Teaching history, beyond the textbook

The real problem with history education is bigger than textbook revisions.

Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald.

This week NCERT has released the new Social Science textbook for Grade 9 - Understanding Society: India and Beyond Part 2. As with the previous ‘new’ textbooks, some of us have been complaining about a few topics that have found their way into the textbook and a few that have been shown the door.

Syllabus changes dictated by those in power are a matter of concern and warrant deliberation. But, is this the only concern with our textbooks?

Let us look at a few questions.

How important are textbooks in today’s time?

Textbooks, today, are just one of the many sources children have to build their knowledge and understanding of a topic. Our fetish for marks and ranks, has fuelled the popularity of guides and exam-keys, and as a corollary rendered textbooks - and the pedagogy envisaged while designing them - virtually ineffective. A few years ago I had pitched an article on ‘errors in textbooks’ to a newspaper editor, and she had responded by asking me why I was fussing so much about the textbooks; her son, she added, was in Grade 8 and at his school they seldom used textbooks.

One of the criticisms of the recently released textbook is that the Western revolutions and conflicts (Nazism, French Revolution, and Russian Revolution) have been removed. I studied in a school in Baroda (Gujarat) that followed the State-board curriculum; we did not have these either and frankly it has never been a matter of concern. What has intrigued me though is the stark absence of local history in our textbooks. Why, in Baroda, did we not read about the grandeur of Champaner’s pre-Mughal Indo-Islamic architecture and intricate workmanship, or about Sayajirao Gaekwad’s remarkable initiatives - from introducing free primary education (more than a century ago) to patronizing luminaries like Aurobindo Ghosh, Raja Ravi Varma and Bhimrao Ambedkar!

There are questions on teaching history in schools but they go beyond the changes in textbooks.

Schools.

How many periods are allocated to history in Grade 9 in a term? And, how many periods does a particular chapter get? Are these sufficient? Does history get the time and space in the school ecosystem beyond the time-table - on annual-days, in morning-assemblies, during school-trips, and even in conversations around food? Where does history stand in the hierarchy of subjects at the school?

Teachers.

“A textbook”, to quote Yogendra Yadav, “is only as good as the teacher who takes it to the students”. How skilled and interested are our history teachers? Do they talk about what history is and why children need to study it? Do they discuss with students whether they agree or disagree with what people like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Napoleon Bonaparte have said about history? Do they interpret the syllabus in interesting ways - through plays, debates, museum-visits and connections with other subjects? Do a few changes in a few chapters unsettle them?

Parents.

Parents often discuss with their children at home, and with teachers during PTMs, the progress - or lack of it - of the children in science, mathematics, English, and AI. Do they also ask how their children are doing in history? How many of them encourage children interested in history to study it further?

Children.

How enthused are our children to study history? Not much, I would say. However, I would not blame them alone; when the ecosystem around them is busy encouraging coaching factories to churn-out future engineers and doctors, it may not be easy for them, especially in Grade 9, to be motivated to study history.

How well have we taught them history? Not much, I would say again. I used to teach history, Grade 9 ICSE, and my colleague was keen that in the chapter on elections, I discuss the recent change in the procedure of appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners and stress why it is not a very welcome step for democracy. I prepared accordingly, only to realize that most children were not even aware of the Election Commission of India.

The real issue may not be what is in the textbook, but what we do with it, and what kind of relationship we help children develop with history.

Previously published pieces on textbooks 

Don't always go by the textbook (Teacher Plus) 

Book Review - Textbooks for Sustainable Development (Teacher Plus)