Summary of the proposed National Curriculum for History(Australia)

Annabel Astbury History Teachers’ Association of Victoria

National Curriculum Framing Paper 2008

Year 4 – Year 6

Year 11 – Year 12

Stage 4: 15 – 18 Years of Age

Personal Pasts

Chronology and measurements of time

Features of everyday life and present societies

STAGE 1: Key Topics(5- 8 years of age)

STAGE 2: Key Topics(8 – 12 Years of Age)

At this stage there are five key areas:

What is Australia and who are Australians?

What problems did successive peoples encounter in living in early Australia and were these problems resolved?

How did we ‘create’ a new nation and develop a national identity?

How did we live then?

Developing a chronology and overview

STAGE 2: Key Topic 1

Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License

What is Australia and who are Australians?

• Histories of local members of indigenous communities and pre arrival and post arrival histories of settler and migrant members of community – in a global context.

• Commemorative Days and Commemoration

STAGE 2: Key Topic 2

Escape of Fenian convicts from Fremantle, West Australia. picture 1876. Reproduction rights owned by the State Library of Victoria

What problems did successive peoples encounter in living in early Australia and were these problems resolved?

•Lives of Aboriginal communities prior European colonisation.

• Impact of European colonization on Aboriginal communities.

• Local and national exploration – contextualized in a global perspective.

STAGE 2: Key Topic 3

Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License

How did we ‘create’ a new nation and develop a national identity?

• National Identities

• Governance

• Democracy

STAGE 2: Key Topic 4

Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License

How did we live then?

•Social aspects of daily life

•Economic aspects of daily life

•‘pre-contact to modern times’

STAGE 2: Key Topic 1

Photograph by Christopher Chan via Flickr, under Creative Commons License

Developing a chronology and overview

• Study of local individual / group: and place within global context

Stage 3: 12 – 15 Years of Age

Key points to note:

The units outlined should be taught as ‘World History’, covering 5 continents, and sequentially.

There are four units that make up Stage 3

It is clearly stated that “not all of the world’s history can be considered”. It is hoped that this study of world history enriches the study of Australia and its place in the world.

Each unit will include a:•Overview•Bridging •Study in depth.Further advice will be provided on this.

Several depth studies will be provided for each unit – with room for options.

STAGE 3: Key Topics(12 - 15Years of Age)

At this stage there are four units:

Unit 1: History from the time of the earliest human communities to the end of the Ancient period (c. 60 000 BC – c 500 AD)

Unit 2: History from the end of the Ancient period to the beginning of the modern period (circa. 500 – 1750)

Unit 3: The Modern World and Australia (1750 – 1901) *Australian History will occupy approximately 40% of this unit.

Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World (1901 – present day)*Australian History will occupy approximately 60% of this unit.

Stage 3 / Unit 1: History from the time of the earliest human communities to the end of the Ancient period (c. 60 000 BC – c

500 AD)

• Earliest Human Communities: peopling of the

continents by circa 15 000 BC

• Agriculture

• Emergence of cities, states and empires

• Emergence of Eurasian world system

• Comparative understanding of Mediterranean and

Asian empires

• Development of Aboriginal , Melanesian and American

societies.

Stage 3 / Unit 2: History from the end of the Ancient period to the beginning of the modern period (circa. 500 – 1750)

•Expansion / Collapse of states and empires, and the

emergence of global networks of exchange.

• Major world religions

European expansion

Medieval period

• Renaissance (Art and Scientific revolutions

• Reformation

• Consideration of other civilizations: Near and Middle

East, China, Japan, India and the Americas.

Stage 3 / Unit 3: The Modern World and Australia [1750 – 1901]

•American and French Revolutions

•Industrial Revolution

•European colonization

•European discovery and settlement of Australia in context of

mass migration.

•Consequence of British Settlement for Aboriginal Australians -

> Frontier conflict, missions, reserves.(N.B. At stage 2, students will have focused more upon social structures and material culture)

•Convict Society

•Pastoralism

•self-government

•urbanization

•depression (1890s / Industrial unrest)

Stage 3 / Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World[1901 - present]

•Australian Federation•Defence•Social Welfare•Australia’s relationship with Britain•Origins and consequences of WWI•Australia’s participation in WWI•Between the wars: Depression (effects on world and Australia), rise of certain ideologies•World War II•Australia’s response to WWII•The Holocaust•Cold War•Collapse of Communism

Key points:•Choice should be apparent.

•Topics will be studied in more depth.

•Extension studies in history should be made available to all students to undertake.

In the post-compulsory years of schooling, it is recognized that not all students will study history.

This stage has been the least developed in terms of the framing paper that the National Curriculum Board has presented.

STAGE 4: Key Topics(15 – 18 Years of Age)

Stage 4: Topics [15-18 Years of Age]

Year Eleven

Year Twelve

MedievalModernAsia-Pacific

AncientAustralianExtension StudyOption**which allows for currently popular state-based subjects, although this has yet to be clearly defined.)