The History Wars (in our schools)

Whilst her commitment to remedy the apparent shortcomings of the history curriculum is admirable, by introducing courses such as Studies of Society and Environment (Years 1 to 10 Syllabus); Time, Continuity and Change – Place and Space – Culture and Identity – Systems, and Resources and Power, I worry about the speed of this government in introducing new policy and the Department’s minimalist approach to consultation with stakeholders in all new policy initiatives.

It is easy to direct teachers to impart knowledge to our students based on some fanciful notion that this new material will remedy past mistakes in history teachings. But whose history will be taught? And how qualified are our teachers to cover all content impartially?

The Age newspaper reported on 21 August that the summit considered a paper by University of Wollongong history and politics professor Greg Melleuish, outlining what he thought a student should know of Australian history by the end of year 10. Melleuish sought to rectify some of the imbalances and omissions in standard accounts of Australian history. The eminent professor wanted more attention paid to middle Australia, to the role of religion, to economic history and to the NSW Free Trade Party in the early days of the Commonwealth.

Melleuish proposed a number of other changes to the history curriculum. These included a number of questions. How did a convict society change into a free society? What were the relations between Aborigines and settlers? Why did Australia become so prosperous? What were the relations between men and women? What were the plans and dreams for Australian society? Melleuish proposed that students would deal with three or four such questions in a year, working in each one chronologically through at least a century.

Am I to believe that these views as well as those of the other 23 distinguished historians and commentators present at the exclusive summit, including respected Indigenous historian Jackie Huggins, will be the extent of consultation on this debate before the final policy document is proposed? I hope not!

One of my duties as an academic at my university is to teach a compulsory unit on Indigenous Australians to primary and secondary school trainee teachers. Every semester I witness students in my classes, either straight out of Year 12 or of mature age, wishing to becoming teachers, who don’t have the faintest idea of the past, recent or present lifestyles of our people.

I generally ask a couple of questions to my classes on their first day that, in the main, provides me with sufficient and predictable information to confirm my worst fears: How many of you have been taught by an Indigenous Australian school teacher? What is the name of the local Indigenous tribe of the town you grew up in? What is terra nullius? What was the significance of the 1967 referendum? What can you tell me about the stolen generation?

One student, in my latest intake, raised his hand to the first question only to disappoint me when I asked him the name of the school and the teacher. The student responded confidently that it was a school in New Zealand and promptly gave the name of a Maori teacher.

I don’t care how comprehensive the Minister’s proposed changes are to the teaching of Australian history. One thing I am confident about saying is that unless the next generation of teachers undertake a compulsory Indigenous studies unit at their tertiary institution, they will fail miserably, through lack of formal knowledge, in their task of delivering quality history lessons in the classroom.

A simple solution for the Minister is to make it a condition of federal funding to universities that all their enrolled trainee teachers undertake a compulsory unit in Indigenous Australian Studies. Many universities have such units in their education programmes. The list below is just a random sample of modules and concepts I teach and would certainly cover the essential learning outcomes required for a graduate teacher in the acquisition of a balanced grounding on the history of this country.

For the module on Society, Culture and Identity students are asked to explore, consider and discuss the concept of society, cultures, identity and representation with reference to the Australian community and to Australian Indigenous peoples as a whole.

In the module on Australian Indigenous Cultures the students are asked to explore the cultures and societies of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, examining traditional cultures and focusing on issues as a religion/belief, philosophy, custom and social organisation.