‘Confused by multiple deities, ancient Egyptians embraced monotheism’: analysing historical thinking and inclusion in Egyptian history textbooks

Abstract

Egyptian history textbooks are examined through the prism of historical thinking dimensions and skills, utilizing a critical discourse analysis. The analysis focuses on how the textbooks portray two historically significant events: the advent of Christianity (ca. 33 CE) and Islam (ca. 641 CE) to Egypt. It reveals that the historical narrative presented in the textbooks does two things: first, it essentializes a dominant identity—mainly an Arab Muslim one—eclipsing the multilayered identity informed by the country’s long history. Secondly, the textbooks miss several opportunities to promote historical thinking skills such as ‘cause and consequence’ and ‘change and continuity’. As an entry point to revising the textbooks to include currently missing indigenous minority narratives, a narrative approach that focuses on cultural continuity and change is proposed. The article also calls for further investigation of how these textbooks influence students’ sense of citizenship and historical consciousness, especially that they are increasingly exposed to alternative and competing historical narratives outside the history classroom.

Keywords:

• Egypt
• history education
• historical thinking
• history textbooks
• discourse analysis
• pluralism
• minority narrative

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback and suggestions. I would like to extend special thanks to professors Claudia Mitchell, Paul Zanazanian and Doreen Starke-Meyerring, as well as Motaz Atallah, Farida Makar, Joyce Rafla and Maggie Tawfik for their extremely thoughtful comments and constructive critique of earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The exact number of Copts is contested. While some official figures stand at approximately 6%, some of the Coptic Church’s statements and other sources have argued for a 15% or higher figures. Hence, many scholars resort to using an average of 10%.

2. Grades 11 and 12 were the only textbooks not included in this analysis since they are not obligatory for all students. They are only required for students following the ‘literature’ option during their final two years of the Thanaweyya ‘Amma high school diploma.

3. All subsequent direct citations from textbooks presented in this article are based on the author’s translation from Arabic to English.

4. In the process of developing this article, to ensure that other perspectives have been included, several drafts have been shared for review with other Egyptians, all of whom have been exposed to the Egyptian educational system. All comments and suggestions were incorporated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.