This paper will examine what is taught from the perspective of interpretive traditions that have been established over time in South African history. It will do so through an analysis of the interviews conducted with lecturers in history of education as well as assessments, textbooks and resources. The paper will argue that while new textbooks produced since 2000 reproduce with minor modifications a Eurocentric orthodoxy focused on an unproblematized history of the evolution of public schooling, on the whole lecturers either do not use them or modify them and that African agency in education struggles is a strong theme. Whereas the textbooks largely use an older historiography, many lecturers draw on more recent historiographies. A problem across the board is the isolation however from the mainstream discipline and changes in it.