Australian Curriculum: History (Senior) Update and Advice Dec 2012

Ingrid Purnell Manager, Publishing and Australian Curriculum Projects

History Teachers’ Association of Victoria

Background

Howard government convened

Australian History Summit

in 2006 to develop national curriculum in History, with Australia as key component

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority

(ACARA) established by Rudd government in 2008

Phase 1 subjects (highest priority):

• English • Mathematics • Science • History

Australian Curriculum (AC) History (Foundation –10):

• Being implemented in some form from 2013 in the majority of states and territories. In Victoria it comes under AusVELS

Senior AC History (11 –12):

• Yet to be confirmed • Two courses have been proposed: Ancient History and Modern History • States and territories have given feedback to ACARA

Current ACARA draft: Ancient History Unit 1: Investigating the Ancient World

Focus

• The nature of evidence of the ancient past • Interpretations and representations • The preservation, ownership and display of ancient materials

Topic 1

Study ONE of the following ancient sites, events, individuals or groups: • Site: Thera (Santorini); OR Masada • Event: Battle of Kadesh; OR Roman Games; OR Late Roman Empire in West • Individual: Cleopatra; OR Alexander the Great; OR Cao Cao • Group: Hebrews and the Exodus; OR Early Christians • Own choice of ancient site, event, individual or group to 650 CE

AND Topic 2

Study TWO of the following issues regarding preservation and display: • Historical authentication (Piltdown Man; Turin shroud; Priam’s treasure; KV5) • Preservation/conservation (Mycenae; Persepolis; Teotihuacan; terracotta warriors) • Cultural heritage and role of museums (Nefertiti bust; Parthenon sculptures) • Treatment and display of human remains (Indigenous Australians; mummified remains; Bog Bodies)

Acknowledgments to Pat Hincks for course summaries

Current ACARA draft: Ancient History Unit 2: Ancient Societies

Focus

• How people lived in the ancient world • Social, political and economic institutions

Topics

Study TWO of the following topics, incorporating historical skills: • Old Kingdom Egypt • Egypt in Ramesside Period • Bronze Age Mycenae • Sparta (c. 700–371 BCE) • Persia (559–330 BCE) • Rome (753–264 BCE or 264–133 BCE) • Ptolemaic Egypt • Qin and Han China • Israel (961–637 BCE) • Assyria (721–627 BCE)

Features

Study ONE feature: • Slavery; OR Death and burial; OR Art and architecture; OR Weapons and warfare; OR Technology and engineering; OR The family; OR Beliefs, values and rituals

Current ACARA draft: Ancient History Unit 3: People, Power and Authority

Focus

• Nature and exercise of power • Role of individual in society • Political, military, religious and economic features

Topics

Study ONE of the following topics, incorporating skills: • New Kingdom Egypt • Persia (560–465 BCE) • Archaic Greece • Rome (133–63 BCE or 63 BCE–14 CE) • Late Han China and Three Kingdoms

Individuals

Study ONE of the following individuals: • Egypt: Hatshepsut; Thutmose III; Akhenaten • Persia: Darius 1; Xerxes • Greece: Solon; Themistocles; Cimon; Pausanius • Rome: Marius; Sulla; Pompey; Caesar; Antony; Augustus • China: Liu Bei; Zhuge Liang

Current ACARA draft: Ancient History Unit 4: The Ancient World: Sites and Developments

Focus

• Significant sites and developments • Social, political, religious and economic institutions • Events and individuals

Topics

Study ONE of the following sites or developments: • Thebes – East and West • New Kingdom imperialism and diplomacy • The Athenian Agora and Acropolis • Athens, Sparta and the Peloponnesian War • The Julio-Claudians and ‘Imperial’ Rome • Pompeii and Herculaneum

Key concepts

• Perspectives • Interpretations • Contestability • Conservation • Custodianship

Current ACARA draft: Modern History Unit 1: Understanding the Modern World

Focus

• Developments or turning points that have helped to define modern world • Application of reason to human affairs • Transformation of production, consumption, transport and communications • Challenges to social hierarchy and privilege • Assertion of inalienable rights • Principles of government by consent

Topics

Study TWO topics, with at least ONE from the following list: • The Enlightenment (1750–89) • American Revolution (1763–1812) • French Revolution (1774–99) • Industrial Revolutions (1750–1890s) • Revolutions in Health and Medicine (1790s–1918)

Key concepts

• Significance • Changing representations and interpretations • Historical legacy

Current ACARA draft: Modern History Unit 2: Movements for Rights and Recognition in the 20

th

Century

Focus

• Significant movements that led to social change • Individuals, groups and institutions that have challenged established structures to transform society

Topics

Study TWO of the following twentieth-century movements: • Women’s rights • Recognition and rights of indigenous peoples • Decolonisation • Civil rights in the USA • Workers’ rights

Key concepts

• Factors leading to the development of movements for change • The changing nature of these movements throughout the twentieth century • Changing perspectives of the value of these movements • How their significance is interpreted

Current ACARA draft: Modern History Unit 3: The Rise of Modern Nations

Focus

• Crises that confronted nations and their responses to these crises • The path of development that was taken • The social, economic and political order that was established • Internal divisions and external threats

Topics

Study ONE nation from List 1 and ONE nation from List 2:

LIST 1

• USA, 1917–1945 • Australia, 1916–1949 • Germany, 1918–1948 • Russia and Soviet Union, 1905–1948

LIST 2

• Japan, 1937–1960s • India, 1919–1971 • Indonesia, 1942–1965 • China, 1937–1976

Current ACARA draft: Modern History Unit 4: The Modern World Since 1945

Focus

• Significant and distinctive features of the modern world • Nature of the world order • Evolving politics of violence • Emergence of Asia as a political and economic force • Nature of engagement by and with Australia, and implications of globalisation, increased mobility and rising living standards

Topics

Study ONE of the following topics, focusing on 1945 –2010: • The changing world order • Movements of people • Engagement with Asia • The struggle for peace in the Middle East • Towards a globalised economy

Key concepts

• Cause and effect; Change and continuity; Significance; Empathy; Contestability; Changing representations and interpretations

HTAV Response: Ancient History Draft

• • •

General

Too much focus on knowledge and not enough on understanding Excessive content, allowing no time for reflection, comparison, synthesis Skills underrepresented in topic dot-points (though stated elsewhere)

Specific

• Unit 1: Lacks narrative, meaningful chronology, coherence; lack of parity between options • Unit 2: Better, but too many dead-end topics; too prescriptive • Unit 3: Would be interesting for students; good links between individual and society; includes some study of females (e.g. Cleopatra) • Unit 4: Hard to compare a site and a development; excessively challenging texts on Tacitus and others

Suggestion

Begin with event of inherent human drama (e.g. Caesar assassination) and ‘travel’ backwards and forwards in time from this point, using primary sources and historiography to pursue an engaging inquiry

Overall

• Some promising elements • There may be interest in reintroducing senior Ancient History

HTAV Response: Modern History Draft

• • • •

General

Lacks significant or sustained study of Australian history Lacks coherence, depth and strong pedagogical framework Excessive content will hamper deep understanding (skills poorly embedded) Neither an effective ‘survey’ of a period nor a detailed thematic study

Specific

• Unit 1: Enlightenment too challenging for Unit 1; Revolutions in Health and Medicine not comparable with armed revolutions and lacks interest • Unit 2: Repetition with Year 10; too much on politics/rights; poor chronology • Unit 3: Can’t cover ideological aspects of revolutions in time given; Britain not covered; India interesting; repetition with Year 9; not much on women • Unit 4: Lacks human interest; too broad and ‘demographic’; overlap with VCE Global Politics; Middle East option interesting

Suggestion

Begin with event of inherent human drama (e.g. Chamberlain’s ‘Peace in our time’ speech) and ‘travel’ backwards and forwards in time from this point, using primary sources and historiography to pursue an engaging inquiry

Overall

• Course would struggle to compete with other VCE subjects; not viable alternative to popular History subjects available now • Victorian teachers want depth, coherence, and sustained Australian history

Current Issues for Senior History

Expected review of current VCE History courses: viability, incorporation of AC content?

Victoria: AusVELS, more school autonomy Implications of F –10 implementation How ACARA will respond to feedback on drafts Debates over the place of Australian history Digital learning and National Broadband Network Victorian and Australian Baccalaureates

Advice for Teachers

Teach current VCE History until 2014 Familiarise yourself with Senior AC drafts Gradually prepare junior students for senior History Subscribe to ACARA and VCAA updates* Inform HTAV of F –10 implementation issues Make use of HTAV books and events Give HTAV your feedback on current VCE History * www.acara.edu.au/new_media/subscribe.html

www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/correspondence/bulletins/bulletinonlinesubscribe.aspx

Useful Websites

Renaissance Italy

www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/italian-renaissance-villas-and-gardens/

Revolutions

France

www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook13.asp

Russia

www.st-petersburg-life.com/st-petersburg/1917-russian-revolution

America

www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/

China

www.sinohits.net/posters/index.htm

Australian History

www.aussieeducator.org.au/tertiary/subjects/history/australian/australianhistory.html

Twentieth Century

www.besthistorysites.net/index.php/modern-history

HTAV Resources

Renaissance Italy

• Sample Exams • Teacher Pack

Revolutions

• Sample Exams • Teacher Pack • Liberating France • Reinventing Russia • Forging America • China Rising

Australian History

• Sample Exams • Exam Revision Guide • Nation, Race and Citizen • The Depression • World War II • Vietnam War • The Colonial Experience

Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century 1900 –1945 Twentieth Century 1945 –2000 Teacher CD-Rom Update prepared December 2012