CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

From its very beginning, history education in Argentina has been influenced by state policies aimed at constructing a national identity, based on an imagined homogeneity that has invisibilized the countries' diverse population. Through the national saga, disseminated in schools, a national identity rooted first in spanish colonialism and later on in the massive immigration from europe has been constructed. Even though in the 1980's and onwards educational policies have aimed at a progressive visibilization of the historical and actual ethnic-cultural diversity, which has also had some effect on the textbooks, a master narrative persists in constructing a national identity that excludes the territories' indigenous people, afrodescendents and non-european migrant population. This paper reports on a recent analysis of high school history textbooks, demonstrating a national saga in which afrodescendents are absent or merely used to illustrate the historical scenery and the indigenous people are « others » that were murdered or marginalized in the course of the countries' modernization. The immigration from Europe is described in terms of an enormous demographic impact, fundamental for the countries' economic development. The national saga is sustained by the maps used in the textbooks, communicating a rather stable notion of the national territory. Ongoing research among students who've finished their high school history education, indicates that the national saga, the homogeneous national identity it implies and the stable notion of the national territory it involves, also predominates their views on Argentine history. How history education might contribute to more inclusive stories and notions of national identity, as well as more flexible notions of national boundaries will be discussed.