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Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian SchoolsNot only that, but can some students know and explain history in varieties of ways that differ fromother students? Can some students learn history from song and prefer to explain history throughmusic, while others prefer to act or paint history?Truth and historyIt can be said that one person’s truth is another person’s lies or exaggerations.For example, there is a continuing battle in Japan over government-auspiced textbooks which claimthat the invasions of Manchuria and the Rape of Nanjing were ‘advances’ rather than examples ofmilitaristic aggression that included large-scale atrocities.On the one hand, for China and South Korea, the Japanese textbook controversy is an example of aconscious distortion of the past by a former enemy and coloniser. On the other hand, Japanesenationalists see it as an example of aggressive foreign attempts to bind Japan to shameful events whichwere perfectly explicable in the context of those times and which anyway need to be filed away andforgotten.Historians differ amongst themselves about events and interpretations of events in the past. One of themost famous controversies of recent years was British historian A J P Taylor’s view that Hitler’s warwas based on opportunism rather than some master plan, and that this opportunism was encouraged bythe behaviour of the leaders of Western Europe.iiYet another more recent debate about ‘truth’ in history was the celebrated libel case where writerDavid Irving sued historian Deborah Lipstadt for criticising his writings as right-wing extremism andexamples of Holocaust denial. Irving lost the case and was described by the judge, Mr Justice Gray, asanti-Semitic and racist.ObjectivityWhere does objectivity lie in history?Historians and teachers of history must seek and use sources in as objective a fashion as they can. Anyinterpretations that they come up with may be subjective, but the range of sources, and the techniquesused to gather them, must follow professionally accepted principles.Leaving bits out because you don’t like them or don’t agree with them is not accepted practice. Beingsloppy or slapdash in gathering your evidence is also not acceptable.A J P Taylor, a controversial and meticulous scholar, used to ask aspiring doctoral scholars to showtheir potential by copying out a written passage. If they made a single mistake – one missed comma orcolon – he would send them away and suggest that they think again.There is another use of the term ‘objective’ in history – we can say that there are objectivelyestablished (commonly agreed upon) facts or events.There is no dispute, for example that Japanese bombers first raided Darwin in February 1942 or thatGough Whitlam was replaced by Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister in November 1975.How and why these events came about, and their consequences, is where the arguments start.‘Truth’ and objectivity in the classroomTeachers of history need to be aware of their responsibilities in dealing with ‘truth’ and objectivity.When it comes to historical knowledge, teachers have a role as classroom mediators and must seethemselves as one source among many, rather than as purveyors of historical truth. And one importantpart of their work is to convince their students that this is the case.3 Commonwealth of Australia 2003

Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian SchoolsSchool students have some difficulty with this idea of the teacher as just one source among many.Denis Shemilt’s research shows that some adolescents regard what the teacher says as ‘true’ becausethe ‘truth’ about the past is there to be known and the teacher is the teller or transmitter of that truth.iiiThis kind of belief in the certainty of historical truth is not just confined to adolescents, it may also befound in younger students.To deal successfully with this misunderstanding, students need to learn about the ambiguities that areimplicit in historical thinking, which always offers a ‘more or less’ accurate interpretation of the past.Historical consciousness and history educationAmerican historian Herbert Guttman described ‘historical consciousness’ as the process by whichcertain events and their stories do or don’t enter into the collective memory as public history andfamily stories.Historical consciousness, or this collective memory, is inextricably linked with political and socialaction in any society.Many students develop a sense of the past in a personal, informal, unstructured and constructivistfashion, as well as in the formalised setting of a school. They frequently encounter the past outsideschool – in the family, in the community and in various cultural interactions, such as film, media andvisits to museums. These experiences are often interesting, vivid and connected to the student.Inside the more formal and structured setting of the classroom the past is again encountered –sometimes in fascinating and engaging ways and sometimes in dull, disconnected and irrelevantexperiences.The key point is that there are over three million students in Australia, the vast majority of whom willstudy some history. And exciting and interesting as non-school history might be, it is in school thatstudents have the capacity and the opportunity to cultivate their critical and analytical skills in asystematic fashion when developing their own, individual sense of historical consciousnesses.Not only should students develop historical skills, they should also, as part of their development ofhistorical consciousness, develop moral skills, as Canadian academic Kim Schonert-Reichl, hasargued:[It] is my contention that the development of historical consciousness is inextricablefrom social reasoning development – specifically moral reasoning and itsdevelopmental concomitants (ie, empathy, perspective-taking). More specifically,children’s and adolescents’ level of moral understanding influences the manner inwhich they conceptualize and understand social events, social interactions, and societyat large. Moreover, the development of these conceptualizations is influenced by bothinternal mechanisms (eg, cognitive conflict) and socio-contextual factors whichinclude specific educational practices (eg, opportunities to discuss moral dilemmaswith peers) as well as larger school contextual factors, such as the school’s moralatmosphere.ivHistorical consciousness and historical literacyHistorical consciousness is the business of the entire historical community. It is the core business ofthe ‘history industry’ – all the academic scholars, heritage site officials, professional and publichistorians, history and SOSE curriculum writers, museum staff and curators, archivists, historicalsocieties, and documentary and film advisers.Australian teachers are part of this broader historical community, which recognises, in a positive way,the importance of school history in the development of historical consciousness. This is not4 Commonwealth of Australia 2003

Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian Schoolsnecessarily the case elsewhere (in North America for example, according to Seixas, Stearns &Wineburgv).However recent public debates about school history in Australia have, on many occasions, focused onwhat can only be described as the ‘Edmond Barton Syndrome’ – in other words, criticism of whatschool students appear to know, compared with what public commentators think students ought toknow. This debate is often peppered with history horror stories and is essentially urging memorisationof content as a way of developing a proper sense of historical consciousness.To move on from such an unproductive approach to the effective teaching and learning of history inschools, it is suggested that the public debate about school history should focus more clearly on thedevelopment of a historical literacy rather than mere recall of historical facts.Historical literacy can be seen as a systematic process, with particular sets of skills, attitudes andconceptual understandings, that mediates and develops historical consciousness.In this way, school history develops and enriches an informed collective memory as part of thestudents’ lifelong learning.5 Commonwealth of Australia 2003

Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian SchoolsConstructing historical knowledgeIntroductionThe teacher, learner and subject matter are the core ingredients in teaching and learning.The relationship between these three elements has been described as a ‘pedagogical triangle’ in whichthe teacher and learner communicate almost solely through the medium of subject matter.The teacher and learner bring to the classroom different capacities and beliefs.The teacherThe teacher brings personal and professional histories, knowledge about subject matter and pedagogy,beliefs about students, their families and communities, and ideas about the purposes of teachinghistory. This professional knowledge frames teachers’ decisions about what content, strategies andresources to select for teaching purposes.In particular, teachers’ perceptions of their students have a powerful influence on classroom climateand practice. These perceptions are woven from beliefs about students’ personal qualities,sociocultural backgrounds and academic capabilities. Teachers use these characteristics to constructacademic and behavioural profiles of their students and tailor teaching and learning experiencesaccordingly.LearnersIn a similar way, learners bring to the classroom their home backgrounds and ideas about the purposesof school history. Research provides ample evidence that young people arrive at the classroom doorwith their own versions of the past, and views about the importance of particular events and peopledrawn from home, community, popular culture and the media.In order to make sense of their own learning experiences, children and adolescents attempt toreconcile these understandings about the world with the ideas and materials teachers require them tomaster. Where students’ informal knowledge is excluded from classroom conversation and debate,reconciliation often fails to occur, and history learning becomes, at best, a matter of mastery.Obviously, the first step in connecting learners with the history curriculum lies in acknowledging andbuilding on prior learning.Viewpoints from Australian classroomsRosenzweig and Thelen’s study, The Presence of the Pastvi, which looked at how Americansunderstand and use their pasts, suggests that studying school history can be an alienating experience.Many survey respondents spoke of feeling excluded from lesson content and activities because of theirteachers’ unwillingness to hear views and stories other than their own.On the other hand, others spoke with admiration about teachers who helped them investigate the past,involving them as participants rather than spectators, and creating opportunities to explore questionsof morality, their own lives, relationships and identity.The following interview extracts are taken from Carmel Young’s recent Australian study intoteachers’ perceptions of their studentsvii. The views expressed hint at how beliefs about ability andbackground may constrain or enable learning.6 Commonwealth of Australia 2003

Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian SchoolsMary, teacher in a culturally diverse comprehensive high school history means something different to all the kids here. They have very different perspectivesbecause of their cultural backgrounds, and different knowledge to what I have. They come toschool with ideas about what countries are like, who’s good and who’s bad, and what theirhistories are and have contributed to society. They have very different perspectives and that’s aconstant source of knowledge for me.Margaret, teacher and colleague of MaryThe bulk of students that we teach here are lower ability students, mainly because of literacy.But some of them, the ones that were born here who have reasonable literacy don’t in factcome from the kinds of families where they’ve had very much educational enrichment athome. I recognise that at this school we’re still very much working at the coal face, and that weare coping as well as any other school is anywhere with the types of kids we’ve got but it’svery, very, different to a middle-class school. You can’t assume the kids know anything abouthistory. I have Year 7 and Year 8 ESL classes here where they don’t know anything, and someof the kids have been here two or more years nothing about the First Fleet, nothing aboutFederation or the gold rushes.Cultural perspectives on historical significanceResearchers in the United States have confirmed what many teachers would suspect from theirteaching practice – namely that students’ family background and life experiences exert a stronginfluence on shaping their ideas about historical significance, change and historical empathy.In most schools in the Rosenzweig and Thelen study, however, teachers failed to acknowledgefamily and community as primary sources of knowledge or to integrate these perspectives intoclassroom conversation.Other research in the USviii found that learners approached the idea of historical significancefrom a range of positions:o some ascribed importance to events on the basis of history, as told to them by ‘objective’authorities, such as teachers and textbooks;o some assumed a ‘subjective’ stance and ascribed significance on the basis of their ownpersonal interests; ando some applied criteria related to their ethnicity and group membership.Often students experienced difficulty in reconciling their own and teachers’ perspectives on whatis historically significant.There is a clear implication for those many Australian teachers of history with cohorts ofstudents from ethnic and minority backgrounds. Minority groups might either adopt theauthoritative narratives enshrined in school curricula or build a personal and ‘usable’ past aroundtheir own particular social needs, families, cultures and concerns.The task for teachers of students from minority backgrounds is:o first, to recognise the other formative factors that students bring with them to the historyclassroom; ando second, to assist students to reconcile competing history conversations, to open up thoseconversations and to ensure opportunities and scope for students to hear the many voiceswithin it.7 Commonwealth of Australia 2003

Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian SchoolsAuthentic learning experiences in historyStudents who have the opportunity to analyse and interpret evidence, generate hypotheses andconstruct history – that is, engage with the processes of historical reasoning – develop a clearerunderstanding of the difference between learning content, and learn how to reason historicallywith content. They also learn how to differentiate between simple historical stories and ones thatare complex, puzzling and problematic.Authentic learning in history is a disciplinary-based approach to understanding the past whichchallenges students to ‘do’ and ‘make’ history in a manner that resembles the historian’s craft.A disciplinary-based approach to history pedagogy includes:o representing history as a form of inquiry built around sources, evidence and conflicting,‘perspectival’ or pluralist accounts of the past by participants, contemporaries andhistorians;o introducing learners to historical methods and procedures, focusing on interpretation andthe use of narrative to construct accounts of the past;o assisting learners to develop historical knowledge by focusing on the central conceptsand ideas underpinning the discipline and the historian’s work;o assisting learners to develop patterns of historical reasoning by asking questions,fostering debate, using evidence to support a position and communicating that positioneffectively;o assisting learners to form some understanding of the circumstances, thoughts, feelingsand actions of people in the past, that is, a sense of historicity or ‘feel’ for the waypeople thought, felt and behaved in the past;o presenting historiography to the learner as an ongoing and frequently contentious debateabout the past, rather than an agreed-upon product – ‘historical instruction must gobeyond school and textbook to embrace films, television, newspapers, museums,archives, citizens’ initiatives and other evidence of life lived in a contentious historicalculture’ix;o challenging learners to move beyond their own theories about the past, reconcile theirown and others’ histories, and think critically about the world around them.The degree to which school history manages to address these concerns determines its quality andrelevance for young learners.Suggestions for classroom practiceThe following approaches may help teachers to recognise and integrate prior knowledge in orderto enhance historical understanding.o Integrating new subject matter with students’ prior knowledge. Children can onlymake sense of new experiences when presented with the opportunity to compare it to theknowledge they already have. Without this opportunity, school history is frequently seenas irrelevant. Learners’ prior knowledge is an important scaffold or ladder to furtherhistorical understandingo Making learners’ prior knowledge explicit. This aids in dispelling misconceptionsabout history and the past. It is important for learners to examine their own ‘minitheories’ about present and past by pooling ideas, sharing insights and defendingpositions in small group discussions and plenary sessions.o The KWL (Know/Want/Learn) charts in the upper primary units demonstrate amethod of drawing on students’ prior knowledge before exploring new ideas.o Focusing on people. This is an excellent point of entry into the past. Young peopleunderstand historical events and situations in terms of how they affect the lives of thoseinvolved.8 Commonwealth of Australia 2003

Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian SchoolsUse in conjunction with the Making History: Upper Primary Unit s and MakingHistory Middle Secondary Units. All the upper primary and middle secondarycurriculum units engage students in using a wide range of different types ofhistorical evidence.In particular, the upper primary unit, ‘Ned Kelly – hero or villain’, provides teaching andlearning activities on assessing different types of evidence. Courtesy of ScreenSound AustraliaHero or villain? Ned Kelly’s last stand at Glenrowan from the 1906 feature film The Story of the KellyGang.In the mi

Making History is an innovative resource, the first of its kind in history education in Australia, developed specifically for the online environment to support teachers of history at all levels of schooling. The guide does not assume that users are trained in either history