HTAWA Feedback for Senior Australian Curriculum: Modern History
The membership of HTAWA has strong reservations about endorsing the Senior
Australian Curriculum: Modern History and considers significant change is required
to make this course teachable and examinable. Two key issues were identified:
number of contexts and the focus of these contexts.
Number of context
HTAWA is concerned that the 6 module design originally proposed, which offered
teachers choice, has essentially been replaced by a seven module course, with units
1 – 3 requiring students to cover two contexts. This is problematic because:
1. It is not possible to deliver on the higher level historical skills, knowledge and
understandings, with such an excessive amount of content. It is more
pedagogically sound to teach a unit in more depth to enable students to
“Evaluate contested views about the past to understand the provisional
nature of historical knowledge and to arrive at reasoned and supported
conclusions” which is not possible with the survey approach to each unit
2. There is no sound pedagogical reason for the students to study two contexts
in each unit. They are merely asked to undertake two contexts, rather than
do anything that justifies the inclusion of two contexts such as comparison. If
the justification is breadth then the advisory group should consider whether
such a criteria is required given that this rationale has been delivered upon in
the F-10 course which is compulsory
3. The amount of time to deliver on each context is approximately seven weeks,
which is effectively the same amount of time each depth study is given in
Years 7 – 10 however the conceptual understanding required in Year 11 and
12 is much higher and therefore not deliverable
Recommendation: change the wording to at least one context for Unit 1 – 3.
Focus of the contexts
Key issues exist within and between units. These include
1. The appeal of the units and contexts for students, particularly in Units 2 and 4
2. The rationale between the two lists in Unit 3 which does not match the unit
description and the need for two contexts when a more in-depth study of one
nation state could better deliver on the historical skills, knowledge and
understandings
3. The repetition between Years 9 – 10 Depth Studies and 11 – 12 contexts
such as the French Revolution
4. The contexts in Unit 2 and 4 need to be tied more to discrete and feasible
geographic locations e.g. studying a range of social issues within the context
of broader political and economic changes in particular countries such as
Australia in Unit 2 to provide a more cohesive structure and more achievable
geographic focus for unit 4
Recommendation: revise the rationale behind contexts in Units 2 – 4 to make
the units more appealing to students, teachable and examinable.
Specific recommendations for each unit.
Unit 1
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More consistency in the language: including versus such as creates inequality
between dot points
The long term influence is an impractical expectation given the time frame of
the contexts themselves
Inexperienced teachers need an indication of how long is required for each
dot point as they are not consistent in the depth and breadth
Recommendations:
 students undertake ONE context
 the larger dot points be broken down into smaller components to
give teachers more guidance as to the relative importance of each
point.
Unit 2
 The Civil Rights context is the only coherent option as it contained and clearly
set within the broader context of other changes within the USA.
 The appeal of social history for Year 11 is questionable and exacerbated by
the generalised nature of the study. The focus of looking at more than one
country is unnecessary as the students are not required to compare or
contrast the experiences between women, workers etc. in different nations.
 Unless teachers select the Civil Rights movement in essence they would be
required to study 4 different countries (two in each context) which leads to a
superficial survey and makes the historical skills, knowledge and
understandings unachievable.
Recommendation: investigate one nation and the social changes resulting
from changed political and economic circumstances.
Unit 3
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The rationale of List 1 and List 2 is flawed e.g. the breakdown of
European order is not relevant to the Japan context
The rationale establishes a false construct that these ‘Asian’ nations
experience particular problems and ‘Western’ nations experience different
problems that are mutually exclusive
This mismatch is highlighted by the mismatch between the rationale for
the two lists in the unit description and what is written below the lists
Making Asia compulsory, in a subject that is not compulsory, privileges
this region above Australia
Recommendation: study one nation that focuses on the social, political and
economic challenges and solutions in the early 20th century.
Unit 4
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The final sentence in the unit description states “This unit requires particular
attention to the changing nature of historical sources.” but this is not
reinforced with a specific dot point in each of the contexts. Rather the final
content point for each context is a general statement reinforcing the rational
of the context which is quite political in its nature e.g. “notions of the role of
the United States as the world’s ‘policeman’, and the mergence of the theory
of soft power.”
Recommendation: remove the final dot point in each context and replace
with a reference to studying the historiography of the context.
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Only two contexts are written in a way that has widespread appeal, which is
particularly detrimental for a non-compulsory subject. These two context: The
Struggle for Peace in the Middle East and the Changing World Order whilst
more coherent are too large
Recommendation: the changing World Order should be contained to
particular regions such as Europe or Asia.
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The unit on Australia’s engagement with Asia would be more effective if
teachers could explore the relevant examples that reflect historical
developments rather than the arbitrary focus on particular Asian nations
which do not have equal engagement with Australia
Recommendation: Australia’s engagement with Asia should follow the real
development of Australia’s relation with the Asian region rather than a
constrained emphasis of an Asian nation’s relations with Australia.
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The context of the Towards a Global Economy is essentially a disparate
economic history, which is a grab bag of elements rather than a coherent unit
Recommendation: remove or significantly rewrite this context.
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The Movements of People context would be better left to the geography
course, enabling them to explore social geography
Recommendation: remove this context.