An Overview of the Teaching and Learning of Australian History in Schools
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An overview of the teaching and learning of Australian history in schools Prepared for the Australian History Summit Canberra, August 17th 2006 Tony Taylor Associate Professor of Education Monash University with Anna Clark Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Monash University HHistorySummit_DESTMappingCOVER_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMappingCOVER_004.indd 1 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:58:23:58:23 AN OVERVIEW OF THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY IN SCHOOLS Prepared for the Australian History Summit Canberra, August 17th 2006 Tony Taylor Associate Professor of Education Monash University with Anna Clark Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Monash University Tony Taylor is Director of the National Centre for History Education and associate professor in the Faculty of Education Monash University. He has an honours degree in history, postgraduate qualifi cations in education and he completed his doctoral studies in history at the University of Cambridge. He taught in comprehensive schools in the United Kingdom and, during that time, was closely involved in the Schools Council Project History (13-16), the Cambridge Schools Classics Project and the Humanities Curriculum Project. He taught at James Cook University and subsequently at Monash University. Tony conducted the National Inquiry into School History 1999-2001 and was the author of the inquiry’s report The Future of the Past. In 2001 and 2002 he taught history part-time in a local government high school. He has written and researched extensively on various topics in education and history. Anna Clark, who provided additional research for this paper, is currently an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow at Monash University. She completed an honours degree in history at the University of Sydney and her doctoral studies with Stuart Macintyre at the University of Melbourne. She is author of Teaching the Nation (Melbourne University Publishing, 2005) and Convicted: the unwonderful world of kids, crims and other convict capers (Hardie Grant Egmont, 2005). HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd i 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:28:54:28 CONTENTS … there is no guarantee that the vast majority of students in Australian schools will have progressed through a systematic study of Australian history by the end of Year 10. Indeed, the opposite is almost certainly the case. By the time they reach leaving age, most students in Australian schools will have experienced a fragmented, repetitive and incomplete picture of their national story (p 34) Introduction ..................................................................................1 Australian Capital Territory (ACT) ................................................3 New South Wales (NSW) ............................................................6 Northern Territory (NT) ..............................................................10 Queensland (QLD) ....................................................................14 South Australia (SA) ..................................................................18 Tasmania (TAS) .........................................................................22 Victoria (VIC) .............................................................................26 Western Australia (WA) .............................................................30 Conclusion .................................................................................33 A Short Glossary Of Useful Educational Terms .........................35 Appendix A (provided seperately) Curriculum Documents (by jurisdiction - in alphabetical order) .37 Appendix B Research into student understanding of historical narrative .....38 Appendix C An Index of Historical Literacy ...................................................40 Appendix D National Consistency in Curriculum Outcomes Draft Statements of Learning for Civics and Citizenship ...........41 ii HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd iiii 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:57:54:57 INTRODUCTION This overview summarises the approaches of all states and territories to the teaching and learning of Australian history. The information has been collected primarily from curriculum documents, with some assistance from teachers and curriculum offi cials. Having said that, it is frequently very diffi cult to discern in several of the curriculum documents where exactly the teaching of Australian history may be found. The state/territory summaries are arranged alphabetically. Each individual summary follows a particular pattern. First, there is a brief general background. Second, to provide a context, there is a brief overview of the place of history within the curriculum. Third, there is a longer section on Australian history. Then, comes a comment section which represents the views of the author, based on his professional experience. Finally, you will fi nd a short, illustrative opinion piece by members of the relevant History Teachers’ Association (HTA) who might be teachers, curriculum offi cials, or history educators with very close links to schools. Where the HTA does not exist, an experienced and well-regarded history teacher has been consulted. The function of the fi nal practitioner commentary is to provide the reader with an illustrative view from inside each education system. These comments are not meant to be representative but they do come from experienced professionals. The author has then outlined a set of conclusions, based on the evidence and on his professional experience. There then follows a series of appendices, Appendix A consists of relevant curriculum documentation from the various states and territories. One point to note about this part of the appendix section is that the state/territory excerpts have been culled from documents which are frequently lengthy, almost algebraic in character and jargon- laden. As an example of the diffi culty that the general reader might face when tackling a curriculum document, the South Australian material relevant to this exercise (Primary Years Band and Middle Years Band) is 584 pages long. As for obscure terminology, the Tasmanian government decided in May 2006 to bring in Don Watson as a “jargon-buster” for the about-to-be revised curriculum document. That being the case, I have provided a short glossary of common educational terms at the end of the paper. Next comes a very short summary of two signifi cant research projects (Appendix B) on how students learn history and a brief statement (Appendix C) of what constitutes historical literacy Finally, Appendix D, National Consistency in Curriculum Outcomes, Draft Statements of Learning for Civics and Citizenship, provides information on the draft Statements of Learning being developed for approval by Ministers. The Statements are intended to establish common approaches to civics and citizenship education in all 1 HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:57:54:57 jurisdictions. They are to be implemented nationally in 2008. Many topics with an historical focus are contained in the draft Statements. Appendix D includes the relevant historical perspectives sections from the draft Statements. Secondary School History at a Glance History Mandated Curriculum required/ State/Territory hours for Model reported as a history discipline ACT SOSE* No No Discipline- NSW Yes Yes based NT SOSE No No Queensland SOSE No No S&E** SA No No (SOSE) Tasmania SOSE No No Discipline- Victoria Yes No based WA SOSE No No * Studies of Society and the Environment ** Society and Environment 2 HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:57:54:57 AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY (ACT) The Background The ACT’s current education system is unique in that it has school- based curriculum K-12. This means that individual schools decide how to arrange and assess their teaching, learning and assessment, within a broad set of departmental curriculum guidelines drawn up in 1990. Some senior schools (colleges) form groups to share planning time and resources but generally each school has a great deal of autonomy in deciding its curriculum. The Place of History From years K-10, History is studied primarily within a Time, Continuity and Change strand, part of the Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) Key Learning Area (KLA). ACT has an outcomes-based approach to learning. Australian History 3-10 There is no prescribed curriculum and there are no particular timetable requirements for Australian history. The only mandatory subject in ACT schools is physical education. The relevant Time Continuity and Change section of the framework is brief. Students are expected to demonstrate, amongst other things, a “knowledge and understanding of the past in Australia and in the world”, and historical themes are contained in several of the nine cross-curricular “curriculum perspectives”. These are meant to inform the whole curriculum. One relevant perspective is “Australian education”. It deals with issues of national identity and other Australian issues in a local national and Asia-Pacifi c context. A second is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective, which is concerned with students developing an appreciation “of the achievements of Aboriginal culture and Torres Strait Island cultures in Australian society.” A third is “Gender equity” where, for example, students are to ask “whose history is documented in many history texts and whose interests are served {no question mark}”. In the “Global” perspective,