Hegemony — the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group

IN HISTORY CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT:

Historical Imaginary — a society’s common (actually hegemonic) knowledge about the past

• the dominant stories about people, places, issues sand events understood and constructed collectively “through public discourse” in education, media and politics
• Multiple sources such as media, classroom instruction, monuments, highway and building names, family stories all shape our conceptions of the past —> these sources continually value and promote some stories and perspectives over others
• These sources are part of the socialization process into any society’s historical imaginary (ex. class field trips)
  • It’s why highlighting diverse narratives and perspectives is critical to creating a citizenry with the ability to have empathy outside of one’s identity group (re: purpose of school)
• Beliefs about the past shape beliefs about the present BUT beliefs held in the present shape beliefs about the past (they both feed into one another)
• K-12 education, the media, political rhetoric / imagery contribute to historical imaginary by positioning some representations of the past as seemingly authoritative, neutral sources of info instead of as narrative choices with a particular POV

Who is “we” in narratives about the past has implications for visibility and invisibility in historical imaginary (who is rendered visible and invisible)

IN LINGUISTICS:

• Standard American English versus AAVE

REFERENCED IN:

Nice White Parents Episode 1

• on dual french after school program: one young girl starts to develop ideas about the superiority of french over arabic (even though 10% of the school knows arabic) —> starts to become an internalized inferiority (re: linguistic hegemony)

Romantic versus Modern Conception of a Nation

Schematic Narrative Templates