turn Dutch history into an instrument for critical discussion of the past, for instance by including source material from different cultures and perspectives, by devising assignments on the history of women and slavery, and by inviting students to reflect on the ways historical canons are constructed.
Moreover teachers have considerable leeway to add topics and perspectives to the curriculum and to create their own instruction material. In this way teachers can provide balanced and stimulating instruction for students of diverging interests and backgrounds.