Linear transmission of “whiteness”: A textual analysis of a year 9 “timeline”

Abstract

This paper draws on theories of history and interculturality to explore how a ‘timeline’ and its visual language as a ‘crystallised text’ constructs the linear transmission of ‘whiteness’. When the concept of interculturality or associated term of Intercultural Understanding (ICU) is related to history education, it carries connotations of disruption to dominant narratives. The absence of difference, diversity, and the stories of ‘other’, are explicated in critical inclusions and exclusions of historical content knowledge and the way it is organised within key pedagogies such as ‘chronology’. In addition to focus group interviews with history teachers, the study conducted a textual analysis of a ‘timeline’ used at Year 9 (students aged 13-15) defined here as a ‘Western Drama’, underpinned by linear progress as a basic theme. It was analysed through the lens of a ‘crystal prism’ which conceptually draws on the foundational work of educationalist Jörn Rüsen to explore intersections between history, interculturality and discourse.