Teaching and Learning Strategy: A Perspective from Curaçao
Overview
This resource provides a Dutch-Caribbean perspective on teaching World History and offers a critique of the Dutch history curriculum's Eurocentric perspective.
A Perspective on the Dutch History Curriculum
The Dutch history curriculum is divided into ten different time periods and it is a mixture of world, European and Dutch history. Often the Dutch perspective is embedded within the larger narrative. Within the ten periods there are forty-nine “characteristic aspects”. Time period five (1500-1600) is called the “time of explorers and reformers” and one of the characteristic aspects is called “Start of the European oversea expansion”. The Aspect starts with the exploration of Africa by the Portuguese and the Spaniards and continues with the colonization of parts of Asia and America by the English, French and of course the Dutch. The focus is on the establishments of the trade posts, the Columbian Exchange and how it was the foundation of the Dutch Golden Age.
In time period 6, “Regents and Monarchs” (1600-1700) one of the characteristic aspects is called “Worldwide trade contacts, trade capitalism and the start of the world economy”. The focus is on the blooming of trade capitalism and the roles that Dutch companies like the VOC and the WIC played. In period 7 “Wigs and Revolutions” (1700-1800) there is an aspect called “The expansion of the European domination through plantation colonies and the transatlantic slave trade” and the rise of Abolitionism
The dominant perspective within the Dutch syllabus is a Eurocentric perspective. I would like to develop an intercultural lesson series based on multiple perspectives instead of teaching the dominant Eurocentric perspective.
About This Resource
The sample teaching and learning strategy included here was submitted by a participant in a one-day virtual workshop entitled, "Teaching the Global African Diaspora" for world history teachers hosted by the Alliance for Learning in World History. This was a draft document that may subsequently have been revised in light of feedback and discussion during the event.
This resource was contributed by Jirri Eijssink, an educator in Curaçao.