Winter 2004

Talking History

History and CCE

This review of the connected roles of history and civics and citizenship education is adapted in part from the history and civics chapter in Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian Schools. By PAT HINCKS.

It is a referendum…about things fundamental in democracy – the liberty of the individual, the British tradition of justice, and the possibility of suppressing ideas with the bludgeon.

The Argus, Editorial, Friday 21 September 1951

…We have a classic case of competing rights – the right to be protected from terrorism versus the right to freedom from a relatively minor and short term inconvenience that we can wear for the greater good and safety of our society.

The Australian, Editorial, Thursday 28 November 2002

These extracts, from the unit Red Menace? in Making History: Middle Secondary Units, show us the importance of civics to history and history to civics. Global fears and threats are not new issues for Australians and in this unit students are asked to examine the events of the 1950s in the context of terrorism in the modern world. In the 1950s Australians voted ‘no’ in a referendum to outlaw the Communist Party of Australia. Today, Australians are once again debating whether limitations on their democratic freedoms are needed to counter the external threat of terrorism. By studying our history, students gain a context for interpreting such contemporary events. By studying civics, history is broadened and made relevant to current issues affecting students.

The 2003 Statement from the National Centre for History Education makes clear the importance of history to informed citizenship and other interconnections between the two areas.

Study of our history is an essential part of preparing young Australians to be informed and active citizens in a modern democracy and globalising world. When young people study the past, they engage with competing ideas about how people live, and about how societies can be organised. They engage with powerful values and beliefs. They come to understand how people have struggled to bring about worthwhile change and to maintain valued continuities.

The study of history is an essential basis for Australian citizenship and provides foundation knowledge of the concepts, values, beliefs, origins, traditions and practices of Australian democracy. Indeed, education about the history of Australians—the history and culture of all groups in contemporary Australia—is arguably a basic citizenship right of students, since without it they cannot be expected to effectively practice key democratic rights and responsibilities.

All areas of history teaching in Australian schools, including ancient civilisations, the study of revolutions, the Renaissance, and European, Asian and 20th century histories, have valuable civics and citizenship education (CCE) connections. Although CCE is primarily Australian-focussed, the story of Australian civic history is reflective of multiple influences and connections to an array of other countries, cultures and times.

While underpinned by history, CCE has broader dimensions. The development of citizenship values and skills is the domain of all key learning areas and all members of the school community. To embed CCE in schools, support and opportunities for active participation—the practice of democracy—are needed in classrooms, schools and the way the schools link to the community. This whole school approach depends on the cooperation of school leaders and policymakers, as well as classroom teachers in all key learning areas.

The findings of the Australian Government’s 2003 Values Education Study supports the efficacy of whole school approaches in inculcating values (including democratic values) education. The draft national framework from this study includes the principles that effective values education occurs in partnership with students, staff, families and the school community as part of a whole school approach to educating students, is presented in a learning environment in which students are encouraged to explore their own, their school’s and the community’s values and is made an explicit goal of schooling.

THE DIMENSIONS OF CCE

Civics and citizenship education is concerned with equipping students with the decision-making skills, values, attitudes, information and understanding they need to participate as informed and active citizens within Australian society.

CCE encompasses knowledge and skills underpinned by values and attitudes. At the core of CCE is the belief that if the Australian community values a democratic society, the school system should teach students about it and schools should practise it by offering ‘democratic’ experiences in the classroom and the whole school environment. It requires a studentcentred, active pedagogy. Key knowledge and skills, values and attitudes, and pedagogy encompassed by civics and citizenship include:

Knowledge and skills

• the origins, nature and processes of Australia’s democratic institutions— the government, the judicial system and the nation’s place in the international community;
• the principles behind Australia’s political and legal institutions;
• an understanding of how our system of government works in practice and how it affects citizens;
• the history of all Australians, including Indigenous, multicultural and gender perspectives;
• critical thinking, negotiation, collaboration and decision-making skills;
• inquiry and research skills; and
• communication skills.

Values and attitudes

• being committed to the rights and esponsibilities of living in a democracy;
• developing pride in being Australian and sharing our rich and diverse heritage;
• being committed to international understanding and cooperation;
• developing belief in equality, liberty, fairness, trust, mutual respect and social cooperation;
• being committed to social justice and equal opportunity for all;
• accepting lawful and just authority;
• respecting different viewpoints, working cooperatively with others and being caring and supportive of others;
• exercising the rights and responsibilities of citizens—in classrooms, schools and in the wider community;
• actively contributing to the life of the school and the broader community; and
• actively supporting the conservation of heritage and the natural environment.

Pedagogy

• student-centred classrooms that encourage students to express opinions, engage in active debate and consider a variety of viewpoints;
• linking learning to student interests, student input and choice in curriculum;
• focussed inquiry approaches, including investigation, communication and participation;
• supporting all students’ learning needs;
• authentic learning for real purposes with real outcomes and audiences;
• recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity;
• promoting tolerance and respect for others; and
• supporting the development of identity—individual, school, local, national and global.

HISTORY AND CCE

Teachers of history have a key role to play as the mediators of origins, concepts and traditions that underpin civics and citizenship. They also have a range of specialist resources and strategies to support students’ learning needs in CCE.

History brings to CCE:

• knowledge of the history of Australia;
• knowledge and understanding of the origins and operations of political, economic, legal and social institutions;
• stories behind contemporary issues and the context through which students make meaning of current events and develop perspectives on the future;
• narratives behind Australians’ civic past so that students gain a sense of change, time, continuity, causation;
• motivation and heritage insight into human experiences in other times and societies, which provide a basis for evaluating students’ own life experiences; and
• individual stories and models of citizenship that enable students to understand decision-making processes and the choices made by individuals when confronted with challenges.

History also provides particular skills and abilities: a means of understanding and valuing principles of democracy, social justice and ecological sustainability; inquiry methodology that promotes experiential and student-centred teaching; and learning and historical literacy, which enables students to both critically evaluate the public use of history in contemporary political debate and generate useful knowledge for themselves and their communities.

CCE AND HISTORY

The Future of the Past, the Australian Government’s inquiry into school history (2001), showed that one of the key challenges for teachers of history in schools is to help students to see the contemporary connections of history and its relevance to their own lives.

The Making History units developed for middle primary and middle secondary students under the National History Project address these concerns, and provide links between past and contemporary events.

In addition, CCE approaches both complement and enhance history. Community research investigations, like those outlined in Discovering Democracy through Research, provide models for investigations and inquiry in the local community and about current issues. These investigations support the development of a range of skills—formulating questions posing hypotheses, data collection, analysis, synthesis, critical thinking and decision making. They allow students to be historians—shaping their own investigations and generating useful knowledge for themselves and their community.

In active investigations, students learn much about democratic processes. In addition to skills like cooperation and communication, they develop the personal values and attitudes necessary to sustain a healthy democracy.

References

A Draft National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools, Australian Government, 2004, available online at: www.curriculum.edu.au/values/index.htm

Making History: Middle Primary Units – Investigating our Land and Legends, available online at: www.hyperhistory.org/

Making History: Middle Secondary UnitsInvestigating People and Issues in Australia after World War II, available online at: www.hyperhistory.org/

Teaching and Learning History in Australia’s Schools: A Statement from the National Centre for History Education, available online at: www.hyperhistory.org/

‘The Values We Teach’, 1991, Department of School Education, NSW, cited in R Gilbert (ed) 1997, Studying Society and the Environment: A Handbook for Teachers, Macmillan Education, Melbourne.

Patricia Hincks is project manager of the CCE project at Curriculum Corporation.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au