The future of the past: historical negationism in school textbooks in the Philippines with regard to the Marcos-era Martial Law.

Abstract

Revolving on the central question of “How do textbooks used public and private schools exhibit and enforce the phenomenon of historical negationism regarding the Marcos-era martial law?”, this research topic aims to assess how the textbooks used in schools in the Philippines enforce, or at least exhibit, the phenomenon of historical negationism regarding the Marcos-era martial law. The research primarily focuses on 1) contextualizing the topic of how the Marcos-era martial law is taught in schools in the country and providing a brief background about the Philippine education system, 2) defining the terms “historical negationism” and “historical revisionism,” 3) putting forward the differences between the textbooks used in public and private schools, in the aspect of who approves said textbooks and how they are approved and chosen for school-use, 4) examining a few textbooks to see as to how they deal or discuss the topic of the Marcos-era martial law, and as to how they reflect negationism regarding the Marcos-era martial law with their effects and implications, and 5) giving recommendations on how school textbooks can be improved to reflect a truer picture of Philippine history, specifically of martial law under the Marcos regime. As an end result, this research not only aims to find out if historical negationism is enforced, or how it is enforced, through school textbooks, it also aims to look for the effects of the said concept on the users of textbooks. The researcher puts forward that school textbooks exhibit historical negationism regarding the Marcos-era martial law by containing inadequate or distorted information about the topic, and enforce historical negationism by exposing its users – students and educators alike – to the said inadequate or distorted information.