This Special Issue is dedicated to a social phenomenon that can deliver so muchimpact precisely because it is largely ignored: Nationalism, and more specificallyeveryday or banal nationalism and its relationship to education. Concerned peopleand researchers often discuss globalization or its supposed opposite, aggressive andostentatious nationalism. They usually do this as moralists, and it is precisely in thisrole that they always point to others, other perpetrators and other victims, but neveractually to themselves. The history of the last 200 years has shown how stronglynationalism creates identities, which, not least – and not coincidentally –, havebecome extremely visible again just now as mankind has had to fight a global virus,Covid-19. Under the motto, “Looking away is useless,” this Special Issue is devotedto the question of the extent to which modern education with its institutions,strategies and practices is related to the discursive reproduction of nationalismas an identity-generating cultural thesis about belonging. While the contributionscollected here present individual case studies, the introduction first aims at definingbasic concepts such as “nation,” “state” and “nation-state.” On this basis, approachesto educationally relevant research on nationalism will be discussed, such as thenotion of nation as “second nature” of man, the idea of “doing nation” borrowedfrom gender studies, or, finally – with specific reference to the curricula – thedevelopment of “national literacies” as core effects on modern schooling.Key words: curriculum; doing nation; globalization; national identity; nationalliteracy.
Case Studies: A Brief Introduction and Suggested Guidelines for the Field
