Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum.
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| Title: | Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Sharp, Heather1 (AUTHOR) heather.sharp@newcastle.edu.au |
| Source: | History of Education. May2012, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p405-421. 17p. 2 Black and White Photographs. |
| Subject Terms: | *Curriculum, *History education, *Social sciences education, *Culture conflict, *Education, Multiculturalism, Australian history |
| Geographic Terms: | Queensland, Australia |
| Abstract: | 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] |
| Copyright of History of Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 76373296 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Sharp%2C+Heather%22">Sharp, Heather</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<i> heather.sharp@newcastle.edu.au</i> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22History+of+Education%22">History of Education</searchLink>. May2012, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p405-421. 17p. 2 Black and White Photographs. – Name: Subject Label: Subject Terms Group: Su Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Curriculum%22">Curriculum</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22History+education%22">History education</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+sciences+education%22">Social sciences education</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Culture+conflict%22">Culture conflict</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Education%22">Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Multiculturalism%22">Multiculturalism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Australian+history%22">Australian history</searchLink> – Name: SubjectGeographic Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Queensland%22">Queensland</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Australia%22">Australia</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: 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] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of History of Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1080/0046760X.2011.625557 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 17 StartPage: 405 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Curriculum Type: general – SubjectFull: History education Type: general – SubjectFull: Social sciences education Type: general – SubjectFull: Culture conflict Type: general – SubjectFull: Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Multiculturalism Type: general – SubjectFull: Australian history Type: general – SubjectFull: Queensland Type: general – SubjectFull: Australia Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Sharp, Heather IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 05 Text: May2012 Type: published Y: 2012 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0046760X Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 41 – Type: issue Value: 3 Titles: – TitleFull: History of Education Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
