Contents

No. 5, October 2010

Articles


Hands-on articles


Book reviews

Editorial

Technically, the former "Gister en Vandag/Yesterday and Today" journal will enter its 30th year of existence in 2011. However, officially the publication ceased to exist in 1997 as a result of insufficient funding. After a decade under the auspices of the "South African Society for History Teaching", the "old" Journal was revived into a modern-day look, and renamed as Yesterday&Today. Whereas the content of the previous publication was mainly developed from the needs within the fields of General Education and Training and Further Education and Training, the 2010 and beyond publications of Yesterday&Today has gradually shaken off its "infancy" to include articles applicable to the teaching and learning of history at all educational levels.

The main focus of Yesterday&Today's Editorial Board and Editors is to publish articles that will promote and improve the teaching of history (this includes knowledge of history and the methodology of history teaching). Although the Editorial Board will from time to time publishes articles with a contemporary or/and controversial theme, the Board’s intentions are mainly to stimulate a variety of teaching approaches or/and perspectives on the past, and not to take part in or promote debates favouring any group or individual in South Africa's history. Yesterday&Today> is only published in English, and all articles are subjected to a rigorously peer-reviewed process.

To acknowledge the large number of GET and FET educators, the Editorial Board has further decided to also include a small percentage of praxis articles in the journal, demonstrating not only an acceptable backing of knowledge but also based on ample teaching experience. These articles will be known as "Hands-on" articles. It is hoped that these articles, as well as those based on substantial research, will each in its own right equip and provide history educators with subject/discipline knowledge, the "know-how" and current research that will increase their levels of competence. Such as the efforts of the pioneers and founders of the Yesterday&Today journal, (from 1981 known as "Gister en Vandag/Yesterday and Today" and preceded by "Historia Junior" up to 1980) the 2011 Editorial Board would like to see its efforts as a team effort. Indeed a team effort to support creative and scientific research and activities pertaining to the teaching of History.

In the October 2010 edition we are including a variety of research and theoretical reflection on heritage and its practical application inside and outside the formal history teaching environment. With the new FET history textbooks in the process of being developed after the release of a Draft Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document in September 2010, it is more than appropriate to learn from the research findings of international colleagues (supported by their students in the research) how the development of textbooks are reviewed and assessed globally.

Although officially only five years old in its current format, the Editorial Board of Yesterday&Today hope to annually improve the quality and input of the journal as well as its own efforts to ensure that the teaching voice of history at all levels of education are coordinated and supported. Other major aims are among others to further expand the journal's continuity and quality (by applying for journal accreditation) as well as its availability (by expanding Yesterday&Today's current website and hard copy access to open access through the SCIELLO platform).

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