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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the crisis in Australian universities regarding the teaching of history. The author argues that post-modernist theories like Critical Race Theory and Gender Theory have replaced traditional historical topics, leading to a neglect of key moments in Western Civilization. The article suggests that subjects prioritizing race, gender, and sexuality should be moved to more appropriate departments, such as Sociology or Gender Studies. The author also criticizes the post-modernist approach to history, which rejects the need to understand the past historically. The article concludes by discussing the controversy surrounding a historian who advocated for a refocus on the past and a departure from Critical Race and Radical Gender theory, emphasizing the importance of studying history for its own sake rather than for political purposes. Additionally, the text explores the current trend of critiquing and dismantling Western civilization in academic institutions, museums, and cultural spaces. It acknowledges the push to decolonize these spaces and remove symbols and artifacts associated with colonialism, but raises concerns about the potential erasure of both positive and negative aspects of history and its impact on future generations. The text argues for a more balanced and nuanced approach to understanding and teaching history, rather than solely focusing on the dark pages of history. [Extracted from the article]

History education in Australian universities finds itself under increasing pressure in the age of neoliberalism and the crisis precipitated by COVID-19. Universities and professional associations have been forced to adopt a generic discourse of transferable 'skills' in order to justify the place of history in the curriculum. We show, however, that these skills may have specific or even contested meanings within disciplines. Moreover, students can only properly acquire higher-order transferable skills by practising them in disciplinary contexts. Consequently, reinvesting skills with disciplinary meaning is necessary for student outcomes even within a neoliberal rationale, enabling a new defence of the specific nature of historical work. We advance a means of working with primary sources using strategic questioning of increasing complexity as a tool for achieving these twin goals. We show how our approach is embedded in the cognitive processes of historical thinking as defined in both of the major theoretical models that have achieved currency, and posit it as a mode of pedagogical resistance in the neoliberal university landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways that history curriculum has worked to legitimise dispossession through narratives that elide questions of Indigenous sovereignty, and which construct and consolidate white settler identity and possession. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses two case studies to compare history education documentation and materials at key moments where dominant narratives of settler legitimacy were challenged in public discourse: (1) the post-war humanitarian agenda of fostering "international understanding" and; (2) the release and educational recommendations of the 1997 Bringing them Home Report. Findings: The paper shows that in two moments where narratives of settler legitimacy were challenged in public discourse, the legitimacy of settler possession was reiterated in history curricula in various ways. Practical implications: This research suggests that the prevailing constructivist framework for history education has not sufficiently challenged criticisms of the representation of Aboriginal history and the history of settler-colonialism in the history syllabus. Originality/value: The paper introduces two case studies of history curriculum and shows how, in different but resonant ways, curricular reforms worked to bolster the liberal credentials of the settler state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on history education's role in agendas of transitional justice is focused on societies undertaking regime change or rebuilding after extensive conflict and often centres disciplinary competencies as part of educational reform objectives to support political transition. However, the orientation towards transitional justice in settler colonial democracies such as Australia has prompted debate about the role of history curriculum in transitional contexts where constructivist, discipline-based approaches are already prescribed. While "historical thinking" in Australia has been a pragmatic middle way between polarised single-narrative and deconstructivist paradigms, this article argues that questions of transitional justice return the subjective, contemporary, and political to history education in ways that challenge the scope of disciplinary meaning-making and complicate the civic promises of disciplinary thinking. By discussing examples of how time is presently imagined and engaged using second-order historical thinking concepts, this article engages some key limitations of disciplinary history curriculum vis-à-vis transitional justice. It suggests alternate approaches that stretch the disciplinary paradigm in new directions that carry important implications for other societies engaged in questions of transitional justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History is a key site for the negotiation of national identity, with the ability to define the past shaping the national narrative on who "we" were, who "we" are, and, crucially, who "we" should be. As such, the teaching of history is a site of intense political debate. This paper examines the history module of the Australian Curriculum to understand the extent to which the history curriculum moves beyond Eurocentric, colonial imaginings of Australia's history towards a more inclusive, multi‐cultural, globally‐oriented, cosmopolitan vision of society. Both the curriculum and teaching resources were examined to ascertain the identities and orientations these materials could provide. The research finds that — despite improvements in presenting a diversity of representations, in particular a positive focus on the rights and contributions of Indigenous peoples in Australia and some orientation to diverse migrant histories, the environment, and Asia — the main thrust of the curriculum is a focus on the nation‐state at the expense of global engagement. The funnel structure which deals with broader world history in earlier years, relegates the rest of the world to a temporal and spatial distance, leaving a somewhat myopic narrative that perpetuates traditional, Anglo‐centric narratives, maintaining the perspectives of "Others" as peripheral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

As in many countries, such as Germany, Turkey, the United States and Japan the history/culture wars of the past two decades have increased public interest in what is taught in schools. This has resulted in rigorous debates in the general community, encouraged and sustained through regular media coverage. Partly as a response to this, History has been designated as a separate subject in the first wave of planning and implementation of the Australian National Curriculum. Two of the reasons for this include first, to recognise the importance of teaching historical skills as a distinct subject; and second there is an ongoing bipartisan political interest in privileging history disciplinary knowledge and content to ensure that national history narratives are taught to students. To contribute meaningfully towards the development and implementation of a National Curriculum, it is important to understand past curriculum constructions, so that the disciplinary knowledge and content of history remains independent, and not subsumed within current (or future) political trends. Based on examples of national history from the Queensland Social Studies syllabus and government endorsed sourcebooks in the lead-up to the 1988 Bicentennial of British colonisation of the Australian continent, this article examines the influence and role of multiculturalism in History teaching in primary schools. Particular attention is paid to Indigenous representations and British heritages, as an example of two groups that have often been represented as binaries to each other throughout Australian history. An analysis of the curriculum materials illuminates the differences between multiculturalism and history—highlighting how the two are merged at the expense of accurate historical knowledge and concepts, particularly in the area of national history. This study will demonstrate that as a result of the infiltration of multiculturalism into history content within the Social Studies curriculum, historical knowledge becomes silenced in the school curriculum – resulting in vague and sometimes historically inaccurate information being presented to students; and the privileging of certain types of multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the politicization of public debate about Australian history among Australians as of 2012. The author proposes the concept of oral historiography to measure historical understandings in Australia during the early 21st century and argues that the concept permits ordinary Australians a voice in debates about Australian history. The author cites the research project "Whose Australia? Popular Understandings of the Nation's Past," discusses how connected Australians feel to the past, and examines debates about the settlement of Australia.

The article discusses the portraits' manifestation of Australian history. It underscores how portraits convey presence and provide a glimpse in the past through elements of biography, illumination of the subject, and revealing likenesses and truths. It mentions for instance the work of Jean François Rigaud titled "Portrait of Dr Johann Reinhold Forster and His Son George Forster" which show two men recording and documenting a selection of exotic birds. It also provides other portrait art including the marble bust of Sir Redmond Barry by Thomas Woolner and the Ned Kelly Portrait, which were impacted with the emergence of photography. Moreover, it highlights the potential of portraiture as primary historic document which can enhance the students' understanding of the subject.

The author applauses the move of the Australian Parliament to include the chronicles of Stolen Generations in the country's National History Curriculum. He stresses that it is essential for students to know the history of Stolen Generations from Torres Strait Islander community to shape their future. He states that the release of new history of curriculum provides a great opportunity for historical re-examination and reconfiguration, particularly where Indigenous Australian histories are concerned. The author narrates a story of a Victorian family who experienced the hardship of the children being separated from their parents. He proposes that story-telling is an effective methodology in teaching the accounts of Stolen Generations in schools.

The article presents a classroom activity that is based on the Shape of the Australian Curriculum guide for History. It is stressed that activity highlights the between different types of people in Australia at the end of the nineteenth century. It is mentioned that activity relates to the following aspects including the nationalism and federation, the taking of active part in the debates over the legacy of the past and the contribution to the democratic discussion of national issues. Several middle-class men who worked hard for the federation and for the constitution of Australia are presented including Sir Henry Parkes, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, and Sir John Forrest.

The academic study of sport history in Australia is a relatively recent initiative, dating back to the 1970s. It was inspired by a handful of enterprising scholars, each of whom is now retired. The following paper has two aims. First, it reflects on the efforts of early sport historians to carve out a research niche within the Australian academy. In keeping with the festschrift theme, it also dwells upon the profound influence of Wray Vamplew - a Yorkshireman who had the temerity to help pioneer sport history in an Antipodean setting. Second, the main body of the paper goes on to identify three key areas of research developed over the past thirty years by scholars of Australian sport history, then concludes with recommendations for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History has long been taught in Australian schools with a view to encouraging patriotic citizenship. What has been taught and what is meant by patriotic Australian citizenship has changed markedly over the years. Current national initiatives to stimulate and direct the teaching of ‘what we all know’ to be Australian history may not meet the requirements of acceptable educational practice. The Commonwealth government may be better advised to pursue initiatives that encourage understanding of and commitment to the common weal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the way students were taught to have a realistic understanding on the war experiences of Australia as well as how they have been mythologised in a culture with such a strong connection to the Anzac legend. According to the article, the Anzac experience and the Anzac legend are considered as the core of the Australian history. It notes that war and the Anzac legend is the major part of the country's history for it is the central place in their national mythology, identity, and historical imagination. It further stresses that Anzac-related matters are the major concern to teachers of history for it is fraught territory.

The article focuses on the representation and interpretation of history. It looks into some novels that depicts the representation of the Australian past including Alex McDermott's paper "Who Said the Kelly Letters?," Peter Carey's novel "True History of the Kelly Gang," and Charles Tait's film "The Story of the Kelly Gang." Moreover, it discusses the aspects of experimental histories as well as the context of the academic discipline of history.

The article discusses how students and teachers understand the Australian history. Various responses from students in different schools around Australia regarding how they learn history in the best possible way are presented. According to the article, such responses indicate how hard it is to teach history in schools and how hard it is to engage students in learning and having interest towards the subject.

The article presents an outline of a model curriculum in Australian history based from the outcomes of the August 2006 National History Summit. It aims to aid in the development of a model curriculum to set consistently high standards and make sure that students will be able to study Australian history in a systematic and structured way. It features a proposed course outlines on primary and secondary curriculum.