Analysing the dominant discourses on the Holocaust in grade 9 South African history textbooks

The Holocaust has become a focal point in many History classrooms in recent years as a direct result of linking the teaching of the Holocaust with Human Rights Education. Whilst there may be many studies on the Holocaust as a historical event, this study has analysed how the Holocaust has been embedded as a narrative in the Grade 9 GET South African History textbooks and which dominant discourses emerge from this. This research is phenomenological in nature and was situated within an interpretivist paradigm. I employed Narrative Inquiry and Fairclough's three dimensions of discourse as the analysis methodologies. The analysis was completed through an instrument in which the various aspects that aid in the construction of a narrative were interrogated. The study concluded that the Holocaust has a deeply-rooted link to education and the History curriculum in South Africa, as there has been a shift in ideological thinking emanating from western consciousness and finding a place in African consciousness due to the former's prevalence globally. The focus of the narrative of the Holocaust ‒as seen in the four selected Grade 9 GET History textbooks which constituted the sample for this study ‒ has shifted from a purely historical perspective to a perspective which is more social in nature. (By the author)