Understanding of Historiography in Teaching: Analytical Essay

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Introduction

Philips (2005, pp.16-17) claims that “the authority vested in the word of the dominating view of Australian history is deemed to be unchallengeable, not because it is beyond question, but simply because it has been reinforced by repetition and written text over the centuries”.

Despite the fact that historical texts have been repeated and re-written for centuries, through historiography, new historical understandings, historical inquiry, and critical evaluations of historical events being developed, Australian history can be challenged. The Australian history curriculum is built from historical knowledge, inquiry, and skills. The history curriculum focuses on teachers teaching the historical content, whilst encouraging questioning and critical inquiry to create personal interpretations and different viewpoints on these historical events by the students.

Students learn and understand history by developing, understanding, and putting into place the 7 historical concepts: Evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, perspectives, empathy, and contestability. As stated in the ‘Teaching humanities & social sciences’ textbook, describing and explaining continuity and change are the key processes in history, meaning the subject itself is created from not only historical knowledge but from thinking critically and using your imagination to place yourself within historical events (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2017). The above claim from Phillips, therefore, does not fit into the Australian Curriculums History content, due to the history subject being based on critical inquiry and examination of historical events and occurrences from the past. The open-endless to Australia’s history creates an open door for contestability and challenging perspectives. Furthermore, it is possible that some events recorded in Australia history are going to be challenged, reevaluated, and have the possibility of being taught as more of an opinion or belief, rather than a fact or actual occurrence.

1. How does the curriculum document position teachers to treat the history of Australia?

The Australian Curriculum incorporates history as a sub-strand of HASS (humanities and social sciences) suitable for years P-7. This HASS strand is then divided up into two interrelated strands of history, 1: ‘Inquiry and skills’, and 2: ‘knowledge and understanding’. The inquiry and skills strand positions teachers to trigger students’ imagination and to relate historical events to the students every day lives. This is done in the Primary school years by asking posing questions, such as questions about the students’ family histories, aiming to establish a connection for the students to understand where they come from and where they are today. This aims to help students develop respect for their family, ancestors, and networks around them. The inquiry and skills stand also positions teachers to question the students about the years that have passed or the world that existed before our generation was born, using this as a comparison to how the world surrounding us today was created. This contrast compares places, objects, events, and people, enabling students to think critically about these changes. In this sub-strand students then will learn how to research past events, investigating further into the past, the present, and the future of Australia, with the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and people being educated to the students.

The knowledge and understanding strand allows students to develop their own understandings of history through teachers implementing the key concepts: continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, and significance. Students then learn to use these key concepts to develop their own understanding of how things continue to change, how things/events occur, what is/was the cause of this occurrence, what other cultures or people’s perspectives on past/present events are (taking into consideration the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders perspectives) and thinking empathetically about those who lived through these events. To develop students understanding, critical questions can be asked by the teacher such as ‘how would people of the past live compared to how we live today?’ ‘how has the world around us changed? (Continuity, change, perspectives, empathy), ‘how can we show respect to these historical sites and the Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander communities?’. This strand solidifies the importance of history and the importance of showing respect and caring for historical objects, sites, and communities around Australia.

The Australian Curriculum, therefore, positions teachers to teach history as a process of inquiry, developing students’ curiosities and imaginations. Through investigations of historical events, critical thinking, group discussions, and inquiry thinking, students can use problem-solving skills to interpret the information, leading to students becoming curious and full of questions. From this, students will develop a great understanding for humanity, creativity, purposes, and values. (ACARA, 2015). ‘Through studying Humanities and Social Sciences, students are given opportunities to develop their ability to question, think critically, solve problems, communicate effectively, make decisions and adapt to change’ (ACARA, 2019). Teachers teaching the history of Australia will be aiming to build students’ curiosity and imagination, educating students on how to make informed decisions, reflect on decisions and events in the past, value and appreciate their surroundings, and solve problems. (ACARA, 2019).

2. How might an understanding of historiography affect teachers’ interpretations or treatment of Australian History Topics?

Historiography investigates historical occurrences and recordings on a particular subject, not only through investigation of documentation from the past but also from what historians have also written about the past. Historiography summarises different opinions, descriptions, and arguments on the topic, establishing connections between each one. This summarises the occurrences of what actually happened, highlighting the major occurrences and descriptions, whilst also highlighting certain aspects that have been recorded through history that possibly are contradicting or do not make sense. From this, critical examination and questions about the past can occur, leading to one developing stronger views and beliefs about the historical occurrence. Historiography may lead teachers to become unconfident in teaching certain content due to the debate or uncertainty of some occurrences written in Australian history. The contradictions through historiography have led people to think, as George Santayana has famously stated ‘history is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there’ Gilbert, Hopper (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2017). Though teachers teaching the content may feel the content is questionable, backing up George Santaynas’s statement, teachers can create fantastic inquiry questions from these events, allowing students to think critically about the occurrences and problem-solve the event to form their opinion of what actually happened. Although history and historiography is examining historical events, it also allows one to reflect on this information and develop curiosity, interest, and respect for the past, places, cultures, and history in itself. ‘Through understanding different perspectives that historiography brings; teachers can create inquiry questions from events involving indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives’ (ACARA, 2019).

3. What knowledge and skills do teachers of primary school History need to promote inquiry into a historical event or period from Indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives and why is this important?

The knowledge and skills teachers of primary school history need to promote inquiry into a historical event relate heavily back to knowing historical content, teaching different perspectives, and using reputable resources for teaching history content. When educating students about historical events, the teacher must follow the Australian curriculum, taking into account other cultures’ perspectives of certain historical events. Teachers must have pedagogies suitable to encourage students to think about different perspectives and how these perspectives have impacted people in the past, and how they may still be impacting some cultures or people today. This is taking into account other cultures’ histories and developing knowledge and respect for these cultures. Due to history being an inquiry and critical thinking-based subject, encouraging students to see history through others’ eyes is very important, so they can develop their own understandings and interpretations of all elements of history. History as a subject requires not only the students to be engaged, curious and active learners; it requires the teacher to remain engaged, busy, passionate, and integrated by the content they are teaching. Due to the majority of teachers coming from non-indigenous backgrounds/heritage, learning how to promote inquiry into a historical event or period from Indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives could prove difficult. To help with this barrier, teachers are often encouraged to seek education and advice from local communities to learn, appreciate and grow respect for their culture. ‘Understanding indigenous identity requires an appreciation of this complex set of relationships to kinship groups, language, stories, and place. The Australian Curriculum Cross-curriculum Priority emphasizes all of these’ (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2017). Teachers of primary school History need to be educated about the Indigenous and non-indigenous historical events with special notice taken to the perspective of each culture. Teachers need to be educated about the conceptual history framework used by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. This framework contains historical information, elaborating on the key concepts of Country/Place, Culture, and People. Having knowledge, understanding, and empathy towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures is important so history can be taught in a way that respects the culture and their past. ‘The use of primary and secondary sources, including oral histories, gives students opportunities to see through multiple perspectives and to empathize and ethically consider the investigation, preservation, and conservation of sites of significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ (ACARA, 2019)

Without having this prior knowledge of history or cultural history, teachers may find the content much harder to teach or may not teach historical content in a respectful or empathetic way. Without having prior knowledge of these, teachers may find their students do not have a great understanding of not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, but they may not develop an appropriate level of empathy or understand different perspectives well enough, due to the teacher’s lack of knowledge on the topic. “A lack of teacher understanding of the Aboriginal perspective has ramifications for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Rose (2012) explained this impact: ‘Education overtly suppressed and devalued all aspects of Indigenous knowledge. The ramifications of this cultural and historical suppression embedded in a regenerative curriculum overflowed, affecting not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but also non-Indigenous people, who were denied access to significant knowledge of the land on which they now live. (Rose, 2012, p. 68) It is, therefore, clear that an understanding of Aboriginal perspectives is beneficial for all Australians regardless of their background” (Booth, 2019)

4. What strategies and resources can teachers use to help learners build their historical literacy?

The term ‘historical literacy’ describes history as a developmental tool for enhancing literacy skills. Historical literacy is the main learning goal of history, indicating a successful understanding of historical words and knowledge that will lead to an understanding of history itself. ‘Through the critical study of historical texts, students can gain knowledge on authorship, accuracy, credibility, and representativeness of written texts, assisting development in literacy’ (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2017). Historical texts, due to their complexity, help to develop reading/writing skills and help students understand different story perspectives when comparing different historical texts. Historical literacy can be categorized into different skills that are needed to thoroughly understand historical literacy. These include:

Events of the past – Knowledge of historical events
Narratives of the past – People who have recorded history, understanding different perspectives and how things have changed over time
Research skills – Researching, finding and analyzing evidence for use
The language of history – Understanding language from the past
Historical concepts – Understanding historical events’ cause and effects
ICT understandings – Researching and evaluating historical documents on technology devices
Making connections – Connecting the past to our present today
Contention and contestability – Understanding perspectives and historiography
Moral judgment in history – Understanding morals and ethical views in historical events
Applied science in history – Understanding science and technologies effects on history
Historical explanation – using historical reasoning, synthesis, and interpretation to come to an explanation for historical events (Taylor, 2019)

Teachers educating students whilst building student’s historical literacy and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can use the following strategies and resources to build their own and the students’ historical literacy:

Educate themselves on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and histories
Engage in local cultural information centers and events
Gain knowledge from local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Develop a strong and respectful relationship with students and their families, including families with different cultures and languages
Participate in local cultural events to gain respect and understanding
Educate themselves on historical events and historical literacy and words
Support students with learning historical events
Break down large historical words and relate these words to students
Relate historical events to students and describe familiar events with students using historical literacy to assist them in learning new words

Using the above strategies and resources, teachers are ensuring they have a thorough understanding of historical events and historical literacy themselves before teaching students.

5. How can teachers help students understand contestability and build respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories?

Contestability: “History by nature is open-ended, in other words, historical explanations are provisional and often highly debatable at professional and public levels” (Fahey, 2012). This claim by Fahey describes history as a subject full of contestability and unanswered questions. Historians from the past have created their own historical documentation based on their experiences and perspectives from the time of the event. Historiography has brought many of these texts together, opening the door to contestability. Although contestability is only implemented into the 7 historical concepts from 7-10 of the Australian Curriculum, it is inevitable to be integrated into the lesson from either the teacher’s or the student’s curiosity. ‘Every year in the curriculum offers opportunities to study historical events about which different people have different viewpoints. Students might doubt the worth of a subject that cannot seem to produce the truth. But contestability is a strength, not a weakness’ (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2019). When contestability arises within the classroom it is important for the teacher to explain to the students that history as a subject is created from the past peoples’ perspectives, which we can learn from, but have no further evidence for. From here, the teacher can focus on igniting the students’ imaginations and testing them on what they think actually happened. This leads to inquiry and critical thinking within the classroom. ‘The contestable nature of history helps prepare students “to make important decisions about challenging questions for which there are no easy answers” (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2017).

Building respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories is important, particularly when it comes to contestability. It is important to educate students to be respectful of the people who own this land and educate the students on the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Ensuring students understand the connection that these people have with Australia, the land and many sacred places around the country is vital for building respect for the people who own this land.

References

ACARA (2019). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures/
ACARA (2019). Rationale, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/rationale/
Booth, S. (2019). Teaching Aboriginal curriculum content in Australian high schools, https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2523&context=theses
Gilbert, R. and Hoepper, B. (2017). Teaching humanities & social sciences, pg. 50-150, 200-222, 381
Taylor, T. (2019). Civics | Teaching historical literacy: the National History Project, https://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/expert_views/teaching_historical_literacy_the_national_history,9323.html
Amber Rae #12074381 EDCU12042 History Curriculum & Pedagogy

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