ABSTRACT
In this chapter we attempt to compare and contrast major educational developments, especially as manifested in curricular and textbook content, in Greece and Egypt to demonstrate how national identities are shaped in schools, especially through the teaching of ancient history. This chapter is divided into several sections. The first two sections are a discussion on historical consciousness, how the nation is imagined and reimagined, and the role that nation-states play in individual and collective identity formation. Following these sections, we look at how Greece and Egypt considered their ancient pasts when constructing their own national histories, especially in their curricula and textbooks. Thus, the chapter provides an extensive discussion of the teaching of history in both countries. Several textbooks are analyzed to show how ancient histories are represented in each of these countries. Given that there have been only a few studies that examine how nations construct and (re)present ancient histories, this chapter aims to make a contribution to this generally understudied question.
