ABSTRACT

Introduction One of the fundamental purposes of schooling is to establish within subsequent generations a familiarity with the stories we tell about ourselves and it is le© to national curriculum policy to regulate this process. In ‘liquid times’ (Bauman 2000) the cra©ing of such stories becomes increasingly vexed. Rather than being connected and contained within the nation, ethnicity, culture and language are disestablished. Further to this, the nation as a bounded entity cannot be taken for granted. Instead borders are permeable and the histories, languages and cultures of those within the nation blend and blur with each other and those in other nations. In such a context, sure-footed histories of places and peoples become destabilized. In this process, globalization makes di­erence familiar and simultaneously feeds xenophobia.