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Representation of World War II in Vietnam, China, and the USA: Political Ideologies in Secondary History Textbooks

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Intercultural Studies of Curriculum

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Abstract

The study explored how ideologies are embedded in the secondary school history textbooks of three countries: the USA, China, and Vietnam, through the narratives of World War II. The study employed a combined qualitative method of ideological discourse analysis and narrative discourse analysis and gathered data from three textbook samples of the three countries. Findings illustrated that each country’s textbook sample was densely embedded with political ideologies, namely, democracy, socialism, and Marxism-Leninism. At the same time, three countries shared similar attempts to promote exceptionalism and nationalism through the textbooks they produced. The study concluded with implications for the teaching of world history in a global context.

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Vu, C. (2018). Representation of World War II in Vietnam, China, and the USA: Political Ideologies in Secondary History Textbooks. In: Roofe, C., Bezzina, C. (eds) Intercultural Studies of Curriculum. Intercultural Studies in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60897-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60897-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60897-6

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