‘What did Australian school students learn about the Great War during the

war? What do students learn about the war today?’

Dr Rosalie TrioloFaculty of EducationMonash University

Abstract:

Magazines created during the Great War by education departments or single schools, as well as text or other books deemed compulsory or recommended reading, conveyed official and usually conservative views about the war. Such publications shaped lessons in schools and profoundly influenced life beyond, yet are highly-underrated and rarely-used resources today for understanding values, attitudes and activities during the war. A century later, education continues to shape and be shaped variously by official or wider social views. Events of the Great War also continue to be taught. In some ways, the media and the messages are the same; in other ways, not.

This session will focus on representations of the Empire and its Allies, specifically representations of France and Belgium. It will draw mainly on primary sources used in Victoria, but will incorporate examples from elsewhere. It will encourage participants to identify similarities and differences between past and present teachings.

Inquiry method. What does it mean?

Students:

* frame questions* locate, organise and analyse evidence* evaluate, synthesise and report conclusions* take action of some sort (preferable)* re-consider consequences and outcomes of each phase(Hamston & Murdoch, 1996),

* with teacher assistance …* with a starting point of prior knowledge …* within a spirit that inquiring and learning are ongoing and that there will very likely be further evidence … hypotheses are tentative …(Triolo, 2014)

Identify three countries that you believe Australian and

New Zealand students learned about during the Great War.

What is one thing about each of those countries that you

believe the students learned?

• Department of Veterans’ Affairs> Commemorations> Education> Education Resources> Resource kits, books, websites and online publications

• http://www.dva.gov.au/Pages/home.aspx

Evidence collection (I)

12 sources from (the hundreds) in the forthcoming DVA school resource

‘Schooling, Service and the Great War’

• Inquiry question:

What did school students learn during the Great War about the British Empire, its Allies and its enemies?

• Enjoy reading the evidence …

• In light of it, consider the extent to which your preliminary hypotheses have been confirmed or challenged.

• IF instances of the latter, ‘what’ have you learned?

Evidence collection (II)

6 pages from Rosalie Triolo, ‘Our Schools and the War’, Australian Scholarly, Kew,

2012, pp. 8-23.

• What did school students learn during the Great War about the British Empire, its Allies and its enemies?

• Enjoy reading the evidence …

• In light of it, consider the extent to which your preliminary hypotheses have been confirmed or challenged.

• IF instances of the latter, ‘what’ have you learned?

• Report back?

• Conclusions:What do you think are the similarities between what students learned then, and now?What are the differences?What’s ‘missing’ from my examples with you today?

• Any questions?• rosalie.triolo@monash.edu