Representation, Race and Empire: a Postcolonial Analysis of the New York Global History Regents exam.

Postcolonial studies have long identified history curriculum as a site of empire building. High stakes exams like the Global History Regents Exam in New York (NYGHR) undoubtedly impact curriculum but have yet to be examined through a postcolonial lens. This study evaluates to what extent, if at all, the NYGHR perpetuates eurocentrism as defined by four concepts from the literature: numerical representation, replacement, tokenism and narrative erasure. Through both qualitative and quantitative analysis, the study finds the exam to be eurocentric both in its numerial underrepresentation of the global south, and in its replacement and ommission of global south achievement, its overuse of tokenism, and its flagrant narrative erasure of the violence of colonialism. The study posits implications and next steps for students, practitioners and future research on how to build inclusive, student driven global history curricula [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]