Finding a Way in for Interculturality: Analysing History Teachers' Conceptualisations at the Secondary School Level

'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 http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/copyright). 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.