History Education in the Formation of Social Identity Toward a Culture of Peace

Despite the widespread acknowledgement that how people and groups understand their history plays a key role in the formation of their social identity, there has heretofore been only limited research on the mechanisms that bring this about. This book examines the critical points in identity formation that history education helps to create. It establishes how history curricula and textbooks shape the identities of their readers through their portrayals of borders and boundaries between social groups, their depictions of relations between minority and majority groups, the value systems they embody, the leaders they hold up as exemplars, and the stories they choose to tell. Korostelina shows how all these attributes of history curricula can be harnessed to reduce conflict attitudes and intentions and create a culture of peace, beginning with the history curriculum.

Karina V. Korostelina is Associate Professor and Director of the Program on History, Memory, and Conflict at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution of George Mason University, USA.

Introduction
1. Identity-based Approach to the Formation of Peace Culture in History Education
2. Forms of Social Identity
3. Meaning of National Identity
4. Borders: From Divisive to Inclusive Borderlines
5. Collective Axiology: From Moral Denigration to Universal Morality
6. Nation Building and National Identity Formation
Conclusion