Remembrance Day practices in schools: meaning-making in social memory during the First World War centenary (original) (raw)
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'Your School Needs You to Buy a Poppy': Dominance and fragility in school remembrance practices
Generated by the centenary of the First World War, there has been an increased interest in how war is commemorated in English schools. Whilst other authors have argued that the way in which remembrance is marked in schools is militarised and nationalistic, this article reports on a single school case study to provide a deeper discussion of how this is reproduced in everyday practices and a consideration of how alternative forms of remembrance are resisted. Butler's concept of 'grievability' is deployed to interpret the practices where some lives are privileged above others in commemoration creating a militarised 'red poppy remembrance discourse'. I go on to argue that this discourse, although dominant, is also fragile in nature and attempts to counter this are treated with suspicion to maintain nationalistic and war-normalising messages for the next generation.
Remembrance of Things Past: Historical Commemoration in an Educational Setting
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Arts Education, 2017
On the eve of Anzac Day 2012, Julia Gillard, the former Australian labour prime minister, expressed her hope that the Centenary of Anzac would be "like the bicentenary" (Harris, n.d.). She spoke without irony, yet it was in part the "ideological vacuum" (Bendle, 2015) at the heart of that celebration that made it clear, once and presumably for all, that Anzac Day was a less complicated and infinitely less divisive choice as a national day. Though the campaign against the Turks on Gallipoli which commenced for Australians on April 25, 1915, was ultimately a failure, it maintains a hold on the national consciousness that shows no signs of abating (Beaumont, 2015; Donoghue & Tranter, 2015). Early commemorations could hardly ignore that the nation had fought in support of King and Empire, yet over time it increasingly became a celebration of Australian manliness grounded in the discovery of an imagined national character (Fischer, 2012). In the modern context, the "spirit of Anzac" is now widely regarded as the "linchpin of Australian national identity" (Deane, 2002 cited in Fischer, 2012, p. 222). Its capacity to generate an "all-inclusive experience of Australian multicultural togetherness" (Fischer, 2012, p. 226) where once it had been the jealously guarded domain of the white Anglo Saxon male is indicative of the malleability that in part explains its enduring fascination (Seal, 2011). Later experiences of war, even the brutal campaigns against the Japanese and the suffering of Australian prisoners of war, were seamlessly integrated into the broader Anzac narrative.
Celebrating school remembrance days “rebooted”
Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Acta Politica, 2020
Historical remembrance days and related celebrations are part of a culture of remembrance and are characterized by processes such as the typical use of language in speeches or songs (Huszár, Prikler, forthcoming), and possibly the inclusion of tools reflecting the historical age or nature of remembrance, such as wreaths, flags, etc. Participation in such events is also a form of socialization, especially when it takes place at school and is planned, organized, and conducted by teachers together with the children. In socialist Hungary, by all means school celebrations had to symbolize the unity of the Hungarian people under the leadership of the Hungarian Socialist Party. This purpose was achieved with the use of individual symbols, such as perhaps the most prominent red tie of the schoolchildren pioneers and the blue tie of the so-called "little drummers". The celebrations followed a unified scenario, leaving little room for creativity in both the organization and the program. After the change of regime, public holidays celebrated in school also changed. Hereunder, the authors put forward a hypothesis that, following new research findings in pedagogy and child psychology, as well as the changes in subject didactics, a new process has been launched, intended to make school festivities national memorial days. Answers to the research questions concerning how exactly this celebration takes place, how children feel about the program, how educators convey the meaning of the historical event to the children, are the empirical matter of this paper. In the following, first an introduction of the historical memorial days as part of political culture will be presented, based on an empirical survey that is not representative but, according to the authors, attempts to demonstrate the change celebrations of national days underwent during the past decades. The research was conducted in the primary school age Acta Politica Polonica Ágnes Klein, Éva Szederkényi group, and the students' knowledge and awareness of the historical background of a given celebration were scrutinized. Finally, the authors propose to initiate more experiential learning opportunities related to school memorial days. Obchody szkolnych dni pamięci narodowej na nowo S łowa kluc zowe: kultura polityczna, szkolne dni pamięci, upamiętnianie, tło historyczne, pedagogika empiryczna Abstrak t Dni pamięci narodowej i związane z nimi uroczystości są częścią kultury pamięci i charakteryzują się takimi procesami, jak typowe użycie języka w przemówieniach lub pieśniach (Huszár, Prikler, w druku), a także ewentualnie włączenie narzędzi odzwierciedlających okres historyczny lub charakter pamięci, takich jak wieńce, flagi itp. Uczestnictwo w nich jest również formą socjalizacji, zwłaszcza gdy odbywa się w szkole i jest planowane, organizowane i prowadzone przez nauczycieli wspólnie z dziećmi. W socjalistycznych Węgrzech uroczystości szkolne musiały symbolizować jedność narodu węgierskiego pod przewodnictwem Węgierskiej Partii Socjalistycznej. Temu celowi służyły indywidualne symbole, takie jak czerwony krawat dla pionierów szkolnych i niebieski dla tak zwanych "małych doboszy". Uroczystości odbywały się według jednolitego scenariusza, pozostawiając niewiele miejsca na kreatywność zarówno w organizacji, jak i w programie. Po zmianie reżimu zmieniły się również święta szkolne. Poniżej autorki stawiają hipotezę, że w związku z nowymi wynikami badań z zakresu pedagogiki i psychologii dziecięcej oraz zmianami w dydaktyce przedmiotów, rozpoczął się nowy proces wprowadzania świąt szkolnych jako dni pamięci narodowej. Postawienie pytań badawczych, jak dokładnie wygląda to święto, jak dzieci czują się z tym programem, jak pedagodzy przekazują dzieciom znaczenie tego historycznego wydarzenia, jest empirycznym przypadkiem tego artykułu. W dalszej części artykułu najpierw zostanie przedstawione wprowadzenie na temat dni pamięci narodowej jako części kultury politycznej, za pomocą badania empirycznego, które nie jest reprezentatywne, ale autorki starają się pokazać zmiany, jakie w obchodach dni narodowych dokonały się w ostatnich dziesięcioleciach. Badania przeprowadzono w szkole podstawowej, a także sprawdzono wiedzę i świadomość uczniów na temat historycznego podłoża danego święta. Autorzy proponują zainicjowanie bardziej empirycznych sposobów uczenia się związanych ze szkolnymi dniami pamięci. Celebrations of national remembrance as part of political culture People try to process and understand in their own way the events that affected them, their families, their parents, their grandparents, and that were engraved in their memory. Different memories can be associated with the same event, whether they be linked to an individual, or related to families, locals, etc. The question arises what memories do we want to preserve and pass on to the next generation? Luciana Benincasa writes that remembering cannot be conceived apart from forgetting since the individual level of life involves "selective forgetting" (Benincasa, 2006, p. 16). Although memories exist in human mind, it is up to each social formation to decide which nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted"
Editorial: Commemoration, Memory and Remembrance in the History of Education
History of Education, 2017
This introductory essay to the 2017 Virtual Special Issue of History of Education, focused on 'Commemoration, Memory and Remembrance in History of Education' discusses the ways in which the topics of commemoration, memory and anniversaries have been approached by historians of education over the last thirty years.
2015
This symposium examines how the centenary of the First World War has been marked in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Given their distinctive national historical experiences and political cultures, the metanarratives of the war in these countries differ; as does the relationship between the state and sub-state actors in memory making. However, in each case the commemorations of the war have been shaped by a negotiation between the state and other agents of memory at the sub-state level. National memory has also been consciously projected into international relations, through carefully orchestrated anniversary ceremonies and performative memorial diplomacy. But, despite these transnational commemorative practices, the centenary of the war remains predominantly framed within local and national imaginings
This chapter uses non-representational theory to examine the way in which the popular memory of the Great War (1914-1918) in contemporary Britain is an emotional engagement formed through a process of ‘witnessing’ the past. This mode of public connection with the conflict has been criticised by some scholars for its reliance on representations in the media. However, such assessments obscure the emotive bond with the war’s remembrance that has been formed from the cessation of hostilities to the present day. In the aftermath of the Great War, vast cemeteries and imposing monuments were built across the former battlefields; this commemorative landscape was replicated across Britain, as cities, towns and villages saw the erection of local memorials. National sites of memory at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey were also constructed as a response to the scale of death. These sites of remembrance became significant for the bereaved as places of pilgrimage whilst national commemorative activities imbued these locales with meaning for wider society. A century after the outbreak of the war, these spaces of memory remain central in the recollection of the war dead. However, with the passing of the last of the veterans, the conflict is now removed from ‘living memory’ and alternative spaces of remembrance have been formed for contemporary society.
Education as site of memory: developing a research agenda
International Studies in Sociology of Education
The field of memory studies tends to focus attention on the '3Ms'museums, monuments, memorialsas sites where memories are constructed, communicated, and contested. Where education is identified as a site for memory, the focus is often narrowly on what is or is not communicated within curricula or textbooks, assuming that schools simply pass on messages agreed or struggled over elsewhere. This article explores the possibilities opened when educative processes are not taken as stable and authoritative sites for transmitting historical narratives, but instead as spaces of contestation, negotiation and cultural production. With a focus on 'difficult histories' of recent conflict and historical injustice, we develop a research agenda for education as a site of memory and show how this can illuminate struggles over dominant historical narratives at various scales, highlighting agencies that educational actors bring to making sense of the past.
From Collective Memory to Commemoration
To have "memory" of an event, humans have to experience it themselves. Learning of an event secondhand, humans acquire knowledge, but not memory. Yet, when sociologists speak of "collective memory," they routinely include as agents of memory those who do not have firsthand experience of a past event. This inclusion has been taken for granted ever since Maurice Halbwachs (1992) formulated his Durkheimian theory of the relationship between collective memory and commemoration in terms of group solidarity and identity: collective memory emerges when those without firsthand experience of an event identify with those who have such experience, defining both sets of actors as sharing membership in the same social group. The creation of this affect-laden, first-person orientation to a past event is at the crux of commemoration-simply put, a ritual that transforms "historical knowledge" into "collective memory" consisting of mnemonic schemas and objects that define meaning of a past event as a locus of collective identity. According to Halbwachs's formulation, commemoration is a vehicle of collective memory.