National History Curriculum Research Articles

Australia’s national(ist) history curriculum: history education as a site of attempted de-democratisation

AbstractThis paper explores the contested content of the Australian history curriculum to understand the curriculum’s national(ist?) purpose and investigate if national histories can be taught in a way which combats the anti-democratic forces at play in our culture. This question will be explored through analysis of the three topics in the Australian Curriculum: History 7–10, which have a strong focus on Australian history specifically, and semi-structured interviews with secondary teachers on pedagogies for history and instilling democratic dispositions in students (UniSQ ETH2023-0315). Since Prime Minister John Howard’s call for reform of the curriculum to ensure that the national narrative “is one of heroic achievement” (Howard, 2006), the conservative right’s desire to have the curriculum deliver a singular, nationalist narrative has become increasingly more extreme. We risk an “acute crisis of democracy” (Repucci and Slipowitz, 2021, p. 1) as our students are taught a singular narrative that silences First Nations peoples and other cultural minorities. The best defence against this nascent de-democratisation of Australian history classrooms is found in the vital work of history teachers as curriculum workers. If teachers adhere to the curriculum directives focused on historical thinking skills, our students must consider “different perspectives” and use a “range of sources” (ACARA, 2023a) to make evidence-based decisions about our past. The teaching of critical thinking and the use of varied evidence which considers a range of perspectives and assesses their reliability serves as a bulwark against the monocultural assault which seeks to control the content of the curriculum. If we ensure our next generation of citizens have the skills to make informed and critical choices rather than be blind adherents to a nationalist monomyth, our pluralistic liberal democracy will not only survive but thrive.

Rhetoric of Redress: Australian Political Speeches and Settler Citizens' Historical Consciousness

ABSTRACT This article traces the convergence of state redress and the educational construction of citizenship from the 1990s onwards in Australia. It examines how successive settler political leaders used the education of a historical consciousness—settler citizens’ relation to past, present and future—as a core strategy to seek resolution to the problematic national past. The article examines key political speeches that sought to mediate the settler nation's past in light of growing international and domestic pressures, including Keating's 1992 Redfern Park speech and Rudd's 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations, and one of conservative backlash: Howard's 1996 Menzies Lecture. Rudd's subsequent national policy agenda of apology and an Australian Curriculum sought to inaugurate a new era in the settler nation's history. That program was embodied by the figure of the future citizen positioned to reckon with the nation's unjust past, a task inscribed in the inaugural national history curriculum.

Changes and continuities in Ethiopian secondary school history education curriculum

Ethiopia is a home of nations and nationalities. In countries with diverse nations and nationalities, such as Ethiopia, history education plays an important role in promoting national consensus, unity, and peaceful coexistence. The main aim of this study is to investigate how the history of all Ethiopian peoples has been incorporated into the secondary school historical education curriculum. To address the intended objectives, the researchers conducted interviews with key informants who are familiar with the contents of Ethiopian history education materials, as well as document analysis of books, articles, journals, theses, history syllabi, history teaching materials, and other relevant historical sources were also examined. The findings gathered through interviews, and document analyses were cross-checked with existing literature and qualitatively analyzed. The study's findings reveal that the secondary school history education curricula has been revised from time to time to organize history education based on Ethiopian realities. The study findings indicate that the secondary school history curriculum did not accurately reflect the country's history. Ethiopia is a country in the Horn of Africa with over 80 ethnocultural and linguistic groups. The study also reveals that secondary school history teaching materials still today lack comprehensiveness and do not accurately depict the history of Ethiopia's nations, nationalities, and peoples. The study emphasizes that Ethiopian history teaching materials contents have been dominated by political history, certain regions and foreign history rather than the history of the diverse Ethiopian populations. There are still complaints concerning the content of Ethiopia's history education curriculum. So, it is recommended that historians, educators, curriculum designers, and stakeholders at the local, regional, and national levels work together to incorporate the Social, political and economic history of all Ethiopian peoples into the national history curriculum in a balanced manner.

Consulting the Past

In many countries, the development of national history curricula has been politically controversial, causing great public interest and concern. Such controversies tend to bring into tension diverse political, social and cultural voices and their interests in a nation’s history, expressing the historical consciousness of a society. At the extreme, ‘history wars’ emerge over what is prioritised for learning, and how it is learnt, especially when historical interpretations clash with political agendas. In this article we explore these ideas through the responses of different sectors to the development of Aotearoa New Zealand's first national history curriculum. By looking at the responses of teachers, academic historians, politicians and the community at large, we attempt to explain why the debate so far has been professional rather than polemical, and why the country’s ‘history wars’ have only involved a few skirmishes at the edges of political debate.

How far did the toppling of the Colston statue in 2020 impact upon primary history subject-leaders’ curriculum decision-making in North-West England?

ABSTRACT This is a qualitative research study which investigates the curriculum decision-making of four primary school history subject-leaders in the North-West of England. A grounded theory approach was utilised. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the subject-leaders and an audit of their schools’ history curriculum completed. The curriculum was altered in response to the Colston statue toppling in three schools, the subject-leaders faced several challenges. Further research is needed to discover more about the role of primary history subject-leaders and the agency they can achieve as curriculum-makers. It is also argued that Black British history should be included in the History National Curriculum for England.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s New National History Curriculum and Histories of Mourning

From 2022, New Zealand schools are teaching a new compulsory history curriculum that aims to teach diverse New Zealand histories, while foregrounding the centrality of Māori histories and the impacts of colonisation. The new curriculum will upend a long history of ‘forgetting’ the nation’s contentious and conflictual past, and in particular the nineteenth century ‘wars for New Zealand’ (O’Malley, 2016) that secured settler hegemony over the nation-state. In this paper, we focus on the roles of remembering and forgetting in the narration of national histories to explore what might be a productive orientation to take to this contentious and unsettling past. We argue that the new history curriculum inaugurates a new phase of narrating the nation, replacing earlier phases of monocultural and bicultural nationhood that depended on this past being ‘forgotten’. And we argue for the productive value of a histories of critical mourning approach to remembering this founding violence.

The representation of the Algerian War in French high school history textbooks

AbstractBefore the 1980s, France's colonial past, and in particular the Algerian Independence War, featured among the blind spots of the official curriculum for lycéens – or high school students. Yet, with the publication of Pierre Assouline's article ‘Faut‐il brûler les manuels d'histoire?’ in 1983, critical voices started to call for the integration of controversial subjects such as the Algerian War and the Vichy Regime in the national history curriculum. Based on bibliographical research undertaken at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this paper investigates the extent to which the Algerian War of Independence has been present in French high school history textbooks published in the period between 1983 and 2017. It analyses the presence or absence of this theme in lycées programmes, particularly at the final‐year level (classe de terminale). It also engages with the strategies of representation of the Algerian War, considering the relative absence of details in descriptions of the conflict and formulating possible reasons for this lack of engagement.

4차 산업혁명 시대 역사교육의 목표와 방향

There are two new problems in the 2022 Curriculum Revision that did not exist in the previous one. The first is how the older generation of “digital immigrants” can educate the future generation who are “digital natives.” The second is that it is necessary to design a curriculum that responds to the age of AI, where big data has surpassed the “human collective memory,” and AI has overtaken “human collective learning.” In the Fourth Industrial Revolution e ra, changes are taking place so rapidly that we cannot solve future problems using past examples. History education needed for students living in the era of hyper-acceleration should focus not on learning knowledge about the past but on transfer learning based on conceptual knowledge.BR The COVID-19 pandemic has had the effect of achieving the Fourth Industrial Revolution just in one year, which would have taken ten years otherwise. In the Covid-19 situation, where teachers cannot teach students in the classroom, digital transformation has taken place all over the place. Now, we have crossed the “tipping point” where we cannot go back to the past. The 2022 National History Curriculum Revision should seek a “new normal” curriculum, in which AI takes over the roles of textbooks and teachers to a certain extent and converts classroom and online classes into blended learning.

새 역사과 국가교육과정 구성 방향 모색을 위한 비판적 성찰

Before 2022 national curriculum revision, this article is intended to reflect on the concept of ‘teacher as curriculum’ and ‘history education for Being a democratic civic’ and reflect on issues such as ‘competence’, ‘integration’ and ‘volume of modern history’ in the history teacher’s perspective.<BR> After considering the different meanings of competence and capability, this study suggested that the historical competency can be made by searching History teacher’s struggle to empower students’ competency in history class and questioning “What is a desirable life and what role can history education play in forming a desirable life?” In addition, regarding the ‘integration’ problem, it was argued that ‘integration’ is not a form of multiple subjects in a single subject, but rather an intergrated movement towards life with each subject as a lens of life, and that the practice of integrated class based on history should be noted in this point of view. Regarding the “volume of modern history,” it raised the need for a national history curriculum that begins with the present and lives of students through a historical approach from the perspective of “present history” rather than increasing the volume of modern history. Above all, in view of history teachers as a curriculum, it was emphasized that national history curriculum should be formed to help history teachers consider national curriculum documents as curriculum materials and make their own curriculum.

역사과 국가교육과정 내용구성 쟁점의 비판적 검토

The purpose of this study is to critically research the issues for revising national history curriculum. As the result, it was intended to gain implications on what issues should be discussed for efficient history classroom. To this end, this study analyzed the nature of the controversial issues and the main contents of the discussion during the revision of the curriculum, focusing on the 2015 history curriculum. This study analyzed three issues such as general principles in the national curriculum’s to history curriculum, the systematization of history curriculum based on school grade, and constructing world history subject matters. These are main issues that were mentioned whenever the national education process was revised. The principles of syllabi proposed by the general principle of national curriculum do not have specific subjects in mind, and are often not appropriate for historical education. Nevertheless, it is necessary to critically understand principles of syllabi presented in the general discussion, and analyze how to apply it in other countries. The most serious problem in discussing the systematization of historical course is that it focuses on differentiating historical subject matters by school level, and it is to divide the aspects and topics into units based on easy and difficult. In order to systematize, the syllabi should be organized from what perspective to approach historical facts rather than what contents to involve. It is necessary to organize contents that can be reconstructed according to historical interpretation, and to organize topics centered on historical main ideas, historical interests, and historical issues. The subject matters of world history has been based on how to create an easy and interesting world history to attract students'' attention. However, this kind of discussion did not reflect the nature of history learning, nor did it increase students'' choice of world history subject. The subject matters of world history should be selected and organized from the perspective of meaningful historical knowledge to students.

중 · 고 역사 교육과정의 중국사 학습 요소 체계화 모색

중 · 고 역사 교육과정의 중국사 학습 요소 체계화 모색

2015 개정 역사 교육과정의 한국 고대사 부분에 대한 검토

2015 개정 역사 교육과정의 한국 고대사 부분에 대한 검토

Experiencing the history National Curriculum 1991–2011: voices of veteran teachers

ABSTRACTIn 2018 it is 30 years since the Educational Reform Act of 1988 introduced a National Curriculum to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This article questions whether this policy became something to be celebrated, commemorated or ignored. The National Curriculum for history has proved contentious in media and academic circles, but the focus has been on documentation over lived experience. In contrast, this research used an oral history approach to explore how 13 history teachers perceived, experienced and enacted the National Curriculum in their own classrooms between 1991 and 2011. The findings show this period could be closely identified with increased prescription in the history classroom and, as a corollary, a potential loss of teacher autonomy. The National Curriculum played some part in that process but, after the initial shock, was not perceived as a restrictive force. Changing responses to the National Curriculum over four programmes of study illuminate changing experiences of history teaching from 1991 to 2011, a period fraught with developments in national educational policy.

제3차 국사과 교육과정의 성립과 국사교과서 개편

본고는 제3차 교육과정기 국사교과서의 국정화 배경과 과정, 그리고국사교과서의 편찬 과정에 대해 살핀 것이다. 5·16군사정변 이후 민족주의와 반일·반공주의, 그리고 경제발전을 표방하였던 박정희정권은 1965 년 한일국교정상화 이후 반일교육을 국제친선교육으로 전환하면서 ‘민족주의’와 ‘국제친선’의 모순을 어떻게 극복할 것인지에 대해 고민하지않으면 안되었다. 이에 박정희정권은 1960년대 후반 잇따른 북한의 도발과 1970년대 초반의 석유파동과 아래로부터의 민주주의의 요구를 한편으로는 반공주의의 강화, 다른 한편으로는 보다 국제 위기를 핑계로 국론통일을 목적으로 한 유신체제를 성립시켰다. 그리고 유신헌법의 내용과 정신을 학교교육을 통해 선전하고 습득시키기 위해 제3차 교육과정을 마련하였던 것이다. 이에 따라 국사교과는유신체제 선전의 핵심교과로 선택되어 국사교과서의 국정화가 이루어졌던 것이다. 따라서 국사교과서의 국정화는 단순히 제3차 교육과정의개편에 따라 이루어진 것이 아니라 박정희정권의 지배이데올로기의 총화로서 편찬된 것이며, 이를 통해 박정희의 영구집권을 의도한 것이라파악할 수 있다. 그러므로 독립협회의 활동과 사상을 민족운동의 사상적배경으로 높이 평가하였던 것이다.

The history canon project as politics of identity: Renationalizing history education in Denmark

In 2009, the Danish nation state implemented a history canon, Historie 09 , as an obligatory part of the history national curriculum in primary and lower secondary schools. The history canon was part of a high-profile 'cultural battle' that the Danish liberal–conservative political and intellectual elite initiated during the first decade of the twenty-first century – a conflict that also included several other curricular canons. The Danish history curriculum was meant to satisfy three aims: (1) to bolster students with historical cultural ballast as they are prepared to be a part of the globalized economy and community; (2) to revitalize a chronologically structured master narrative about the historical and cultural origins of the Danish nation; and (3) to incorporate history teaching into an ongoing political struggle against some of the possible consequences of increasing cultural and religious diversity in Denmark – and, accordingly, to further a re-traditionalized vision of Denmark as a culturally homogeneous society, presumably existing as distinct from the membership of a heterogeneous European Union. This paper analyses the background of the history canon project in terms of educational policy, how it was realized in the revised history curriculum of 2009, which is still in force, and finally how representatives of the political elite who framed the history canon interpret the history curriculum. I will conclude by briefly discussing how history teachers have responded to the history canon project.

중·고 역사 교육과정과 교과서의 동양사 내용 체계 분석 : 2011 부분 개정 교육과정과 중국사 학습 내용 요소를 중심으로

This paper analyzes the systemization of content elements reflected in History National Curriculum and textbooks focusing on 2011 History National Curriculum and Content elements of Chinese history. In the 2011 History National Curriculum and 2011 World History National curriculum, systemization seemed to be done in terms of conceptualization of ‘Regional World’. However, in the case of Chinese history, History National Curriculum specifies the contents of Chinese history as a heading in the content element, and treats Chinese history as independent from East Asian head words, whereas it is not the case in the World History National Curriculum. Through the analysis of the contents of Chinese history in the textbooks, it can be said that there is not much difference in history terms, that it is not much different from the description of the text, and that the composition of the inquiry activity does not show the school-level gap. Therefore, the systemization of content elements is not fully realized. The 2015 History National Curriculum for middle school was noticed in June, 2018. It is characterized by the facts that ‘specific topics’ are specified as learning elements and that the teaching and learning methods are emphasized. In addition, it is noteworthy that the domestic research on the student’s historical thinking is increasing and the cases where the student’s level is emphasized in foreign history education curriculum. It is necessary to systematize contents element of National Curriculum reflecting these trends.

역사교육에서 고대사 영역의 내용 체계와 계열성 검토 : 2011 교육과정과 2013 검정교과서를 중심으로

This paper reviewed the sequence of each school level by looking into not only the learning contents system of the Korean ancient history area curriculum but also the descriptions in the textbooks. Since the textbooks currently used in schools are based on the 2011 national history curriculum, comparison and analysis of the contents system relating to Korean ancient history in the curriculum, the guidelines on the contents, and the descriptions in the state-approved textbooks were performed.BR As for the ancient history area, it was difficult to find any differentiation between content elements of History taught in middle schools and of Korean history taught in high schools. And it was frequently found that each school level had the same guidelines on the contents of the textbook, meaning the descriptions in the textbooks of the school levels were the same in contents, while it was found that there was a difference in guidelines on the contents between school levels but the difference was not reflected in the descriptions in the textbooks. It was also found that there was a big difference between the scope of the contents of the state-approved textbooks and the level of the contents of the textbooks. The most important is that sequence should be realized in the descriptions in the textbooks.

'It's More Complex Than I Assumed': Examining Pre-Service Teacher Reflections on Preparing to Teach History in the Australian Curriculum in Years 7-10

As with many nations, the teaching of history in Australian schools is often contested. Two prevailing standpoints can be identified, the first of which, in broad terms, emphasises the acquisition of historical knowledge. From this perspective, history is conceptualised as a source of tradition and identity (Berend, 2012) gained by learning about those significant historical events identified in mandated curricula. The second standpoint emphasises the potential of history to provide young people with critical understandings and skills for interpreting the past (Tosh, 2008) by developing conceptual understandings and historical thinking and reasoning skills which can also be applied in their everyday lives and as active and engaged citizens. Such polarising views, however, do not necessarily reflect what actually happens in classrooms where teachers may adopt a repertoire of pedagogies which blend a range of different perspectives and approaches. This empirical paper draws from one component of qualitative research on the ways in which a group of Australian pre-service history teachers in Queensland reflect on their preparation to teach history in secondary schools. It investigates what shaped their knowledge and assumptions about teaching history prior to and during their history curriculum studies unit in their teacher education course as the first national history curriculum was being implemented in Australian schools. In doing so, the paper examines future history teachers’ thoughts about practice as they prepare to work from the new Australian Curriculum: History (ACARA, 2013) in order to teach students aged from 12 to 15 in the lower secondary school grades of Years 7-10. Findings revealed a range of positions about what constitutes historical understanding and pedagogic practice.

In search of historical consciousness: An investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of 'their' national histories

This study reports the findings of an investigation into young South Africans' knowledge and understanding of their national past derived from narrative accounts of South African history written by 27 university students who had recently completed the national school history curriculum. Analysis of these narratives indicates two fundamental differences in the way the history of South Africa is told, in terms of emphasis (the relative weight assigned to different periods and people) and of agency (who 'did' and who was 'done to'). These differences point to the continued importance of racial identity as a factor in the formation of a national historical consciousness in post-apartheid South Africa. The highly selective emplotment of South Africa's past by the students highlights the importance of sociocultural factors in the development of young people's historical consciousness, a conclusion that has implications for classroom pedagogy. These findings suggest that unless the historical understanding with which students come to the classroom is engaged and is complicated through evidence-based historical enquiry then neither the 'disciplinary' nor 'social justice' aims of the intended curriculum will be realized.

History lessons: inequality, diversity and the national curriculum

This article explores the continued importance of teaching a diverse curriculum at a time when issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity have been increasingly sidelined in the political discussion around ‘British’ values and identities, and how these should be taught in schools. The 2014 History National curriculum, in particular, provoked widespread controversy around what British history is, who gets included in this story and how best to engage young people in increasingly diverse classrooms with the subject. The new curriculum provides both opportunities for, and constraints on, addressing issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity, but how these are put into practice in an increasingly fragmented school system remains less clear. Drawing on the findings of two research projects in schools across England and Wales, this article examines the challenges and opportunities facing teachers and young people in the classroom in the teaching and learning of diverse British histories. We argue that it is not only the content of what children and young people are taught in schools that is at issue, but how teachers are supported to teach diverse curricula effectively and confidently.