An Overview of the Teaching and Learning of Australian History in Schools

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

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

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

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, students develop an appreciation of Australia’s place in the world.

The curriculum framework also contains a list of “Essential learning about Australia”.

The list includes the following topics which have an historical aspect or approach:

• important epochs, events and people in Australia’s past before 1788

• signiﬁ cant events and key ﬁ gures in Australia’s past after 1788

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:57:54:57 • the ways of life of various groups in Australia’s past and present, changes over time in their roles in Australian society and their contribution to Australia today

• the origin and operation of Australia’s government, legal, political systems and structures

• the origin and operation of Australia’s economic systems and structures

• aspects of the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

• aspects of Australian culture deriving from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales

• aspects of cultures of Australians of non-English-speaking backgrounds

• the inﬂ uence of Australian policies and practices on other societies and cultures particularly in the Asia-Paciﬁ c region

• the inﬂ uence of other societies and cultures on Australian peoples, cultures, beliefs and practices.

Comment This particular school-based approach has been in existence since 1990, which makes it Australia’s longest established curriculum framework. The combination of a SOSE Key Learning Area within a school-based curriculum was criticised by ACT teachers in the 1999-2000 National Inquiry on the grounds that history had become a neglected area. On the face of it, students could reach Year 10 having studied very little Australian history as a discrete subject. Currently, ACT is piloting the revised Essential Learnings school- based curriculum framework which will replace the 1990 document.

A Practitioner’s View “It is very hard to generalise about what, precisely, is being done in ACT schools.

Of the (large) schools physically in the ACT, all but one are certiﬁ cated by the ACT Department (the exception is Boys’ Grammar, which uses the NSW HSC for Year 12), which notionally means that they follow system level leads on content. However, there has been no signiﬁ cant curriculum leadership from the centre for some time. Various ‘initiatives’ which may have an impact on curriculum content - eg the Health Promoting Schools initiative - occasionally crop up. In short, there is no mandatory curriculum content in the ACT - except for a certain number of hours of PE (since the late 1990s). Literacy and

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 4 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:57:54:57 numeracy testing, along with the Year 10 ICT Certiﬁ cate, are the closest the ACT system gets to requiring speciﬁ c content or skills.

To a degree, this situation is about to change with the roll out of the ACT Essential Learning Achievements (ELAs) for K-10. Two of the [38] ELAs have signiﬁ cant historical elements to them - ‘the student knows about Australia and Australians’ and ‘the student knows about world events’ (not sure of the exact wording).

In primary schools, mandatory testing, and teaching through themes, means that the greatest focus is on literacy and numeracy development. No doubt some students come across sustained and high quality exposure to historical topics, approaches and pedagogy; in general, however, I suspect that most students receive, at best, a rather patchy introduction to history in primary schools.

History as a core study in (7-10) secondary schools generally exists as part of a SOSE curriculum. Some schools actually go so far as to call the subject History when reporting to parents, when the content has been historical. A signiﬁ cant number of high schools (probably more than half) offer history as an elective to students in Years 9 & 10. Australian history is likely to be a part of the core SOSE curriculum, while more exotic types - eg Asian history, or Revolutions - would be elective. Since history exists “inside” SOSE, there are a signiﬁ cant number of teachers who teach history, but who do not self identify as history teachers. Many of these are highly professional and effective teachers, but it is impossible to say what degree of training in historical method and history pedagogy these people have been through. There are undoubtedly some teachers with no training whatsoever (and little expertise?) teaching ‘history’ to students. SOSE itself is not particularly in favour in ACT schools, and seems to be one of the areas where some administrators think that anyone who can breathe can teach it (let alone history).”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 5 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 NEW SOUTH WALES (NSW)

The background New South Wales quickly opted out of the early 1990s national consensus about SOSE, choosing instead a fairly non-contentious primary school approach to the humanities - Human Society and its Environment - more commonly known as HSIE, and a discipline- based approach to history in the secondary school.

However, the 1992 junior secondary school history syllabus (7-10) was publicly attacked in the mid-90s for being, simultaneously, ideologically-driven and vague. It was replaced by the 1999 junior secondary school syllabus with its mandatory 100 hours of Australian history in Years 9 and 10, to be assessed by a Year 10 multiple- choice and short question examination. The 1999 junior secondary history syllabus was in turn criticised for being too content-heavy, too prescriptive and too off-putting for students. Following a prolonged campaign by, amongst others, the New South Wales History Teachers’ Association, the 1999 syllabus was reviewed in 2002 and replaced by the current model.

The Place of History There is a special focus in NSW on the value of history. For example, it is the only state that consciously aspires to having secondary history teachers with an appropriate academic background. Furthermore, until the 1990s, a strong departmental structure in many secondary schools bolstered the strength of much history teaching, since Head Teachers of History (who are often Head Teachers of English as well) provide strong leadership roles in the discipline. An indicator of the subject’s strength lies in the 2005 ﬁ gures for HSC history with over 10 336 students taking Ancient History and 9 996 taking Modern History (which includes an Australian history component). New South Wales has a large and very active History Teachers’ Association.

In primary schools, history topics are integrated into HSIE from Kindergarten to Grade 6. In secondary schools, history has not changed its position as a key, discipline-based study. In junior secondary, history is taught as a distinct academic subject from Year 7 to Year 10 in a way that integrates clearly identiﬁ ed content with historical skills, starting at Year 7. For example, students are required to understand, analyse and interpret historical evidence and employ investigation techniques. The 20th century Australian history course taught in Year 10 is assessed by public examination for the School Certiﬁ cate.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 6 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 Australian History 3-10

Primary School Years 3-6

History topics are found mainly in the ‘change and continuity’ strand of the NSW HSIE K-6 Syllabus. Students in Years 3-6 (Stages 2 & 3) study British colonisation and its impact on Aboriginal people and the environment and key aspects of 19th century Australian history, with a focus on the importance of past people and events, such as the gold rushes. They also study the history of their local community, the background to historical commemorations such as Australia Day and Anzac Day, and the development of Australian democracy. Students are encouraged to use various sources for reconstructing the past, for example letters, diaries, maps, photographs, oral traditions and Aboriginal art.

Secondary School Years 7-10

In Years 7 and 8 (Stage 4), students tackle a topic “Investigating History”, which examines ancient and medieval societies and their legacies, and the impact of colonisation on Australia and one other nation.

In Years 9 and 10 (Stage 5), students look at 20th century Australian history through eight topics outlined below. The topics are taught in one year or spread over two years:

Year 9

• Australia to 1914 (federation, living and working conditions)

• Australia and WWI (Gallipoli and the Anzac legend)

• Australia Between the Wars (varying experiences of individuals and groups, key events and political developments)

• Australia and WWII (why and where Australia was involved, campaigns and experiences of servicemen and women, nurses, POWs, impact on the home front, Australia’s relationship with Britain and the USA).

Year 10

• Australia in the Vietnam War Era (responses to the threat of communism, involvement in and differing views of the Vietnam War, impact of the war on groups such as Indo-Chinese refugees and Vietnam Veterans)

• Changing Rights and Freedoms (change over time in the experiences and struggle for rights and freedoms of Aboriginal Australians, women and migrants)

• People Power and Politics (Australia’s role in the United Nations, Prime Ministers and policies and signiﬁ cant events

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 7 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 and issues and the individuals involved e.g. Jack Mundey and the Green Bans)

• Australia’s Social and Cultural History in the Post-War Period (the impact of technology on everyday life and a close study of the social and cultural features of one decade). These topics are examined in the School Certiﬁ cate.

Students in Years 9 and 10 may choose to undertake an additional History Elective course for the School Certiﬁ cate. History Elective looks at different kinds of historical approaches for example family history, local history and the contribution of museums and archives.

Comment Now that the NSW history controversies of the past decade have all but died down, the Australian element in the current NSW junior secondary syllabus (7-10) appears to demonstrate a reasonable combination of (1) content (2) skills (developing historical understanding) and (3) internal/external assessment. There remain, however, three problems. First, there is no overall understanding of what goes on in primary school HSIE. Second, at the secondary school level, experienced HTA members are exercised by the structural reorganisations that have taken place (for example, from History department to HSIE faculty) within government and non-government schools which, they argue, reduces the capacity of Head Teachers of History to promote their subject area. Third, there is still some resistance amongst many experienced and highly capable NSW history teachers to the amount of content to be covered in the current timeframe and to the idea of a Year 10 public examination in the subject.

A Practitioner’s View “Though mandated, quality of instruction is difﬁ cult to determine. As always, it depends on the teacher. There is no way of knowing how well the history strand is covered in primary, there is nothing to compel trainee primary teachers to undertake any history in their degree. With secondary, compulsion and the collapse of History departments into HSIE departments has meant that many classes are taught by teachers without history training. Senior numbers are healthy … so it seems to be working OK … The fact that only half the Stage 5 content is examined is another improvement.

There was far too much content in the previous Stage 5 History syllabus and it was too political. There was no time to explore anything in the depth required for meaningful understanding, and not enough time to introduce and consolidate essential historical skills …

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 8 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 The current syllabus is a great improvement - there’s a better balance of social and political history and there’s more choice within and between sub-topics. With strategic programming, it’s possible to combine aspects from different topics to develop a compact program where you can cover fewer areas in greater depth. This then gives more time to integrate and develop skills - but it’s still a lot to do in only 100 hours.

The test is a big improvement too - only examining the last 50 hours instead of the whole course makes a lot of sense. In schools that semesterise, kids were being examined at the end of year 10 on topics they had studied at the beginning of Year 9 - we don’t even ask that of our senior students!!

100 hours is good, but more would be better. History and Geography as separate subjects get only a quarter of the hours given to each of the core subjects English, Maths and Science (100 vs 400). When you consider the literacy skills, the research and critical thinking skills and the civics and citizenship that are taught through History, 100 hours is simply not enough. If it’s to have parity with other ‘core’ subjects, it needs more hours.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 9 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 NORTHERN TERRITORY (NT)

Background School education in the Northern Territory is guided by the Northern Territory Curriculum Framework, from Transition (K) to Year 10. For the post-compulsory years, students are taught the curriculum from the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia.

The Northern Territory Curriculum Framework is an outcomes-based curriculum, which is very clearly directed towards the varied and particular expectations and educational experiences of NT students. Indigenous perspectives are one of the cross-curricular emphases in the framework, and it is clear that the high percentage of indigenous students in the Territory has shaped this curriculum document in ways that are substantially different to curriculum frameworks in other educational jurisdictions in Australia. For example, the high incidence of students for whom English is a second language, especially in remote communities, is an important factor in NT curriculum design, as is the issue of student attainment in the national benchmarks for literacy and numeracy. This particular educational and social setting provides the background for the NT Curriculum Framework, which emphasises the need for teaching and learning ﬂ exibility, as well as the reporting of student outcomes and achievement.

The place of history The NT SOSE Learning Area incorporates the disciplines of History, Geography, Politics, Economics, Business and Careers and is taught until Year 10. In Years 11 and 12, History is taught as a discrete discipline for the Northern Territory Certiﬁ cate of Education. NT students take the SSABSA history syllabus in Years 11 and 12 but Australian Studies, compulsory in South Australia (q.v.), is not compulsory in NT.

The Northern Territory curriculum framework uses an outcomes- based approach that is framed around four esseNTial (sic) learnings and three cross-curricular perspectives that incorporate ﬁ ve learning bands from years 2-10.

There are outcomes for the SOSE learning area at each of the ﬁ ve learning bands of student development. SOSE is organised into 2 strands of learning from Bands 1-3 (years 2-6) and 3 strands in Bands 4 and 5 (years 7-10). History is primarily located in the Social Systems and Structures strand in SOSE:

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1010 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 History in the NT framework

Time, Continuity and Change Indigenous Studies

Civics SOSE Learning Social Systems and Area Structures Strand Governance and Social Justice Values, Beliefs and, Cultural Diversity Enterprise

Australian History 3-10 There is no detailed curriculum requirement and no particular timetable allocation for Australian history.

From Band 2 (Years 3 and 4) on students begin to learn about their community and its heritage. In upper primary (Band 3) they are then taught aspects of Northern Territory history and pre-twentieth century Australian history (such as indigenous histories, the Macassan traders, contact and colonisation, the penal colonies, and the gold rushes).

Bands 4 and 5 (years 7-10) deal speciﬁ cally with Australian history, and the impact of world events on Australia (such as the Great Depression, Vietnam, immigration, trade, foreign relations). For example, Indigenous Studies at both Band levels examines pre- and post-contact Indigenous histories, including the impact of contact and colonisation of Aboriginal communities. The Time, Continuity and Change strand concentrates on twentieth century Australian history, such as Federation, WWI, and the Great Depression. It also includes more recent issues in Australian history such as land rights, Native Title, immigration, and the environment. “Civics, Governance and Social Justice” examines events leading up to Federation, with a particular emphasis on attitudes in the Northern Territory compared with those of other States.

Comment While history is not outlined as a separate discipline in the Northern Territory curriculum framework, there is quite clearly deﬁ ned historical content within SOSE. There is also a clear progression of content and of the skills integral to historical understanding and there does not appear to be such a large potential for content repetition or overlap as in some other jurisdictions. Furthermore, the curriculum has a sense

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1111 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 of coherence as students move from their immediate (family) past, through the past of their communities and the Northern Territory, to a wider national and international historical understanding. This means that while Australian history is taught within an integrated curriculum (via SOSE), the historical content and understanding required from students are quite clearly articulated.

Many students in regional and remote communities are taught in community schools, where lessons are often conducted in local l a n g u a g e , s o i s s u e s o f E S L a n d E n g l i s h l i t e r a c y a r e p a r t i c u l a r l y r e l e v a n t for analysis of curriculum design in NT schools. For example, the NT Curriculum Services Branch has been trying to increase the numbers of indigenous students taking senior school Indigenous Studies, but teachers are reluctant to introduce a relatively demanding course (that includes a 2000 word research essay) into classrooms where levels of English literacy and comprehension can be relatively low.

A Practitioner’s View “The Northern Territory Curriculum Framework document dictates content and essential learnings for secondary students in the Northern Territory. The NTCF is a broad in its scope and faculties and teachers are able to select sections to be addressed across the year levels. This allows choice but not consistency in the learning content between schools. There is a great deal of focus on the social impacts and implications of history and very little in the way of ‘events’ based focus. It certainly succeeds in encouraging critical thinking when it is delivered properly.

The current heavy push towards Middle Schooling means that Australian (and all other) history is delivered up to Year 10 as integrated units – often tying in with English and other Humanities subjects. This has resulted in the historical learning being made more contextual for students and often delivered in more dynamic ways. However, the concept of middle school teaching (integration and ‘core’ teachers) also means that historical studies are often delivered by teachers who are not history (or even Humanities) ‘specialists’ and this is resulting in the watering down of history speciﬁ c skills.

History is seen not as a discrete subject but part of the broader Humanities discipline which, as a whole, is treated as a ‘core’ subject equal to Science or Maths. The NTCF allows a very ﬂ exible approach and teachers can choose their content. What this does mean though, is that history, and especially Australian history, has to ﬁ ght for curriculum ‘time’ with the other Humanities subjects. By Year 10 it is felt that students should be broadening their historical knowledge and most history has moved towards global experiences (particularly the wars) and Australian history is slotted into a world context rather than being a focus.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1212 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:54:58:54:58 As an aside – there is no Australian speciﬁ c history course in Year 11, but Year 12 Australian History exists and, although a fabulous and much more achievable course, struggles to compete with the more glamorous World History course.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1313 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 QUEENSLAND (QLD)

Background The Queensland curriculum uses an outcomes-based approach and history is located in the SOSE Key Learning Area. SOSE is drawn from disciplines and areas of study that include history, geography, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, law, psychology and ethics, as well as studies such as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Asian, Australian, civics and citizenship, enterprise, environmental, futures, gender, global, media, rural issues and peace.

There are also a number of emphases and priorities that permeate the Queensland curriculum. Key values (democratic process, social justice, ecological and economic sustainability, and peace) as well as learning processes (investigating, creating, participating, communicating and reﬂ ecting). These help frame the curriculum, along with the cross-curricular priorities of Literacy, Numeracy, Life Skills and a Futures Perspective.

There have been no public examinations at any level in the Queensland education system for over thirty years. School-based assessment is the norm.

The place of history There are four strands in the current SOSE KLA. They are Time, Continuity and Change, Place and Space, Culture and Identity, and Systems, Resources and Power. In each strand there are six levels (Levels 1-6, with students expected to complete levels 2 -6 at Years 3-10). In each strand, at each level, there is a ‘Level statement’ that describes an overall focus, and a matching set of “Core Learning Outcomes”.

The time allocation for SOSE is 80 hours per year in Years 1-3 and 60 hours per year in Years 4-10.

Historical content is emphasised in Time, Continuity and Change (TCC), but is found also in the three other Strands. In designing curriculum units in SOSE, teachers usually include outcomes from more than one Strand, and often from all four.

Australian History in Years 3-10 There is no prescribed curriculum and there are no particular timetable requirements for Australian history. There are however required outcomes in Australian history and a timetable allocation for SOSE (see above).

As far as Australian history is concerned, the Core Learning Outcomes describe processes, concepts and content in general terms. For example, Core Learning Outcome 5.4 reads: ‘Students explain the consequences of Australia’s international relations on

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1414 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 the development of a cohesive society’. In a separate ‘Core content’ section of the syllabus, more detail is provided – viz. ‘consequences of Australia’s international relations (the ANZAC tradition, Australian– US relationship, trade with Asian nations, Cold War, involvement in international agencies and agreements, UN peacekeeping)’ – but the syllabus states ‘Items in parentheses are examples only’. Thus, teachers are free to select the speciﬁ c historical content for study by their students.

The SOSE syllabus allows schools to teach a discipline-based approach in Years 9-10. This allows a speciﬁ c school to meet the SOSE outcomes by combining two of the three optional syllabuses in History, Civics and Geography.

At levels 3-6 (Years 4-10) Australian content is inserted in the outcomes. For example, Level 3 (mid-upper primary) insists that students examine “particular developments in Australia’s history”. At Level 4, there is an emphasis on “Australian or global” history, similarly at Level 5. At Level 6, Australian history can be studied in an “Australian or Asian” outcome.

Furthermore, Australian content is required in Culture and Identity at Level 3 under “Australian society” and again with “Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander cultures”. Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander groups are a required outcome at Level 5 Culture and Identity.

In the ‘Core content’ section of the curriculum framework ‘examples’ of possible Australian content are listed including ‘Australian’, ‘personal’, ‘local’, ‘familiar’ or ‘Aboriginal’ content examples, listed in 23 of the 30 sections of the ‘Core content’ matrix. This ‘core content’ is not actually prescribed historical ‘content’, as such, but historical knowledge or understanding. In other words, content is effectively ‘interchangeable’ in the Queensland curriculum, to meet the outcomes. Teachers can choose different examples from Australian history to meet the ‘core content’ requirements depending on the different interests and abilities of their students.

Development of historical understanding in the Queensland curriculum is sequential in terms of both skills and content. Learning outcomes move from understanding the familiar to the general, from understanding family stories and the heritage around them to a more general national and international historical engagement. For example, in Level 1, one of the outcomes is that ‘Students describe their past and their future using evidence from familiar settings’ (TCC 1.1). By Level 3, students are expected to ‘create sequences and timelines about speciﬁ c Australian changes and continuities’ (TCC 3.2). By Level 6, students are expected to ‘produce a corroborated argument concerning causes of a change or continuity in environments, media or gender roles’ (TCC 6.4). In these examples, not only is the context broadening from the ‘familiar’ to the more remote, but the processes

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1515 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 involved are becoming more sophisticated – from ‘describe’ to ‘create sequences and timelines’ to ‘produce a corroborated argument’.

Comment In summary, through its required and suggested content, the SOSE Syllabus provides scope for teachers to adopt Australian topics when designing their programs. On the other hand taught content might vary widely from school to school.

Interestingly, and unusually, the Queensland History Teachers’ Association is supportive both of the SOSE approach and of the interdisciplinary New Basics framework. QHTA members were heavily involved in the development of the Queensland SOSE 1-10 Syllabus and of the Senior Syllabuses in Modern History and Ancient History and this might explain why QHTA promotes the curriculum framework in its professional development programs, its resources development and in its publications. The HTA’s stated position is that all histories can be taught successfully within the New Basics framework, as long as teachers know what they are doing.

On the other hand, a number of concerns have been raised by teachers about a lack of clarity regarding educational standards and the quantity of required material in the current curriculum, suggesting that the complexity of the current New Basics curriculum framework is confusing and burdensome. Accordingly, a new Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting (QCAR) Framework based on Essential Learnings and Standards framework is to be implemented by 2008.

It will be interesting to see to what extent the new Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting (QCAR) Framework will change the current educational approach in this state.

A Practitioner’s View “Nowadays History is subsumed within SOSE almost everywhere in Years 1-10. The upside is that all kids get some History this way up to Year 10. The downsides? … two mainly. First, the majority of my SOSE colleagues aren’t ‘History literate’ – even if they’re SOSE-trained. (In pre-service, History is just one bit of the overall SOSE picture.) Second, it’s harder to construct a coherent, in-depth History experience for students when the SOSE program has to address all those other elements in the syllabus. It can be done, but takes careful planning.

The same’s true for an ‘Australian focus’. Australian examples abound in the SOSE syllabus – but often as ‘suggestions’ only – so again it’s a conscious effort to select Australian content carefully so that the kids can grasp the overall chronological

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1616 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 ﬂ ow of Australia’s history as well as delve deeper into topics that particularly excite them (like the Vietnam War and the Franklin Dam campaign).

The primary school scene worries me a bit. Students arriving in Year 8 complain about having ‘done’ the explorers, the Aborigines and the Gold Rushes year after year. The syllabus structure means that shouldn’t happen. I guess it results from SOSE being a ‘poor cousin’ to English and Maths in primary schools, and teachers not giving it enough attention. And, of course, it’s hard for a primary teacher to be ‘across’ all eight Key Learning Areas. One primary teacher told me that her entire exposure to ‘History’ in her primary SOSE training at uni was three hours - one lecture and one workshop. No wonder the kids’ stories remind me more of old-fashioned Social Studies than of an inquiry-based SOSE approach.

There are promising signs. Some Year 8s arrive with glowing reports of ‘investigating’ Australia’s past, handling artifacts and documents, role-playing historical characters, having heated debates about (for example) Ned Kelly. I suspect their teachers are the ones who grabbed the new Commonwealth History Project resources.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1717 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 SOUTH AUSTRALIA (SA)

The Background In 2002, South Australia adopted an Essential Learnings curriculum model as outlined in the South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability framework (SACSA). The SACSA Framework emphasises 5 Essential Learnings for South Australian students, which provide the over-arching guide for curriculum development and design. They are:

• Futures

• Identity

• Interdependence

• Thinking

• Communication.

These Essential Learnings form a basis for all areas of the school curriculum in South Australia, including historical knowledge.

The place of history History in South Australia is taught primarily through Society and Environment (SOSE equivalent). This means that there is no set approach for the teaching of history topics. According to the SACSA framework, “Society and environment is informed by such subjects as history, geography, social studies, economics, politics, legal studies, religion studies, environmental education, Aboriginal studies and Asian studies. Both integrated and subject discipline approaches can be used to deliver this curriculum”.

Based on the 5 Essential Learnings, the SACSA Framework provides the curriculum framework for students K-10. The SACSA Framework contains 5 curriculum standards, which mark the end of Years 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. To achieve a standard, each student must have met all the outcomes in all strands for a particular Learning Area.

In other words, the current South Australian framework is both outcomes and standards-based. Students are encouraged to be “active” in their own learning, using an outcomes-based approach, but the framework stipulates educational standards that must be monitored, judged and reported on at regular intervals. Below is a table which shows how the curriculum unfolds:

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1818 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 Early years Children explore their family, community, local (R-2) environments and society, in order to understand the common threads in human experiences which shape individual and collective identities. Primary years Students investigate earlier times to gain a general understanding of Australia’s history and diverse heritage in the context of signiﬁ cant world events. Middle years Students investigate and analyse events, ideas, issues and lives of people in their local community, nation and the world, identifying patterns, changes, continuities and possible futures. Senior years Students critically analyse continuities and discontinuities over time, and reﬂ ect upon the power relationships which shape and are shaped by these.

Learning outcomes increase in complexity and depth as the students complete each standard so that students are taught a range of historical content and skills, such as distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, understanding chronology and time, evaluating documents, presenting research, and so forth. Yet historical content is not deﬁ ned, and there seems to be signiﬁ cant scope for repetition in the SACSA Framework.

Interestingly, in the post-compulsory years, Australian Studies is compulsory in Year 11 (without it, students cannot receive the South Australian Certiﬁ cate of Education). Australian History and Modern History are elective subjects in Year 12. Students taking Australian History may do one or two units in the subject.

Australian History 3-10 There is no detailed curriculum requirement and no particular timetable allocation for Australian history.

Although there is no prescribed historical knowledge within the curriculum, there are suggestions about how to meet the outcomes through a variety of teaching areas. Within Society and Environment, Time, Continuity and Change is the primary point of departure for teaching historical content and skills. Yet Place, Space, Environment, Societies also has a signiﬁ cant component of historical knowledge (for example, the impact of natural resources and geography on Australia’s history). Similarly, Cultures and Social Systems includes Australian political history, such as understanding democracy and

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 1919 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 political systems.

In the primary years (3-5) the framework covers a wide period of history, but has an emphasis on Australian material. Topics to study include pre-contact Australia, exploration, colonisation, convicts, Indigenous resistance, as well as change in Australian society (eg the gold rushes, Federation, voting rights for different groups, migration, war). It uses this Australian perspective as a basis for developing historical understanding and linking this to wider events in the past.

The middle years of schooling (6-9) build on this national knowledge by moving from an emphasis on Australian content to wider regional and world perspectives.

In Year 10, students may deal with Australian national identity and migration under the outcomes for that level.

Comment As there is no requirement that Australian history be taught as part of a discrete discipline, nor identiﬁ ably within a SOSE strand, it is difﬁ cult to generalise about the status of Australian history in schools.

Interestingly, South Australia has a compulsory Australian Studies subject in Year 11 and many history teachers in SA are convinced that Australian Studies has all but killed off senior school interest in Australian history. The evidence seems to back up the teachers’ point of view. In 1993 (prior to compulsory Australian Studies), 1561 Year 12 students took Australian history. In 1998, after the introduction of compulsory Australian Studies, the number had fallen to 628 although the total number of Year 12 students had risen by almost a thousand overall. The 2004 ﬁ gure for Year 12 Australian history in SA is 339. This mirrors the Victorian experience (q.v.).

A Practitioner’s View “Initially we taught a rote learned narrative in a speciﬁ c subject labelled History, often for senior classes memorised from a set of notes and maybe one text book. Junior classes ‘did’ topics such as Aborigines, Explorers, and the Gold Rushes, again from one textbook, if they were fortunate enough.

Over time we were encouraged to include source analysis, and research projects, all of which extended students to develop a much broader range of skills, including critical analysis, classifying, report writing, debating, making informed judgements and many others. This was to dramatically improve the teaching of history in Australia.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2020 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 When history became part of Society and Environment in South Australia, the strength was that all government students were compelled to do history within this area, as it was the focus of one of the 4 strands, Time Continuity and Change. History teachers had signiﬁ cant input into this strand and history obviously is part of the other 3 strands as well. History was no longer an elective as it had been in many schools. The weakness [of S&E] lay in the lack of chronology in curriculum planning in some schools. However it is clear in the framework, that traditional topics such as Australian Federation, Australia at War, the Gold Rushes were all included. Having access to a number of schools present curriculum plans, I can see that these traditional topics are all still taught, almost to the point where they are ‘Done to death’.

That is why it is so refreshing for students and staff to have beneﬁ ted from the signiﬁ cant materials from the National History Website. Thus in addition to the traditional topics, we have suggestions for the inclusion of new relevant, vibrant and critical topics, and also a wonderful selection of resources with which to teach both the old and the new.

It would be heartbreaking and extremely retrograde if we were to return to a content only, single narrative in the teaching of our discipline. All the worthwhile development of skills, the raising of consciousness about values, the rich and abundant units of work and web resources would be lost. The loss would be for students, which ultimately means for society at large.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2121 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:54:598:54:59 TASMANIA (TAS)

Background Tasmania recently moved to an Essential Learnings Framework (ELs) for years K-10 as a response to curriculum overcrowding in schools, and perceived lack of student engagement. This framework emphasises learning skills over content and sets out 5 Essential Learnings: Thinking (inquiring and reﬂ ective thinkers), Communication (clear and effective communication), Personal Futures (self-directed, ethical), Social Responsibility (responsible, active citizens), World Futures (local and global environments).

This framework is both outcomes and standards-based, with the Essential Learnings containing a set of student outcomes, which are marked against 5 standards as students move through their schooling. (The standards are set at the end of Kindergarten, and then years 2, 5, 8, and 10.)

The ELs framework represents a substantial shift away from prescribed content, which the department felt lacked relevance for Tasmanian students. The Tasmanian Essential Learnings do not prescribe historical material to be covered or approaches to be taken. However, within the curriculum framework, some historically-based support materials are being developed for teachers to use to help them meet the outcomes and standards of the new framework.

The place of history While historical thinking has a presence in the Tasmanian Essential Learnings framework, actual content relating to Australian history is not stipulated. Skills of inquiry, of research, communication and literacy form the basis of this framework but there is no essential link between content and skills.

In primary schools, history is embedded in a ‘transdisciplinary’ approach throughout the curriculum. History is taught through Studies of Society and Environment in most high schools, although some offer history as a discipline. SOSE is taught as an integrated or multidisciplinary subject, often incorporating ﬁ elds such as history, geography and sociology. As long as the Essential Learnings are met, the actual formation of history is not stipulated—hence some schools still maintain a discipline approach in the compulsory secondary years, while others continue to teach historical content through SOSE.

In the senior secondary years, SOSE also provides the organising structure for the humanities and social sciences curriculum for the Tasmanian Certiﬁ cate of Education, but through a discipline approach. Subjects such as World History, Ancient Civilisations, Australian Studies, Australia in Asia and the Paciﬁ c, and Issues in Society all have historical perspectives and themes as their central or secondary focus.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2222 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 The 5 essential learnings are made up of 18 key elements, which are in turn made up of learning outcomes based on the educational standards of student development.

Essential Learning Key Element Inquiry Thinking Reﬂ ective thinking Being literate

Being numerate Communicating Being information literate

Being arts literate Building and maintaining identity and relationships

Personal Futures Maintaining wellbeing Being ethical

Creating and pursuing goals Understanding the past and creating preferred futures

Social Responsibility Building social capital Valuing diversity

Acting democratically Investigating the natural and constructed world

Understanding systems World Futures Designing and evaluating technological solutions

Creating sustainable futures

The Essential Learnings framework supports a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to teaching.

Australian History 3-10 There is no detailed curriculum requirement and no particular timetable allocation for Australian history.

The current Tasmanian curriculum framework represents a move away from prescribed content - in any discipline. As far as Australian history is concerned, there are certainly topics that are naturally suited to meeting a particular Essential Learnings outcome. For

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2323 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 example, teaching the Eureka Stockade would be useful a topic for students to meet one of the outcomes in Standard 4 (year 8) for Acting Democratically: ‘Evaluate the effectiveness of methods used by democratic popular movements to achieve change’. An outcome in Standard 4 for Understanding the Past and Creating Preferred Futures is to ‘Demonstrate the signiﬁ cant contributions of key individuals, groups and events in shaping our nation: e.g. Charles Perkins, federation, migration.’ In other words, these content examples are suggested rather than prescriptive.

Comment This is a strikingly different curriculum approach to the more prescriptive or recommended content frameworks offered in some other jurisdictions, particularly that of New South Wales, and there has been some teacher, union, business and parental resistance to its apparent complexity. A new Minister of Education, David Bartlett, has promised (30/6/06) an overhaul of the Essential Learnings framework, including dropping the title but retaining the ﬁ ve ELs components. His view is “we did not do a very good job (of ELs)”. The 18 Key Elements are scheduled for reduction and a more subject- based approach is on the cards.

A Practitioner’s View “History is taught through two avenues in Year 7 – 9. It can be seen as a multidisciplinary approach where SOSE endeavours to encompass Australian and Environmental studies, incorporating, Geography, Economics, Business Studies, Civic and Citizenship. We have a very rich Tasmanian history – both indigenous and early settlement focus, which informs and enriches our curricular through out the high school years.

We are also fortunate to have many trans-disciplinary programs, which endeavour to engage students in experiential learning across the curricular, including History. SOSE is compulsory during years 7-9 and we undertake 3 one-hour lessons a week. In Year 10 there is a specialisation of SOSE and students can opt for a more in-depth study in Religion, Geography, and History course. These courses are very well patronised by students, who later go on to study Humanities based subjects at TCE Year 11-12 level. Assessment documentation is constructed in consultation with State requirements and school objectives. A nine criteria based assessment, which informs our evaluation of the student, does not unduly impede upon the content of the courses taught, although we do have SOSE Course Outlines for all Year groups in the high school, which guides our teaching.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2424 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 The SOSE course in the school that I teach encourages students to gain knowledge and understandings of the society in which they live, other societies / cultural groups, as well as local and global environments. We endeavour to develop a student’s knowledge of Australia, its people; it’s cultural and environmental heritage, its political and legal systems. We attempt to promote the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable students to participate as active and inform citizens in a democratic society and within a global community … In Year 10 History (Optional in Year 10) we primarily take an Australian perspective, undertaking an intellectual journey through our rich 19th -20th C narrative, steeped in change through conﬂ ict. We chronologically conduct a journey through dates and times, incidents, events, war campaigns, Australian and World leaders, political and social turning points in Australia. And although perhaps described as a structured narrative, chronological in nature, there are many opportunities to stop and engage in critical thinking – historical signposts one can ﬂ ag down and hang a greater understanding; a comparative understanding or issue relevant to today’s world.

I don’t believe that collaborative engagement of curriculum content in the areas of social or environmental studies or using comparative cultural evidence to engage students in discussion and thought is devaluing or detracting from Australian history, if anything it actually adds understanding and meaningfulness to our student’s identifi cation of Australia. How could one study the effects of the Gold Rush without looking also at the change of land usage or the social consequences of racial confl ict at the time? Or when investigating the social and political implications of Post-War Australia in the 1940’s, you may include the effect to migration and subsequent issues involving refugees in today’s society. It would be a disservice to our students if we were not capable or willing to offer them the opportunity to make links to some greater issues and associations to their own world - fi nding relevance amongst the rich primary evidence, basic knowledge of events and times and to make connections. It would also be amiss not to engage students in this open dialogue, to put ‘us’ into a perspective and engage a critical evaluation of how we have become who we are – this is where one can diverge from a linear narrative and cast a critical, if not more engaging debate on who we are, why and how … We need to have rich and relevant curriculum that engages our students. We need to encourage the critical thinker who is able to evaluate, analyse, interpret, as well as see the loaded and biased constructions of history and engage in the discussion. Therefore content is may not always be as signifi cant as the way it is taught, because if it is taught in a way that engages then we produce life long learners who continue to question and refl ect beyond the classroom.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2525 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 VICTORIA (VIC)

The Background In 2004, the state government announced that the then Curriculum and Standards (CSF) 2 framework was to be replaced by the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). Ostensibly, a change was needed because the previous, outcomes-based framework had become over-crowded with outcomes. Figures that were mentioned at the time were 747 CSF outcomes K-10 and 2192 indicators (detailed suggestions about how outcomes might be achieved). Arguably, VELS was introduced, in part, because outcome based education in Victoria had developed into a school-level tick-a-box approach to student achievement.

VELS identiﬁ es establishes three strands and sixteen “domains” as the basis of the whole curriculum. The strands are:

• Physical, Personal and Social learning, which includes, for example, Civics and Citizenship Education

• Discipline-based learning, which includes, for example, English

• Interdisciplinary learning, which includes, for example, Communication and Thinking processes

The Place of History History is a “Domain” within the Discipline-based Humanities “strand”. The other VELS strands are Arts, English (with Languages other than English), Mathematics and Science. The other Humanities Domains are Geography and Economics. The nature of the domains is further expanded in “Dimensions”

Speciﬁ c standards for Economics, Geography and History are introduced at Level 4 (Years 5 and 6).

The history domain of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards will be introduced into all Victorian Government and Catholic schools in 2007.

The major change brought about by the introduction of VELS is that history is now a clearly deﬁ ned discipline at both primary and secondary school levels, with its own clearly outlined attributes and its own content.

Under the previous curriculum framework it was possible for a student to reach Year 10 without having attended a “history” lesson. That is no longer the case. Furthermore, all schools now have to report to the state department on the teaching and learning of history, which was not the case before. On the other hand, the implementation of VELS has been handed over to the schools and, that being the case, History will probably be taught 2 lessons a week in Years 7-8 and at

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2626 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 best an averaged 3 lessons a week in years 9 and 10 (the subject could be semesterised, hence the use of “averaged”).

Finally, there is a focus on Australian History in the origins and establishment of a democratic parliament in the Civics and Citizenship domain at Level 5. This might include students explaining “the origins and features of representative government” in other societies and its “key features”, comparing this society with the system of government that operates in Australia.

Australian History 3-10 There is no detailed curriculum requirement and no particular timetable allocation for Australian history.

Primary School

Level 3, in VELS terminology, starts at Grade 3 and ends at Grade 4. In that time, students “are introduced to basic concepts related to history…Speciﬁ c learning focus statements and standards….are introduced at level 4.” There are no speciﬁ c instructions regarding Australian history. Students are also introduced to the language of history and historical concepts such as time, past and present, chronology and change.

Level 4 (Grade 5 – 6)

History in Grades 5 and 6 means “signiﬁ cant events in Australian history”. Students examine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities ‘in the past and as enduring cultures today’, European settlement, colonial development, the history of the wool industry, gold rushes, self government/Federation, and World War One, as well as the histories of cultural groups that make up Australia today. At the same time, students examine the history of one Asian/ regional nation and they compare and contrast “values and beliefs of Australians and peoples of other cultures.”

Secondary School

(Year 7 and 8 students focus on ancient and medieval societies)

Level 6 (Years 9 and 10)

Students return to issues in Australian history with a particular focus on events which contributed to Australia’s social, cultural and political development. They study such topics as the impact of European colonisation on Australia, growth of the colonies, self-government/ Federation, World Wars One and Two, immigration and the Gulf Wars. They also look at the impact of colonization on ATSI communities, civil rights, land rights, political rights and social rights movements (eg aboriginal suffrage/Mabo/eight-hour day/womens’ rights).

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2727 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 Comment The major change, as already stated is that history is now regarded as a discipline. As for Australian history, allowing that there seems to be considerable repetition and overlap between Level 4 (upper primary) and Level 6 (mid-secondary), the difference between how Australian history is studied a Level 4 and Level 6 seems to lie in the depth of critical response, the more complex nature of the topics and the more sophisticated level of explanation required from the senior students. This is presumably based on Bruner’s spiral theory of the curriculum (same topics, more depth as student progresses) but in practice, the theory may be overwhelmed by vicissitudes in practice. Unless it is handled properly, inexperienced, unqualiﬁ ed, under- resourced teachers of history (and their students) might well regard the secondary school phase of Australian history as mere repetition.

On the other hand, according to a former senior manager in the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority:

“The argument (at consultation meetings) was put that it didn’t really make sense to restrict level 4 to 19th century history and level 6 to 20th century history because students at level 6 are much more advanced intellectually and are more mature. They are able to engage with the material at a much higher level and with more depth. Students at level 4 study history in a fairly superﬁ cial way – primary students spend most of their time on literacy and numeracy and sport they have little time for anything else. I heard a ﬁ gure of 8 hours a week for everything else. Some students get very little history. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some get no history in some years in the primary school.

Which is a commonly held view in many jurisdictions, an issue highlighted in the National Inquiry report.

Finally, as an indicator of the position of in Australian history at the senior school level, total Year 12 Victorian student numbers in history have been slowly rising over the past decade and a half, from 5579 in 1993 to 6700 in 2005. However students taking Australian history at Year 12 have declined over the same period, from 3143 to 1693. Arguably this phenomenon is a consequence of (1) the introduction of compulsory Australian Studies in Victoria at year 11 in the early 1990s. Following this initiative, Year 12 Australian history in Victoria went into steep decline, from 3143 in 1993 to 2308 in 1998 (Victoria abandoned compulsory Australian Studies in the 1995) and (2) the popularity of the Year 12 ‘Revolutions’ course.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2828 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:00:55:00 A Practitioner’s View “The fi rst draft of the History Domain for the VELS seemed to be less specifi c and in terms of the content for Australian History, less repetitious. The main point being that teachers felt aggrieved by the fact that the fi rst draft for Level Six did not contain scope for events like ‘The Gold Rushes’. It appeared that the writers had intentionally tried to avoid overlap of content of ‘Australian History’ at Levels 4 and 6 by generally focusing the earlier level on the 19th century and the latter on the twentieth. The revised, and fi nal, version though saw that this idea of a clear-cut distinction between the two centuries was dismissed – with Level 6 clearly dealing with events from the nineteenth century.

To some, this seemed an unwise idea – it was the same content being covered at both levels – certainly one, albeit not the strongest, argument for why some students feel that ‘they have done it all before’. To be fair though, it does depend on the actual teaching of the topic to see an actual difference in a student’s knowledge and understanding of the topic. Good teaching will challenge and enhance a student’s understanding of a topic and at Level 6 teachers are directed to challenge students in this way by getting them to use much more sophisticated levels of analysis to see this type of understanding effected.

A main concern though is that, within the scope that VELS allows, particularly at Level 6, [Australian history] will be whittled down to a mere survey of topics that ‘have been done before’. At Level 6, VELS certainly allows for many interesting topics to be incorporated into part of the teaching and learning program – particularly many events which have contributed to the ‘development of social, political and cultural development’ of Australia in the latter part of the twentieth century and indeed the twenty-ﬁ rst – but whether these will actually be tackled, especially when examples seem to focus on the ‘old chestnuts’ of the past, is doubtful.

VELS expects and allows development of the skills required for historical understanding and interpretation. It will be interesting to see whether this potential diversity of topics in Australian History will be taken up by those using the VELS curriculum.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 2929 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:55:018:55:01 WESTERN AUSTRALIA (WA)

The Background Western Australia’s Curriculum Council has demonstrated a very strong commitment to outcomes-based education, an approach that has, over the past few years, put it odds with several teacher groups, parent groups, media outlets and politicians who have claimed that WA’s 1998 Curriculum Framework is virtually content-free. This tension has resulted in considerable local controversy which intensiﬁ ed 2005- 2006 when WA-style outcomes-based education was applied for the ﬁ rst time to senior year students studying for their Tertiary Entrance (TEE) programs.

The place of history History is studied mainly through the Time, Continuity and Change SOSE Learning Area section of the Curriculum Framework document, along with Investigation, Communication and Participation, Resources, Place and Space, Culture, Natural and Social Systems and Active Citizenship. SOSE is one of eight Learning Areas.

The introductory sentence to the one and a half page section on Time, Continuity and Change reads: “Students understand that peoples’ actions and values are shaped by their understanding and interpretation of the past.”

There is some reference to historical topics in Culture – as diverse cultural heritages and background to conﬂ ict and tensions

Australian History 3-10 There is no detailed curriculum requirement and no particular timetable allocation for Australian history and there is very little direct reference to Australian history in the Learning Area statement apart from passing mention of “cultural, political and economic perspectives on Australia’s past”, heritage and ATSI places of signiﬁ cance and the Mabo decision.

In the Curriculum Council “Scope of the Curriculum” section (pp. 266-270) there is a statement for Years 3-7 that “The development of student’s (sic) understanding of time, continuity and change is achieved mainly through Australian history (p. 269). There follow two extended paragraphs with suggested topics which include local history, indigenous history and examination of “British, or other European and Asian beliefs and customs” and the “impact of the beliefs and traditions on Australian institutions and practices.”

There is support material in the form of Getting Started, a 76 page Learning Area Support Document which outlines case studies at various stages in a student’s career. Case Story 2 deals with a Year 6 class and an integrated approach to ANZAC Day, using A Fortunate Life as a starting text, examining social and cultural issues in Australia pre 1914.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3030 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:55:018:55:01 Comment This is a very process-driven approach, and, as with other non- prescribed curricular models, what actually goes on in schools K-10 is hard to fathom. At the same time, WA has ﬁ ve Learning Areas which equate to the 1990s Key Learning Area “strands” and, as the National Inquiry pointed out in 2000, this multiplicity of outcomes strands often results in curriculum confusion. As the teacher comment suggests (below) teachers of Australian history may be tempted to design their teaching around available resources rather than around a coherent view of the subject area. At the time of writing, the WA Premier has engaged in a trouble-shooting exercise over the outcomes- based issue.

A Practitioner’s View “There are overlaps, gaps and repetitions galore in the teaching of Australian history in Western Australia.

Students are repeatedly exposed to ‘Australians at War’ topics because of the accumulation of free teaching resources from governments over the years, the lack of a syllabus or prescribed sequence of Australian topics for K to 10, the annual compulsory school ceremony for ANZAC Day which provides stimulus for class activities, and the various competitions, some of which offer winners overseas trips.

In primary schools, history is a small part of the Society and Environment learning area and is frequently integrated with other learning areas, in particular English. The marking rubric for a history topic usually meets the needs of English and the strands of Investigation, Participation and Communication (ICP) in addition to needs of history. An example is a student task of learning about John Forrest and then writing his biography. The teacher’s marking rubric for this task would have some assessing lines for the Time, Continuity and Change strand, but also lines for English competence in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and using capital letters. If students were required to investigate Forrest’s explorations, parts of the Place and Space strand might have appropriate lines on the rubric also. English competencies will be assessed a number of times in a year, but any form of history will not. In many ways this type of integration is happening in lower secondary classes also.

In Primary school little history is taught as teachers are focused on meeting the needs of literacy and numeracy directives and benchmark testing. What Australian history students investigate is limited and has a mainly military focus. Ancient Egypt is still the popular and common history topic.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3131 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:55:018:55:01 In lower secondary school, students cover one or both of the world wars from an Australian perspective as well as non- Australian history. No wonder many groan and say, ‘Not Australian history again!’

At the senior level, 3000 students select history in Year 11 but only a handful study an Australian history area. 2850 students have to study a semester of Australian history in Year 12 and approximately 1800 will study both wars again. However, recent T.E.E. papers have shown a good standard of knowledge.”

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3232 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:55:018:55:01 CONCLUSION

If this exercise is about assessing whether or not there is a consistent and coherent approach to the teaching and learning of Australian history in schools across Australia, two conclusions are immediately clear.

To begin with, there is absolutely no consistency of curriculum approach. Two jurisdictions (Western Australia and Northern Territory) have adopted a state/territory wide outcomes-based framework within which Australian history is situated as part of SOSE but even within this small sub-group of two, NT has leaned towards Essential Learnings. One jurisdiction (Australian Capital Territory) has a similar outcomes-based approach but has adopted a school-based curriculum framework and is about to adopt Essential Learnings. In other words, there is no jurisdictional map of how Australian history should be, or might be, taught across the ACT. Three jurisdictions (South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria) have adopted an Essential Learnings approach but the current Tasmanian framework is content free, the South Australian approach has some dispersed content requirements and the Victorian approach is discipline-based at primary/secondary levels, with carefully arranged Australian history requirements. New South Wales operates a discipline-based approach at the secondary school level, has mandatory timetable requirements, a clear syllabus outline and, uniquely, an examination in modern Australian history. Queensland has an outcomes-based approach in an Essential Learnings framework and a reasonably clear set of guidelines for the teaching of Australian history but within a very complex system, and uniquely, no public examination system at any level.

As for detecting any coherence in delivering Australian history in both syllabus construction and implementation, there are several issues which have been highlighted in this survey and which were originally outlined in the National Inquiry. First there is the problem of generic SOSE or Essential Learnings curriculum in which history can lose its identity as a unique and complex discipline. In that context, the permissive nature of the generality of primary school teaching means that individual teachers call the shots about what exactly is taught and when. This means that tracking Australian history in almost all primary schools as a deﬁ ned sequence of key topics would be an impossible task. This issue is extending into the lower reaches of secondary education as the middle years curriculum takes hold in an increasing number of schools.

Second, primary school teachers frequently have to give precedence to system priorities (for example literacy and numeracy) at the expense of less central Key Learning Areas such as SOSE (or S&E, HSIE or Humanities) within which Australian history is taught in all jurisdictions.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3333 33/08/2006/08/2006 8:55:018:55:01 Third, and this is true for both primary and secondary schools, we have teachers taking “history” sessions or lessons who have little or no background in the subject and who may fail to understand the nature of the discipline.

Then there is the problem of topic repetition, with Australian topics appearing at several stages in a student’s career, in a way that is frequently detrimental to student interest in the national story.

T h e u p s h o t i s t h a t t h e r e i s n o g u a r a n t e e t h a t t h e v a s t m a j o r i t y o f s t u d e n t s 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.

The redeeming feature of this survey is that, in schools all over Australia, it is evident that there are large numbers of individual teachers at both primary and secondary school level who teach Australian history with great skill and enthusiasm, but many of these teachers have to operate within a local patchwork curriculum where Australian history is often regarded as an optional extra.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3434 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:02:55:02 A SHORT GLOSSARY OF USEFUL EDUCATIONAL TERMS

Electives – an attempt to encourage Year 9 and 10 student interest by offering elective units in non-core learning areas. The consequence is that some students may progress through Years 9 and 10 without studying any history units.

.Essential Learnings – an attempt to deal with the problems both of an over-crowded curriculum and preparation for life beyond the school walls. The issue of relevance, a key part of educational design over the past half century, is turned around in Essential Learnings. Instead of asking, “How can we make the curriculum more relevant to the outside world?”, the Essential Learnings question is “How can the challenges of the outside world be met by the curriculum?” Essential Learnings has been adopted in varying forms over last ﬁ ve years in Queensland (as New Basics), Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. It is about to be adopted by ACT.

Integrated Curriculum – studying topics or themes in a way that incorporates elements of the different subject/curriculum areas. For example students may study Ned Kelly as an exercise involving outcomes in geography, economics, sociology, morals, media, music, literature as well as history. Primary school teaching throughout Australia is ﬁ rmly based on the integrated curriculum model.

Key Learning Area – a curriculum classiﬁ cation. In the case of history, the subject is conﬂ ated into a Studies of Society and Environment Key Learning Area with “strands” (q.v). There are eight Key Learning Areas: English/literacy; Mathematics/numeracy; Science; Creative Arts; Languages other than English; Studies of Society and Environment (or S&E/HSIE); Health and Physical Education; Technology.

Levels – developmental stages in a student’s career that are broader than Grade or Year levels and are related to standards i.e. student attainment.

Middle School initiative – an attempt to deal with transition from primary to secondary school, a stage at which many students appeared to lose interest in their schooling. Generally operates at Years 7-9 and features integrated approach to curriculum and reduced numbers of teachers dealing with any class – more like a primary school model.

Objectives-based education – curriculum outlined as a series of syllabus goals without necessarily suggesting how they might be attained. Objectives-based education tended to focus on content only and was criticised for being too narrow and too irrelevant. Now regarded as passé

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3535 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:02:55:02 Outcomes-based education – a US model curriculum initially outlined as a series of expected knowledge/skills outcomes. The curriculum is then developed backwards from the outcomes including suggested content, combined with elucidatory suggestions on how outcomes might be achieved. Became the dominant approach in Australia in the 1990s. Criticised for being (1) too concerned with process (2) too vague on content and (3) too mechanical.

Semesterisation – teaching a subject in one semester only instead of over a whole year. This allows non-core subjects to have more teaching time per week. For example, the normal whole year allocation for Year 8 history might be two lessons per week, whereas a semesterised Year 8 history might have four lessons per week, allowing teachers more time for a thorough exploration of topics.

Standards – a commonly-used term that has two quite different meanings. The ﬁ rst usage relates to student attainment. The second meaning is to do with the professional capability of teachers.

Strands – the term can have several meanings but generally refers to a re-grouping of subjects within a Key learning Area. For example SOSE has at least three strands, Time Continuity and Change (history), Place and Space (geography) and Resources (economics). One jurisdiction had six SOSE strands in its 1990s framework

Stated curriculum – what curriculum documents say. This is sometimes at odds with enacted curriculum (what actually goes on in schools) and realised curriculum (what students actually do, or do not, learn).

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3636 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:02:55:02 APPENDIX A

Appendix A (provided separately)

Curriculum Documents (by jurisdiction - in alphabetical order)

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3737 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:02:55:02 APPENDIX B

Research into student understanding of historical narrative There has been a signiﬁ cant amount of valuable research in history education over the past two decades. Most of the key researchers work in Canada, the United States, the UK and Spain. Below is a summary of selected research ﬁ ndings as they apply to student understanding of historical narrative:

Depth as well as Breadth

Denis Shemilt conducted the major initial evaluation of the Schools Council History Project (later known as the Schools History Project or SHP) and the research conclusions, published in 1980, still remain one of the most signiﬁ cant contributions to understanding how school students understand history. The SHP model, a two and a third year program (Years 9-11 equivalent) combined an initial history-as-enquiry section with a survey over time (The History of Medicine) and several studies in depth (for example, “The American West”). Some of the deeper studies had a brief internally-relevant chronological review.

1000 students were surveyed, divided 50:50 into project and control groups, using matched pairs analysis of a total of 306 students in the sample body. The research looked into student development of historical thinking in adolescents, ranging from Level 1 – events happened “just because” through to Level IV – a sophisticated understanding that historical explanation is constrained by context. The highest success rate at Level IV occurred in 68% of the SHP students and in 29% of the non-SHP. The conclusions? Student understanding of history improves dramatically when they are taught the basics of historical enquiry and when they combine depth with breadth. Finally, a large majority of SHP students (75%) thought history was harder than mathematics and, conversely, the majority of control students (83%) thought mathematics was harder than history.

Stages in understanding

Peter Lee (University of London Institute of Education) has been working on historical understanding in students for over thirty years. His many publications tend to be a re-working of his ideas over time but he has contributed a useful table of progression in students’ ideas about [historical] accounts and their relation to the past. The table is more ability-related than age-related.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3838 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:03:55:03 The past is ﬁ xed, it’s Stories are about the same thing: the a given story is about something ‘out there’ We can’t know. We weren’t there. The past is inaccessible Nothing can be known for sure Stories are ﬁ xed by the information The past determines available. Differences in accounts are its stories a consequence of gaps in information The past is reported in a Differences in accounts are a result of more or less biased way distortion not just lack of information The past is selected Stories are written from a legitimate and organised from a viewpoint held by the author. viewpoint The past is reconstructed in answer It’s not just the author, it’s also the to questions framed by nature of the accounts that produces historians. Accounts are differing explanations constructions, not just conjunctions of events

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 3939 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:03:55:03 APPENDIX C

An index of historical literacy This very brief outline has been taken from the National Centre for History Education website (www.hyperhistory.org) where more details of this important statement of what constitutes historical literacy may be found in Making History, a guide to the teaching and learning of history in Australian schools.

Events of the past - Knowing and understanding historical events, using prior knowledge, and realising the signiﬁ cance of different events.

Narratives of the past - Understanding the shape of change and continuity over time, understanding multiple narratives and dealing with open-endedness.

Research skills - Gathering, analysing and using the evidence (artefacts, documents and graphics) and issues of provenance.

The language of history - Understanding and dealing with the language of the past.

Historical concepts - Understanding historical concepts such as causation and motivation.

ICT understandings - Using, understanding and evaluating ICT-based historical resources (the virtual archive).

Making connections - Connecting the past with the self and the world today.

Contention and contestability - Understanding the 'rules' and the place of public and professional historical debate.

Representational expression - Understanding and using creativity in representing the past through ﬁ lm, drama, visual arts, music, ﬁ ction, poetry and ICT.

Moral judgement in history - Understanding the moral and ethical issues involved in historical explanation.

Applied science in history - Understanding the use and value of scientiﬁ c and technological expertise and methods in investigating the past, such as DNA analysis or gas chromatography tests.

Historical explanation - Using historical reasoning, synthesis and interpretation (the index of historical literacy) to explain the past. Historical understanding is incomplete without explanation.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 4040 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:03:55:03 APPENDIX D

National Consistency in Curriculum Outcomes Draft Statements of Learning for Civics and Citizenship The draft Statements of Learning for Civics and Citizenship have been designed to describe progressions of learning that are accessible and challenging at four year junctures of years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

The National Statements will identify some common elements in all curriculum policies for Civics and Citizenship across Australia, which will provide a common basis for education systems to develop greater consistency. The Statements of Learning will be implemented across all States and Territories by the beginning of 2008.

The draft Statements recognise that civics and citizenship aspects of curriculums in Australia seek to provide students with the opportunity to develop, inter alia, “an understanding of, and commitment to, Australia’s democratic system of government, law and civic life”; “the knowledge, skills and values that support active citizenship and the capacity to act as informed and responsible citizens”; “an appreciation of the inﬂ uence of media and information and communication technologies on the views and actions of citizens and governments” and “an understanding of historical perspectives on Australia’s development as a democratic nation”.

The Statements are intended for use by jurisdictions, not schools.

Overview The Historical Perspectives sections in the draft statements explore the impact of the past on Australian civil society. The impact of British colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their pursuit of citizenship rights are examined. The ways in which individuals, events and popular movements have infl uenced the development of democracy in Australia and the infl uence of past societies on Australian democracy are explored. The infl uence of local, state, national, regional and global events, issues and perspectives on Australia’s changing national identities and the impact of government policy on the development of Australia as a culturally diverse nation are examined.

Speciﬁ cs

Year 3 Historical Perspectives

Students explore perspectives on Australia’s civic past through symbols, events and personal and group stories. They understand that Australia’s history pre-dates British colonisation and can recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inﬂ uences on the valuing and naming of Australian places. They explore Australia’s cultural diversity through personal and local histories and discuss stories of signiﬁ cant

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 4141 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:04:55:04 events and individuals that have helped shape Australia’s democracy. They identify and consider the values reﬂ ected in Australian national symbols. They examine the inﬂ uence of different types of rule on people’s lives.

Year 5 Historical Perspectives

Students explore ways in which Australian identities have changed over time. They explore the social organisation of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples prior to 1788. They investigate why Australia was colonised by Britain and how Australia was governed from colonisation to federation. They understand that some important concepts and civic terms in Australian democracy are legacies of past societies. They investigate the infl uence of signifi cant individuals and events on the development of democracy in Australia. They examine the histories of cultural groups within their community and investigate ways in which cultural diversity has infl uenced Australian identity over time.

Year 7 Historical Perspectives

Students explore the impact of people, events and movements of the past on Australian identities and democracy. They consider the importance of ‘country’ to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and investigate how their lives were affected by British colonisation. They investigate key events and ideas in the development of Australian self-government and democracy. They consider the changing values reﬂ ected in national celebrations and examine what these have meant to Australians over time. They investigate the contributions of people who have helped achieve civil and political rights in Australia and around the world. They compare the governance of some ancient societies to that of Australia today.

Year 9 Historical Perspectives

Students explore how and why civic and political rights, government policies and national identity have changed over time in Australia. They develop an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people’s pursuit of citizenship rights and examine the effects of government policies on Australia’s Aboriginal people. They investigate the development of multiculturalism in Australia and evaluate changes in government policies on issues including immigration. They consider the development of Australian citizenship over time and reasons why people choose to become Australian citizens. They have an understanding of Australia’s development as a self-governing nation from colonisation to the present and the achievement of civil and political rights in Australia. They reﬂ ect on the inﬂ uence of past international events on governments in Australia.

HHistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.inddistorySummit_DESTMapping_004.indd 4242 33/08/2006/08/2006 88:55:04:55:04