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'Intercultural understanding' (ICU) and its core concept 'interculturality', was introduced in the new national curriculum, implemented across Australia from 2013 (Australian Curriculum, ACARA. [2013]. Australian curriculum V.60. Retrieved from ). This paper draws on a study conducted in Victoria, Australia, which asked: how history teachers conceptualise interculturality for history teaching and learning? The study used two methods to gather data: textual analysis and focus group interviews. This paper only reports on specific findings from the focus group interviews, analysed through a methodology of crystallisation and discourse analysis, framed by four modes of historical thinking; traditional, exemplary, critical and transformative. The paper argues that interculturality is a significant challenge to history education often located in discourses constructed over time which disrupt how things have always been taught. By analysing the teachers' talk through a lens whereby the construction of language reveals the educational problematic, the research looks for a way in for interculturality into history teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the curriculum enactment of senior history education. Topics include official curriculum document for Victorian senior history, the VCE History Study Design, by Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA); history teachers' curricular decision-making; and professional knowledge of the history teachers.

The article focuses on need for history teachers to use several forms of popular culture such as television and motion pictures for teaching history to students in Australia. It also mentions that the concept of linking popular culture and teaching history has been turned into a new podcast called ‘Neon' by Jem Duducu. It also mentions reference of the book "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien as a form of popular culture for history teaching.

The article focuses on several aspects of equipping digital history student, teacher and classroom with digital technologies and digital platforms like virtual reality. It mentions about using G-Suite for Education from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Screencast-o-Matic for sharing screen recordings, Google Earth Pro, Google Cardboard, an augmented reality (AR) headset.

In 1954, Hugh Stretton took charge of a threadbare history department at the University of Adelaide. By the end of his tenure as department chair in 1966, staff numbers had increased fivefold and the department was recognised as one of the best of its kind in Australia. Stretton wanted his department to 'teach history interestingly', which was his overriding criterion in making new appointments. He also ran a democratic department that went against prevailing notions of 'God-Professor' departmental governance. As well as highlighting the singular features of the Adelaide department, the present paper places the growth and the character of 'The House that Hugh Built' within wider Australian and global contexts. The 'Stretton era' straddled a period of rapid expansion of the university sector both locally and internationally, which entailed a move from a generalist to a more specialised curriculum, with a greater emphasis on research and publication, and a less male-dominated faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes an activity program for Australian history teachers on how to encourage their students to think like historians using a Judgement Chart.

This article develops the case for a greater focus on the teaching of local histories in the Australian Curriculum: History. It takes as its starting point an Indigenous epistemology that understands knowledge to be embedded in the land. This connection between knowledge and country is used to examine recent literature on whether the teaching of history in schools can succeed in the context of the new Australian history curriculum. Various proposals from academics to develop a framework that can be used to select appropriate content and approaches to teaching history in Australia are explored. It questions whether a geographically dispersed and diverse body of students can ever be engaged with knowledge that is often taught far from the place of its making. This article eschews the traditional concepts used by historians to teach and interpret history, in order to observe how the country can teach the student. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the need for the inclusion of studies of the history of Southeast Asia in the school curricula in Australia. It states that the Asian region has huge political and economic implications for Australia, but the region is under-represented in the school curricula. It is opined that the current global economic crisis may result in a decline in American influence and a rise of Chinese dominance. It mentions that much knowledge of Asia's pre-European history can be derived from China, and origins of its religion and culture can be found from India. It discusses the periods in the history of Southeast Asia that can be interesting to history teachers including the kingdoms from c. 500 CE to 1500 CE, the European influence in 1500s, and the post-colonial political violence.

History is a value-laden discipline. Unlike 'old' history with its focus on facts and 'knowledge for its own sake', current history teaching in Australia is critically engaged with the ideals of citizenship and values as attached to actions and events. The changing purpose of history teaching is influenced by recent social and political pressures to instil values in a population deemed to be in moral decline. This paper draws on an analysis of the values discourse within the history curriculum. Deconstruction of the 'nation' and the 'citizen' in the Queensland Senior Modern History syllabus combined with preliminary observation and interview data with history teachers and students forms a basis for discussion. This paper also addresses the current debate surrounding the framework of nine key values prioritised, and funded, by the Australian government. In a context of social change and educational accountability, the relevance of history teaching may increasingly be values exploration and the fostering of a new global and ethical citizenship. Values and citizenship education within the history classroom offers exciting possibilities coupled with the risk of narrow interpretation and pressure to "instil" rather than critic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an Australian perspective on history education research. Response to James F. Voss' article `Issues in the Learning of History'; Decline of history studies in Australia; `How to teach' and `what to teach' issues; Critical importance of the history teacher.

The article presents a reprint of the article "Tech-savvy learners," by Annabel Astbury, which was first published in "Teacher," a national monthly education magazine for educators in Australia. Being stressed in this article is the need for history teachers to know how new and old technologies can be used in the classrooms if they sought to create future students the new national curriculum hopes. Particularly discussed is the challenge of teachers in learning information technology skills.

The article offers information on several academic events in Victoria from October to November 2013 including the History Teacher's Association of Victoria (HTAV) Middle Years Conference at Victoria University in Melbourne on October 25, the Differentiation in the Middle Years History Classroom: A Practical Approach workshop at The Grange P-12 College Deloraine Campus in Hoppers Crossing on November 6, and Humanities Leaders of the Future at Melbourne Museum in Melbourne on November 9.

The article presents the author's insights on History Teacher's Association of Victoria (HTAV). Among the topics the author discussed include history professor Richard Broome of La Trobe University, HTAV Annual General Meeting in March 2014, and Broome's discussion on his advocacy for the teaching and learning of Australian History.