Advanced Training Course

Eurocentrism, Racism and Education: History Legacies and Challenges

February 4 and 5, 2011

Seminar Room (2nd Floor), CES-Coimbra

Presentation

Eurocentrism has often been interpreted as a simple located (ethnocentric) perspective and, as such, naturalized, i. e. societies and, in particular, their elites, build History from their own point of view, favouring a nationalist approach. Furthermore, the discussion about eurocentrism in History has been determined as a challenge posed to "increasingly multicultural" societies with a recent past of "excessive nationalism". Both approaches are based on assumptions and positivist solutions - which require compensation, adding perspectives from "other" cultures, or correction, removing the excess from the national. These approaches are incapable of questioning eurocentrism as a representation system that legitimates certain political agencies and legacies while censoring others in History production. This is obvious in the (in)visibility of "race" and racism in History textbooks and historical narratives in general: racism is trivialized as a source of contemporary multiculturalism or it is naturalized as a unique process of the past times. Thus, in this training course, we intend to question these concepts and approaches, taking education as the privileged field of analysis.


Program


February 4th

10.00- Presentation - Marta Araújo (CES)

10.30- Eurocentrism and History production - Silvia R. Maeso (CES)

11.15- The implementation of the Law no. 10.639/03 in basic education: advances and limitations in anti-racist education in Brazil - Nilma L. Gomes (UFMG)

12.00- Debate (30 mins)

Lunch Break

14.30- Racial identity in history textbooks of Mexican Secondary Education - Dolores Ballesteros (Tecnológico de Monterrey/Universidad del País Vasco)

15h15- Ideology and values in the textbooks from Portuguese First Republic - Augusto Monteiro (CEIS20)

16h00- Working black and white: emancipatory movements in Portuguese textbooks- Maria Paula Meneses (CES)

16h45- Debate (45 mins)

 

February 5th

10.30- ‘Subject review’: slavery and "race" in contemporary history textbooks in Portugal - Marta Araújo (CES)

11.15- (Re-)editing history: media, eurocentrism and racism - Ana Rita Alves (CES)

12.00- Debate (30 mins)

Lunch Break

14.30- Screening of the Documentary film ‘Raza’ (directed by Eric Corvalán, Cuba, 2008, 35 mins)

15.30- Round-table

Maomede Cabrá (Headmaster of the Secondary School with 3rd B.E.C. Cristina Torres).
Mariana Lagarto dos Santos (FLUC Doctoral Student and CEIS20 Associate Researcher)
Pedro Cativelos (Journalist and Anchor of the TV Show NÓS - RTP)
Ana Cruz (SOS Racismo)

Chair: José João Lucas (CES Associate Researcher and History Teacher at Basic School of Mealhada)

17.30 - End