Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
type: channel
description: Yesterday & Today is a national accredited and open–access journal for research in especially the fields of History Education, History in Education, and the History of Education and where research related findings are applied to improve the scholarly knowledge in these fields. With the University of Pretoria as custodian, this Journal is edited and published under the auspices of the Department of Humanities Education, the Faculty of Education, the University of Pretoria in South Africa in conjunction with The South African Society for History Teaching (SASHT). The objective of the journal is to publish research in the fields of History Education, History in Education, and the History of Education and where research related findings are applied to improve the scholarly knowledge in these fields. The primary area of interest is History Education, History in Education, and the History of Education in a South African and African context. However, research regarding international trends from outside Africa are also accommodated. The journal was started to encourage the development of history as a school subject and aims to involve historians, methodologists, educationists, history teachers and learners. The title was originally Historia Junior (South Africa) (1956–1980). As from 1981, the journal was known as Gister en Vandag: Tydskrif vir Geskiedenisonderrig. In 2006 the journal changed its name to Yesterday&Today. Articles are published in English. The journal is published biannually in July and December. The abbreviated key title is Yesterday Today. The websites of the Journal are: (http://www.sashtw.org.za follow the “publications link”), http://www.scielo.org.za/yesterday&today and http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/5126) and the https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today website.
publisher: University of Pretoria
language: en
publication name: Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
issn: 2223-0386
items: Editorial
items: History for beginners
items: 6th Ahe-Afrika History Education Conference
items: The 39th South African Society for History Teaching (SASHT) Conference 10-11 October 2025
items: https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/article/view/6933
items: Discomfort as a pedagogical mirror – views of a HISTORY teacher
items: The impact of employing various pedagogical strategies to enhance the quality of learning and teaching of history in the further education and training phase
items: Leveraging historical infrastructure to teach economic geography in South Africa
items: Representations of colonial ideologies in textbooks for history: A case of Northern Rhodesia from 1925-1963
items: The pedagogical potential of virtual reality head-mounted displays in the training of pre-service history teachers to promote self-directed learning
items: The Lingering Coloniality of Knowledge: Challenges to Decolonising South African Universities
items: By the Way, Who is Cranford Pratt? Questioning Active and Symbolic Monumentalisation of the University of Dar es Salaam
items: Decolonising and Africanising Curriculum Knowledge: The Utility of the Music of Bob Marley, Fela Kuti and Tupac Shakur in Teaching Decoloniality in African Universities
items: Decolonising Pedagogies for Values Inculcation in Secondary School History Teaching in Zimbabwe
items: Conceptualisation of Decolonisation by Secondary School Teachers of History in Lusaka District of Zambia
items: Centring African Vocabularies & Terminologies in Representing the Past: Insights from South African School History Textbooks
items: The Significance of Environmental History in South Africa’s School History Curriculum within a VUCA Context
items: Weaving Together a Tapestry of Historical Knowledge in the Post-apartheid School History Curriculum: The Case of Palesa Beverley Ditsie
items: Black Historians, Historiography, and History Education in the Era of #RhodesMustFall
items: https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/article/view/6383
items: History Classrooms across the World
items: Teachers and the Epistemology of History
items: Critical Thinking Skills for Students: Curriculum and Practice in Higher Education
items: Physical Education and Physical Culture in South Africa, 1837–1966
items: The Bams of Grasslands Farm, A Family History
items: Going Dutch
items: ‘Greening History Teaching’:
items: Peripheralisation of some histories in the school history curriculum in the post-apartheid South Africa:
items: Reconceptualising Africanising, and its positioning in history teaching and learning through regional and microspatial-planned programmes

Editorial
type: item
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
creator: Johan Wassermann
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 9
ending page: 11
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a1

History for beginners
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Amogelang Mogotsi
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 211
ending page: 214
doi: 10.17159/2025/n35a13

6th Ahe-Afrika History Education Conference
type: item
subject: Conference notes
  topic: section
creator: Tasleemah Hazarvi
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 209
ending page: 210
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a12

The 39th South African Society for History Teaching (SASHT) Conference 10-11 October 2025
type: item
subject: Conference notes
  topic: section
creator: Kirstin Kukard
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 206
ending page: 208
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a11

https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/article/view/6933
type: item
title: ‘The past is not the past, it is present’: illustrative case studies – intentionally historicising geopolitics in the history classroom through storytelling, thereby facilitating the process of ‘connecting the dots’ over time and space
subject: Hands-on Articles
  topic: section
creator: G Brookbanks
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 195
ending page: 205
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a10

Discomfort as a pedagogical mirror – views of a HISTORY teacher
type: item
subject: Hands-on Articles
  topic: section
creator: María Kapp
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 191
ending page: 194
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a9

The impact of employing various pedagogical strategies to enhance the quality of learning and teaching of history in the further education and training phase
type: item
description: The use of interactive, learner-centred and active learning strategies facilitates the teaching of history in the twenty-first century. Anchored in the conversation theory, which aligns with the social constructivist framework, the study aims to examine the impact of employing different innovative pedagogical strategies and practices used by history teachers as vehicles to enhance and promote quality learning and teaching in history classrooms. A shift from traditional instructional teaching has given way to emerging strategies that aim to produce critical and independent thinkers who can apply historical knowledge in diverse contexts. The basis of the analysis is on various strategies, including direct instruction, discussion, small-group work, cooperative learning, problem-solving, inquiry, case studies, role-playing and writing as teaching methods. The focus of history learning and teaching is on inculcating problem-solving skills in the learners. Content analysis of books, policy documents, dissertations, theses and journal articles as well as some records retrieved from the Internet, was employed to generate data using a qualitative research approach. The results show that history teachers, as required by history curricula, have gradually shifted from using age-old teaching strategies to emerging learner-centred methods, reflecting a shift from rote-learning to learning with understanding. It is recommended that learner centred teaching strategies be employed to enhance learner performance and improve the quality of learning and teaching in the history subject.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Conversation theory
  topic: keywords
subject: curriculum and assessment policy statement
  topic: keywords
subject: historical enquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: learner-centred strategies
  topic: keywords
subject: innovative pedagogical strategies
  topic: keywords
subject: quality learning and teaching
  topic: keywords
creator: Jongikhaya Mvenene
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 170
ending page: 190
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a8

Leveraging historical infrastructure to teach economic geography in South Africa
type: item
description: This study investigates the enduring spatio-economic legacies of colonial infrastructure, specifically ports, railways, power grids and leveraging history approaches employed in shaping the economic geography of modern South Africa. It posits that the country’s contemporary economic geography is indelibly shaped by an intentionally engineered spatial logic, designed to facilitate resource extraction and imperial trade rather than foster integrated national development. The implication of this inherited landscape remains a significant gap in secondary and tertiary education, resulting in a pedagogical shortfall that limits the development of spatial literacy and historical consciousness among students and learners. Grounded in Dependency Theory, this research employs a systematic literature review methodology, synthesising evidence from archival records, colonial maps, policy documents and curriculum frameworks. The findings systematically demonstrate that colonial infrastructure was a pivotal instrument of spatial governance. It established a durable core-periphery hierarchy, strategically concentrating economic advantage in coastal urban enclaves like Durban and Cape Town to serve settler-colonial and imperial interests, while systematically dispossessing and excluding Black communities in the interior, thereby institutionalizing racialised spatial inequality. Hence, addressing this historical amnesia in the classroom is a scholarly and civic imperative. Thus, a transformative pedagogical framework is recommended, urging educators to integrate critical cartography, historical Geography Information System (GIS), and place-based inquiry in the teaching of economic geography. This approach aims to foster a critical spatial literacy by equipping students to deconstruct the political origins of their built environment, essential for dismantling and reimagining the persistent structures of spatial injustice in post-apartheid South Africa.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Colonialism
  topic: keywords
subject: history pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: economic geography
  topic: keywords
subject: geoinformation technologies
  topic: keywords
subject: spatial inequality
  topic: keywords
subject: transport networks
  topic: keywords
creator: Raymond Nkwenti Fru
creator: Tolulope Ayodeji Olatoye
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 119
ending page: 149
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a6

Representations of colonial ideologies in textbooks for history: A case of Northern Rhodesia from 1925-1963
type: item
description: The continent of Africa began to experience colonialism by European countries such as Britain, France, Portugal and Germany after the ‘Scramble for Africa’ that took place in Europe in 1885. Notably, these colonial governments had different administrative policies in their colonies. For instance, the policies of the British were different from those of the French, Portuguese and German. This study explored the representations of colonialism in textbooks for history that were used in Northern Rhodesia (modern day Zambia) at primary and secondary school level from 1940-1963. Postcolonial theory was used as a lens to understand the representations of colonial ideologies in textbooks that were used in the colonial period. The study used a qualitative approach and textbooks were used for document analysis. Eight history textbooks were conveniently selected and analysed using content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the content taught in the colonial period was Eurocentric and mainly focused on the British Empire, European history, and the achievements of the Empire. This paper could contribute to debates on the decolonisation of education in Zambia.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Colonialism
  topic: keywords
subject: history
  topic: keywords
subject: ideology
  topic: keywords
subject: Northern Rhodesia
  topic: keywords
subject: representations
  topic: keywords
subject: textbooks
  topic: keywords
creator: Yvonne Malambo Kabombwe
creator: Alfred Masinire
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 95
ending page: 118
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a5

The pedagogical potential of virtual reality head-mounted displays in the training of pre-service history teachers to promote self-directed learning
type: item
description: The arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as well as the required and accompanying twenty-first century skills has led the educational system towards a position wherein significant methodological and pedagogical intervention is required in order to modernise the system to better accommodate the needs of the twenty-first century learner. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as Virtual Reality (VR) and its associated technologies, like Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs), have the potential to enhance the teaching and learning experiences of pre-service history teachers in virtual learning environments (VLEs). This article seeks to explore the pedagogical potential of VR-HMDs as ICT tools in the training of pre-service history teachers by affording them opportunities to engage with subject matter in VLEs such as a virtual Holocaust Museum, a WW II battle re-enactment and the Pearl Harbour attack. Concurrently, the paper sought to determine if VLEs could promote pre-service history teachers’ self-directed learning (SDL) skills through the allowance of these experience-based learning opportunities. The research for this study was conducted at a tertiary education institution within a classroom environment where pre-service history teachers made use of VR-HMDs to achieve specific history lesson objectives. Grounded in constructive and interpretive paradigms, the research further employed a single exploratory qualitative case study design with nonprobability purposive sampling and discourse analysis. To a lesser extent, quantitative data was also used, complementary to the qualitative data, in order to better understand the phenomena under investigation. Various data collection instruments, including questionnaires, worksheets, focus group interviews, and field notes, were used to gather data from the 15 pre-service history teachers as participants. The findings indicated that VR-HMDs and VLEs hold a significant positive potential for the teaching …
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Virtual reality (VR)
  topic: keywords
subject: virtual reality head mounted displays (VR-HMDs)
  topic: keywords
subject: virtual learning environments (VLEs)
  topic: keywords
subject: self-directed learning (SDL)
  topic: keywords
subject: pre-service history teachers
  topic: keywords
subject: history teaching and learning
  topic: keywords
creator: Juan-Carlo Homan
creator: Pieter Warnich
creator: Christo van der Westhuizen
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-12-29
publication date: 2025-12-29
starting page: 64
ending page: 94
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n35a4

Editorial
type: item
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
creator: Paul Maluleka
creator: Sarah Godsell
creator: Mohau Soldaat
creator: Paul Hendricks
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 7
ending page: 10
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a1

The Lingering Coloniality of Knowledge: Challenges to Decolonising South African Universities
type: item
description: Despite South Africa’s democratic transformation, colonial epistemic frameworks continue to dominate university curricula, impeding decolonisation and Africanisation efforts. This paper examines the persistence of these colonial knowledge systems within higher education, drawing on the #FeesMustFall movement as a critical juncture that exposed fundamental inequities in knowledge production. Situated within the history of education, this work interrogates the historical, sociological, and philosophical dimensions of teaching and learning through a decolonial theoretical lens. Using qualitative methodology, the research investigates institutional cultures and pedagogical practices across South African universities. The cases of Lwazi Lushaba and Pedro Mzileni contextualise the movement’s origins and significance for international audiences. Findings reveal enduring colonial legacies manifested through Western ideological dominance across disciplines, including history, sociology, development, and literature, perpetuating systemic and epistemic injustices. The research identifies specific forms of institutional resistance to decolonisation: the maintenance of Eurocentric curricula, pedagogical approaches disconnected from Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and historical disparities in educational access. The study demonstrates that Africanisation can foster intellectual sovereignty, cultural pride, critical consciousness, and ontological density among academics and students. However, entrenched institutional practices and Western epistemologies continue to hinder meaningful curricular reform. This work underscores the need for a (re)evaluation of higher education curricula to achieve epistemic justice and authentic decolonisation. The findings contribute to broader discussions on post-colonial education reform and knowledge production in the Global South.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Decolonisation
  topic: keywords
subject: Africanisation
  topic: keywords
subject: #FeesMustFall
  topic: keywords
subject: Curriculum Reform
  topic: keywords
subject: Lwazi Lushaba
  topic: keywords
subject: Pedro Mzileni
  topic: keywords
subject: Epistemic Justice
  topic: keywords
creator: Kgomotso Jackson Phillip Sebola-Samanyanga
creator: Hellen Zanele Nkosi
creator: Keown Peter
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 203
ending page: 223
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a11

By the Way, Who is Cranford Pratt? Questioning Active and Symbolic Monumentalisation of the University of Dar es Salaam
type: item
description: Considering the ongoing debates regarding the relevance of white supremacy in African public spaces and institutions, the presence of the name ‘Cranford Pratt’ on the monumental Utawala building at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), inaugurated in 2011, is striking. Few are familiar with Pratt’s legacy. This monument, however, holds significance in addressing contemporary critiques of the commemoration of whiteness in African academic institutions, a debate intensified by the University of Cape Town’s ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ movement. The perpetuation of whiteness within academic spaces often carries an implicit assertion of supremacy when left unchallenged. In institutions that have made strides toward decolonising curricula, history education, and promoting gender inclusivity, the continued veneration of colonial figures represents a form of epistemicide. This paper employs observation and a review of existing literature to advocate for an ‘idiosyncratic demonumentalisation’ process that critically engages both the intrinsic and extrinsic values of monumental heritage, challenging the unquestioned preservation of colonial legacies in history education. On one hand, the paper emphasises the role of monuments in shaping historical narratives and the importance of critically examining their messages in the context of ongoing debates about decolonisation and the role of history education. On the other hand, the paper focuses on the broader impact of colonial legacies on history education and the need to decolonise curricula, teaching practices, and the university space at large.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Decolonisation
  topic: keywords
subject: Monument
  topic: keywords
subject: Heritage
  topic: keywords
subject: Whiteness
  topic: keywords
subject: Epistemicide
  topic: keywords
creator: Nancy Alexander Rushohora
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 187
ending page: 202
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a10

Decolonising and Africanising Curriculum Knowledge: The Utility of the Music of Bob Marley, Fela Kuti and Tupac Shakur in Teaching Decoloniality in African Universities
type: item
description: The focus of this paper is to examine the practical use of music in university teaching. Music has been seen as a useful tool in communicating certain messages in society. The main aim of this research is to examine and assess the utility of the music of Bob Marley, Fela Kuti and Tupac Shakur in teaching decoloniality in African universities. Using the ideas on decoloniality by Chinua Achebe (1983), we explore how the messages encapsulated in the song called ‘Redemption Song’ by Bob Marley, ‘Teacher don’t teach me nonsense’ by Fela Kuti and ‘Changes’ by Tupac Shakur may help in teaching decoloniality in African universities. Drawing on qualitative research, content analysis was used to get a systematic and objective approach to analysing texts, images and videos of the songs of the selected artists. An analysis of the selected songs reveals that the revolutionary and liberatory undertones in the selected songs can inform teaching decoloniality in African universities and beyond.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Decoloniality
  topic: keywords
subject: Coloniality
  topic: keywords
subject: Africanising
  topic: keywords
subject: Curriculum
  topic: keywords
subject: Bob Marley
  topic: keywords
subject: Fela Kuti
  topic: keywords
subject: Tupac Shakur
  topic: keywords
creator: Tawanda Ray Bvirindi
creator: Calisto Chafadza
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 164
ending page: 186
doi: 10.17159/10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a8

Decolonising Pedagogies for Values Inculcation in Secondary School History Teaching in Zimbabwe
type: item
description: Values inculcation is one of the principal goals of the secondary school history curriculum in Africa generally and Zimbabwe in particular. The development of values in secondary school history education is essential to promote cultural awareness, influence the development of sound character dispositions and to shape the identity of learners. Thus, teaching history should develop values which are a cornerstone of the way of life of concerned societies. However, some African values have been rendered insignificant by Eurocentric historiography. This necessitates pedagogical approaches that expose learners to enriching learning experiences where they can openly and critically engage with historical concepts and challenge the skewed Western discourses and perspectives on African experiences and civilisations. This will empower history learners to reach a consciousness of societal values through making informed inferences on the experiences of both past and present societies. Using a critical pedagogy as a lens, this paper explores pedagogies that can be instrumental to promote values inculcation grounded on the decolonial perspective. A qualitative approach was employed to review secondary research on service learning, structured academic controversy, Indigenous games and folktales which are some of the teaching methods that are recommended by scholarship as having potential to foster values inculcation. Scholarship on debates on history education are reviewed to enable this paper to provide insights on how the mentioned teaching methods can promote a culturally responsive approach to values inculcation. Overall, the authors endeavour to advance an argument that pedagogy for values inculcation in the teaching and learning of history should speak to the lived experiences of learners to realise values internalisation.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Values
  topic: keywords
subject: Values inculcation
  topic: keywords
subject: Secondary school history curriculum
  topic: keywords
subject: Pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: Culturally responsive approach
  topic: keywords
subject: Decolonial perspective
  topic: keywords
creator: Hlengiwe Ncube
creator: Valencia Tshinompheni Mabalane
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 144
ending page: 163
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a9

Conceptualisation of Decolonisation by Secondary School Teachers of History in Lusaka District of Zambia
type: item
description: Decolonisation of the curriculum has been an important topic in Africa since the 1960s, however, most literature focuses on the content of the curriculum, rather than the role-players who enact it. Teachers play a significant role in the development and implementation of the curriculum, therefore, their conceptualisations of decolonisation will have an important impact on how the decolonisation process eventually unfolds. This study sets out to explore the conception of decolonisation of selected history teachers in relation to the teaching and learning of history in Zambia. The study is anchored in a decolonial perspective by Wa Thiongo (1986) Ndlovu Gatsheni (2019), Mignolo (2007), and Maldonado-Torres (2017) which proceeds from the position of regarding continued decolonisation in the curriculum, and thinking about potential ideas of decolonisation linked to it. The study used a qualitative approach and a case study design. Ten teachers from the Lusaka district were purposively selected and interviewed to determine how they conceptualised decolonisation in the Zambian history curriculum. The data collected from the interviews was analysed thematically. The study found that teacher’s conceptualisation of decolonisation regarding teaching and learning of history included inclusions of neglected histories and knowledge, emphasis on local heroes, aligning to the curriculum to local needs and realities and promoting national identity and values. Thus, the current study concluded that the teachers of history had different understandings of decolonisation and ideas of its application to the history curriculum. This study could inform the teacher education programmes in higher education and decolonising of the school history.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Decolonisation
  topic: keywords
subject: Education
  topic: keywords
subject: School History Curriculum
  topic: keywords
subject: Teachers and Zambia
  topic: keywords
creator: Yvonne Malambo Kabombwe
creator: Sarah Godsell
creator: Alfred Masinire
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 119
ending page: 143
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a7

Centring African Vocabularies & Terminologies in Representing the Past: Insights from South African School History Textbooks
type: item
description: Historical representation, especially in school history textbooks within the African diaspora and other settler-colonial societies, has been shaped by settler grammar. In detail, settler grammar in history refers to how historical narratives are constructed, often relying heavily on colonial languages. These languages influence narratives that uphold colonial perspectives of history. As a result, African ways of knowing and representing their past become marginalised or erased. Along with these colonial languages come colonial vocabularies and terminologies, which play a central role in defining and categorising the world through Eurocentric viewpoints. In the South African context, the writing of history textbooks has been influenced by English vocabularies and terminologies. Through a critical discourse analysis of three selected history textbooks, this paper explores how the development of post-apartheid history textbooks continues to be shaped by settler grammar. Using decolonial theory, the paper argues that it is essential to prioritise African vocabularies and terminologies when constructing African historical narratives. It further contends that historical narratives engaging with colonial discourses should avoid the use of passive language, as it tends to obscure, sanitise, and romanticise the violence inherent in colonialism. The findings show that, because the English language has been universalised and depends on Eurocentric worldviews, it cannot fully capture the nuances, core meanings and deep cultural aspects embedded in African vocabularies and terms when representing their history.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Indigenous
  topic: keywords
subject: Representation
  topic: keywords
subject: History
  topic: keywords
subject: African
  topic: keywords
subject: Textbooks
  topic: keywords
subject: Coloniality
  topic: keywords
creator: Bongani Shabangu
creator: Kabelo Noosi
creator: Ogodiseng Joseph Mokakale
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 93
ending page: 118
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a6

The Significance of Environmental History in South Africa’s School History Curriculum within a VUCA Context
type: item
description: Environmental history investigates the interactions between humans and the natural environment over a specific period, exploring how these relationships have shaped ecological systems and human societies. The relationship between nature and humanity is analogous to a tapestry woven thread by thread, emphasising the importance of the depth of the connection between the two. The scholarly neglect of environmental history in the history Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is increasingly difficult to justify and understand in the face of global land, ecological and climate crises. The history curriculum commits itself to ensuring environmental justice. At the same time, it excludes history which is necessary for achieving this environmental justice, and there are also pressing environmental issues that require immediate attention. This conceptual paper employs a critical inquiry approach to examine the absence of environmental history in the history CAPS and argues for its inclusion in this curriculum. The paper aims to critically interrogate the epistemic exclusions within the CAPS history curriculum and proposes integrating environmental history as a pathway to curricular justice. Using the decolonial and rhizomatic approaches as theoretical frameworks, the argument is developed through conceptual analysis of curriculum policy documents and the broader historical context of epistemic exclusion in the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous (VUCA) world. Environmental history offers learners critical tools to understand the intersection of humans and nature, from colonial land dispossession to contemporary environmental issues. Therefore, this paper argues for including environmental history to promote epistemic, social and environmental justice. Its inclusion will equip learners to critically reflect on the evolving relationship between human societies and the natural environment, fostering environmental consciousness and contextual historical understanding…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Environmental education
  topic: keywords
subject: Environmental history
  topic: keywords
subject: School history curriculum
  topic: keywords
subject: VUCA world
  topic: keywords
subject: CAPS
  topic: keywords
creator: Patrick Alpheous Nyathi
creator: Nokuthula Diborah Nkosi
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 68
ending page: 92
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a5

Weaving Together a Tapestry of Historical Knowledge in the Post-apartheid School History Curriculum: The Case of Palesa Beverley Ditsie
type: item
description: In this article, we investigate the exclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) experiences, contributions and narratives in the post-apartheid South African school history curriculum. We position the historical contributions of Palesa Beverley Ditsie, a pivotal human rights activist, freedom fighter and filmmaker who fought against apartheid and during the HIV/Aids crisis, as a critical case study of this erasure. The article is situated against the backdrop of the 2015-2016 student protests, notably the #MustFall movements, which catalysed a national reckoning with the pervasive coloniality of South African higher (and basic) education and demanded, amongst others, the radical decolonisation of curricula and the explicit inclusion of LGBTQIA+ experiences, contributions and narratives. However, despite students’ calls for epistemic and ontological justice, the contributions of Ditsie and her contemporaries, such as Tseko Simon Nkoli, remain peripherised. Employing decolonial queer theory and the metaphor of knowledge as a tapestry of the theoretical orientations, and using critical discourse analysis as the methodology, we make a direct appeal to the History Ministerial Task Team (HMTT) (Department of Basic Education [DBE], 2015, 2018), by arguing that the project of Africanising (and by extension: decolonising) the school history curriculum must be expanded to urgently include, rehistoricise and recentre Ditsie’s experiences, as well as her contributions to the fight against apartheid and her contributions to the country’s constitutional democracy. Such an inclusion, we argue, is fundamental to weaving a more complete tapestry of historical knowledge, enabling history educators and their learners to challenge the heteronormativity of traditional history writing and fostering a truly intersectional understanding of the struggle for liberation and human rights in South Africa.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: History Ministerial Task Team
  topic: keywords
subject: Palesa Beverley Ditsie
  topic: keywords
subject: School history
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subject: Queer histories
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creator: Paul Maluleka
creator: Mohau Soldaat
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 31
ending page: 48
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a4

Black Historians, Historiography, and History Education in the Era of #RhodesMustFall
type: item
description: Black historians have played a role in South African historiography and their role has been woefully neglected. This paper attempts to reappraise the work and effort of black scholars whose works have contributed to South African historiography in the context of history education in the high school curriculum. Much of their work has not filtered into the CAPS curriculum and the history education curriculum. Through the works of Black historians, we can gain a decolonial reading and understanding from the local context and understand that there is a historical scholarly tradition which goes back to the 1920s. This paper links Black historians’ work to historiography, history education and the #RhodesMustFall movement. The #FeesMustFall movement and the generation involved called for a decolonised curriculum, and this paper, attempts to contribute to that discourse. Through looking at the works of scholars such as Molema, Fuze, Jabavu, Magubane, Mohlamme and Keto, the paper seeks to link these authors’ work to the high school history curriculum. These Black writers and historians were chosen because many of them were pioneers in writing about South African history and society, and their work is important as part of South African history and historiography. The literature review focuses on works surrounding curriculum transformation, and a decolonised curriculum centred on the #RhodesMustFall movement. This paper uses a narrative review framework as part of its methodology and data analysis. The works of these scholars were chosen because they are book-based, and because they were mostly printed for publication, which makes them accessible to some extent. This paper engages with the work and contributions of Black historians and makes several findings: (1) Representation matters in scholarship; (2) Part of decolonising history is changing the racialised discourse of historiography; (3) Black historians have made contributions to studies on colonialism, ethnicity, educa…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Historiography
  topic: keywords
subject: Black Historians
  topic: keywords
subject: History CAPS Curriculum
  topic: keywords
subject: Decolonisation
  topic: keywords
subject: Rhodes Must Fall
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subject: Africanisation
  topic: keywords
creator: Mojuta Steven Motlhamme
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-11-20
publication date: 2025-11-20
starting page: 11
ending page: 30
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n34a2

https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/article/view/6383
type: item
title: Reimaging, from a decolonised perspective, the Grade 10 intended curriculum and the start of the era of modernity - Portugal covets the gold of West Africa, sugar, and the start of enslaving black bodies
subject: Hands-on Articles
  topic: section
creator: Gordon Brookbanks
creator: Lethukukhanya Mbambo
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 196
ending page: 208
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a15

History Classrooms across the World
type: item
subject: Hands-on Articles
  topic: section
creator: Wiebe de Groot
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 193
ending page: 195
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a14

Teachers and the Epistemology of History
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Natasha Robinson
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 190
ending page: 192
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a13

Critical Thinking Skills for Students: Curriculum and Practice in Higher Education
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Franklin A. Lewis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 188
ending page: 189
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a12

Physical Education and Physical Culture in South Africa, 1837–1966
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Cherese Jones-Couto
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 185
ending page: 187
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a11

The Bams of Grasslands Farm, A Family History
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Sue Krige
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 179
ending page: 184
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a10

Going Dutch
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Hans van der Veen
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 172
ending page: 178
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a9

‘Greening History Teaching’:
type: item
description: This position paper argues for including socio-environmental history in the South African Further Education and Training (FET) history curriculum. It is premised on the fact that planet Earth is in the age of the Anthropocene, within which humans have had a dominant effect on the planet and have contributed fundamentally to climate change, which is noticeable through extreme weather events, such as erratic rainfall, floods, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires. These have led to extreme hazards, including destruction of infrastructures, large-scale migrations and loss of lives. Climate change aside, humanity is also facing problems of air and water pollution, deforestation, desertification, famine and diseases; in fact, we still have traumatic memories of the COVID-19 pandemic, which destroyed livelihoods and to date, has left more than seven million people dead worldwide. This paper is based on a desktop qualitative research method and draws from secondary and primary literature on socio-environmental history. Furthermore, it analyses the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), focussing on the FET history curriculum. The study builds on the intersectionality and all-inclusive ecologies of knowledge approach to demonstrate that socio-environmental history intersects with other history topics already part of South Africa’s CAPS FET history curriculum. The paper argues that, through the infusion of socio-environmental history content into this curriculum, history teaching will contribute more meaningfully toward learners’ understanding of the socio-environmental challenges confronting humanity in South Africa and beyond. This will provoke learners to raise questions regarding the nexus between people and nature, and interrogate how this shapes the local, regional and global environments and the results thereof, in the process, inculcating positive attitudes and values about stewardship of planet Earth.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Anthropocene
  topic: keywords
subject: Climate Change
  topic: keywords
subject: History Teaching
  topic: keywords
subject: Socio-Environmental History
  topic: keywords
subject: Stewardship
  topic: keywords
creator: Noel Ndumeya
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 122
ending page: 143
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a7

Peripheralisation of some histories in the school history curriculum in the post-apartheid South Africa:
type: item
description: Despite significant educational reforms by post-apartheid South Africa aimed at democratising and decolonising its education system, a concerning exclusion persists: Black intellectuals, particularly the 1950s Drum generation and their contributions to the liberation struggle, remain marginalised within the knowledge base of the post-apartheid school history curriculum. Using epistemic coloniality and epistemic disobedience as the first aspects of our theoretical framing, we investigated this peripheralisation. Additionally, we also used historical significance and epistemic pluriversality to frame our argument for the inclusion of the 1950s Drum generation’s contributions to the South African liberation struggle in the knowledge base of the school history curriculum, given the significant role they played. Methodologically, we employed a qualitative case study design underpinned by a critical paradigm, with critical discourse analysis as our tools of analysis. We conclude that since the 1950s were formative years for enacting and resisting colonial-apartheid policies, teaching about the 1950s Drum generation would enable both history educators and their learners to appreciate artistic, cultural, and literary contributions to the liberation struggle. This would also reveal to them that liberation was shaped not solely by political actors, but equally by cultural and literary figures who spoke truth to power.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Drum Magazine
  topic: keywords
subject: Epistemic Coloniality
  topic: keywords
subject: Epistemic Disobediance
  topic: keywords
subject: Epistemic Pluriversality
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subject: Historical Significance
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subject: HMTT
  topic: keywords
subject: School History
  topic: keywords
subject: South Africa
  topic: keywords
creator: Bongumenzi Mthethwa
creator: Paul Maluleka
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 100
ending page: 121
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a6

Reconceptualising Africanising, and its positioning in history teaching and learning through regional and microspatial-planned programmes
type: item
description: In the past 60 or more years, African scholarly debates on education touched on Africanising and decolonising teaching and learning. Africanised pedagogies should be cognisant of the necessity to sensitise twenty-first century students to diverse scholarly and community voices as they become more accessible as learning possibilities. Equally so, present-day complex contexts in which people live because of the past, requires a more intense regional conversation. With these realities in mind, the authors, both familiar with the field of regional history and seasoned in the teaching of history, engaged in a research project to concisely, yet deeply, reflect on the historiography of Africanising. Secondly, to determine whether regional, and microspatial history variations can be deployed as facilitating agencies of Africanised educational, the authors felt that it is de-ontologised from its former politically attachment. While the historiography emanated mostly from qualitative desktop research, the study that covered the Vredefort Dome region’s value for understanding some curricula topics by considering the histories ‘around us’ had been recently intensively researched for the completion of a PhD. The outcome of this research has been mostly applied as experiential examples in this revisited debate on Africanising in teaching history and the features related to it, form part of this discussion. In engaging with the literature and research conducted in an applied analytical way allows the authors to affirm the possibilities of ‘Africanising’ the teaching of history with the involvement of local communities in the recovery of their memories and for researchers to consider its possibilities in microspatial contexts as a steppingstone towards African-inspired educational thought and scholarship.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Africanising
  topic: keywords
subject: Africanizing
  topic: keywords
subject: Africanisation
  topic: keywords
subject: Africanization
  topic: keywords
subject: Regional History
  topic: keywords
subject: Microspatial history
  topic: keywords
subject: Higher Education and Training (HET) history
  topic: keywords
subject: Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for history
  topic: keywords
subject: Teaching
  topic: keywords
subject: Vredefort Dome region
  topic: keywords
creator: Knysna T. Motumi
creator: Elize S. van Eeden
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Yesterday & Today Journal for History Education in South Africa and abroad
date: 2025-08-11
publication date: 2025-08-11
starting page: 75
ending page: 99
doi: 10.17159/2223-0386/2025/n33a5