Pakistan Teacher: Teaching & Understanding the Violent Colonial Past

This will be a closed event, with no recording and an emphasis on free and open discussion.

This online workshop will encourage discussion between current high school teachers from Pakistan and Cambodia. This booking link is for teachers from Pakistan only to enable a fair distribution of places for teachers from both locations.

Pakistan and Cambodia provide two different contexts in exploring the experiences of British and French colonialism and its implications for postcolonial countries that continue to experience different forms of violence. In exploring these two contexts, the role of education and the teaching of history are important in the way different generations come to terms with the violence that they have historically experienced, and for the important lessons that can be drawn for the present and future.

Starting with a short animation produced by Engage Pakistan on ‘Collaborators of the British Empire’ (2021) discussion will centre around the following key questions:

• How is history as a subject taught in schools in Pakistan and Cambodia? Who decides on the history curriculum and textbooks, and what role (if any) does a teacher play in that decision making process?
• How is colonialism taught in schools? Does the teaching of colonialism have any lessons for the kind of violence that these countries have experienced post-independence?
• What is the role and purpose of the teacher in teaching history as a subject in school?
• Are non-formal modes of dissemination, such as the animated video, better equipped to deal with controversial and difficult historical topics?
• What are the implications of ‘changing the narrative’ about colonial violence, particularly in terms of national identity production, community cohesion, and the saliency of the national story?

This workshop will be led by Keo Duong (Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia), Tania Saeed and Sameen Moshin Ali (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan).