Call for papers - Special edition of Yesterday & Today

History Curricula in African context

Yesterday & Today, an accredited open-access journal hosted on the Scielo.co.za platform, with a focus on History Education, History in Education, History for Education and the History of Education, is calling for papers for a special edition dedicated to the theme “HISTORY CURRICULA IN AFRICAN CONTEXTS” which will be issued in December 2021.

Papers dealing with any aspect of this theme will be considered. We particularly encourage the submission of original analyses of processes, actors and outcomes of reform and transformation of history curricula that African countries have historically or recently undergone, and investigations of the controversies, challenges and innovations relating to such processes and their implementation, and their successes or pitfalls in ensuring equity, quality, relevance and effectiveness of history education. We especially welcome papers, including theoretical and empirical, diachronic and synchronic, and individual and comparative studies, which, in their analysis of such processes, shed light on one or multiple dimensions of the concept of curriculum and their relations/inter-dynamics/ divergences/contradictions in African contexts. We are above all interested in analyses that focus on the following aspects and questions:

• the official/prescribed/written/overt/formal curriculum – what do curriculum policies prescribe in relation to the contents and pedagogies of history education? How and by whom are related selections made? Whose curriculum is the outcome of such processes and how do issues of power, representation and identity play out in their design and development? Analyses at the policy level may further include investigations of the latest revisions undertaken against the backdrop of debates on the need to decolonize and Africanize/indigenize their contents and pedagogies, and the contradictions emanating from concomitant global demands from international actors and donors that are leading to a certain internationalization and streamlining of curricula around the world. Other relevant debates include: the status of the subject of history within the curriculum, i.e. as a compulsory or optional subject, and as a stand-alone subject or a subject subsumed into larger, interdisciplinary subjects such as social sciences, and the implications of such choices; and the nature and implications of reforms entailing paradigm shifts, e.g. to learner-centred, competency-based education (CBE), as well as the vocationalisation of the curriculum, with an increased attention to “21st century skills”.
• the programmatic curriculum – how do curriculum policies and related issues translate into the production of history textbooks and teacher guides?
• the described and enacted/implemented/delivered curriculum (or curriculum-in-use) – what do history teachers say they teach and what do they actually teach? How do history teachers navigate curriculum reform challenges and adapt official policy to realities on the ground (e.g. in politically sensitive and resource-constrained settings)?
• the received curriculum – what do students actually learn in the history classroom? How do they make sense of, and what do they retain, of what is taught, and how does it differ from the prescribed and implemented curriculum? How does history curriculum reform impact learners and learning outcomes?
• the assessed curriculum – how does assessment for or of learning look like (e.g. formative or summative, types of questioning, e.g. MCQs, source-based, essays, projects)?
• the covert/hidden curriculum – how do broader experiences in the classroom, and the school environment and culture, (unconsciously and unintendedly) influence learning in history education?
• the null curriculum – what is omitted and not taught in the history classroom?
• the concomitant curriculum – what is taught at home and how does it relate to and influence formal teaching and learning in history?
• any other history curriculum related topic that falls outside the CFP as outlined 

• The Harvard or the Footnote methods of reference may be used. For instructions to authors please visit Yesterday & Today on one of the following platforms:
• , http://www.scielo.org.za/yesterday&today and http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/5126
• Articles must be in Arial 12pt font and in single spacing. The text should be in Microsoft Word format.
• Papers should be between 4 000 and 8 000 words in length.
• Papers submitted for consideration should reach the editor-in-chief and the guest editor of the volume by 30 September 2021.
• All papers will be subjected to a double-blind peer-review process.

For more information, please contact the editor-in-chief and the guest editor of the special edition of Yesterday & Today:

Prof Johan Wassermann

Faculty of Education

University of Pretoria

+27 0844061558

[email protected]

and

Dr Denise Bentrovato

Faculty of Education

University of Pretoria

[email protected]