Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The intellectual quality and inclusivity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the NSW Stage 5 History syllabus

  • Research article
  • Published:
Curriculum Perspectives Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study compares the intellectual quality and inclusivity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the NSW 2003 Stage 5 History syllabus and the NSW 2012 Stage 5 History syllabus. The significance of this analysis lies in the impact of the Australian Curriculum (AC) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cross Curriculum Priority (CCP) introduced into the NSW 2012 Stage 5 History syllabus. The purpose of this priority is to improve student engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures (BOSTES, 2012). This study identifies the level of intellectual quality by coding cognitive processes with knowledge dimensions and the level of inclusivity by coding the CCP themes with the continuum of history concepts for each syllabus. Analysis revealed that the level of intellectual quality and the level of inclusivity of both syllabi are in the lower range thus operating at a surface level of knowledge and understanding. We therefore argue that the paucity of intellectual rigour and in-depth understandings about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and peoples will fail to redress the tokenistic and misinformed understandings of Indigenous cultures that permeate the Australian schooling institution, whilst simultaneously failing to meet the intended requirements of the AC.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In NSW secondary schools, students in Stages 4 and 5 are in years 7–10 and are generally aged between 12 and 16 years of age.

References

  • Anderson, L., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrich, P. R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M. C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: a revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atweh, B., & Singh, P. (2011). The Australian curriculum: continuing the national conversation. Australian Journal of Education, 5(3), 189–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2012a). Cross curriculum priorities: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures: Australian curriculum. Education Services Australia: Author.

  • Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2012b). Australian curriculum: history. Retrieved from: http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/learning-areas-subjects/humanities-and-social-sciences/history

  • Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (n.d.). General capabilities in the Australian curriculum: humanities and social sciences. Retrieved from: http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/HASS_-_GC_learning_area.pdf

  • Bengtsson, M. (2016). How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. Nursing Plus Open, 2, 8–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biddle, N., Hunter B.H., & Schwab, R.G. (2004). Mapping Indigenous educational participation. Discussion paper no. 267/2004. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University.

  • Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2014). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784–807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourke, C. J., Rigby, K., & Burden, J. (2000). Better practice in school attendance: improving the school attendance of Indigenous students. Melbourne, Victoria: Monash University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castagno, A. (2014). Educated in whiteness. Minnesota: University of Minnesota.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (2004). Teaching the nation: politics and pedagogy in Australian history. Melbourne, Victoria: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3), 54–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ditchburn, G. (2015). The Australian curriculum: history—the challenges of a thin curriculum? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Policies of Education, 36(1), 27–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodson, M. (1994). Cultural rights and educational responsibilities. Armidale, New South Wales: University of New England.

  • Donnelly, K., & Wiltshire, K. (2014). Review of the Australian curriculum. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Australian Government Department of Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forrest, J., Lean, G., & Dunn, K. (2017). Attitudes of classroom teachers to cultural diversity and multicultural education in country new South Wales, Australia. Australian Journal of teacher Education, 42(5), 17–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, J. (2001). The diverse challenges of multiculturalism. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 43(2).

  • Gillborn, D. (2006). Rethinking white supremacy: who counts in ‘White World’. Ethnicities, 6(3), 318–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J., & Partington, G. (2012). School attendance and non-attendance. In Q. Beresford & G. Partington (Eds.), Resistance and reform: Aboriginal youth and education (pp. 261–303). Perth: UWA Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, N.E. (2008). Teaching and learning in Indigenous education. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.

  • Herbert, J. (2015). Delivering the promise: empowering teachers to empower students. In K. Price (Ed.), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. An introduction for the teaching profession (2nd edition ed., pp. 35–51). Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hickling-Hudson, A. R., & Ahlquist, R. (2003). Contesting the curriculum in the schooling of Indigenous children in Australia and the United States: from Eurocentrism to culturally powerful pedagogies. Comparative Education Review, 47(1), 64–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, G. (2016). We can’t teach what we don’t know: white teachers, multiracial schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, S. (2005). What we still don’t know about teaching race. Lewiston, New York: E. Mellen Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (1999). Multicultural education: transforming the mainstream. In S. May (Ed.), Critical multiculturalism: rethinking multicultural and anti-racist education (pp. 245–276). London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanu, Y. (2007). Increasing school success among Aboriginal students: culturally responsive curriculum or macrostructural variables affecting schooling? Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 1(1), 21–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keddie, A., Gowlett, C., Mills, M., Monk, S., & Renshaw, P. (2012). Beyond culturalism: addressing issues of Indigenous disadvantage through schooling. The Australian Educational Researcher, 40(1), 91–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langton, M. (2008). Trapped in the Aboriginal reality show. The Griffith Review, 19, 143–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, K., & Yunkaporta, T. (2013). The inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the Australian National Curriculum: a cultural, cognitive and socio-political evaluation. Curriculum Perspectives, 33(1), 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacNaughton, G. (2001). Beyond ‘othering’: rethinking approaches to teaching young Anglo-Australian children about Indigenous Australians. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 2(1), 83–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maudlin, J. (2014). The abandonment of hope: curriculum theory and white moral responsibility. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 11(2), 136–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, J. (2012). Teachers, time, staff and money: committing to community consultation in high schools. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education., 41(2), 120–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, J. (2014). It’s a bit hard to tell isn’t it: identifying and analyzing intentions behind a cross-curriculum priority. Curriculum Perspectives, 34(3), 27–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). (2008). The Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians. Melbourne: MCEETYA.

    Google Scholar 

  • New South Wales Board of Studies (NSW BOS) (2003). History Syllabus 7–10. Sydney: Board of Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • New South Wales Board Of Studies Teaching Educational Standards (NSW BOSTES) (2012). History Syllabus 7–10. Sydney: NESA. Retrieved from: http://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/hsie/history-k10/

  • Peacock, D., Lingard, R., & Sellar, S. (2015). Texturing space-times in the Australian curriculum: cross-curriculum priorities. Curriculum Inquiry, 45(4), 367–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Purdie, N., & Buckley, S. (2010). School attendance and retention of Indigenous Australian students. Canberra: Australian Institute of Family Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, K. (2008). The causes of non-attendance: an empirical study. Educational Review, 60(4), 345–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scarlett, P. (2015). Aboriginal service in the First World War: identity, recognition and the problem of mateship. Aboriginal History Journal, 39, 163–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tambyah, M. M. (2017). Teaching for ‘historical understanding’: what knowledge(s) do teachers need to teach history? Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42(5), 35–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, T., & Collins, S. (2012). Behind the battle lines of history as politics: an international and intergenerational methodology for testing the social identity thesis of history education. Education Sciences, 2(4), 208–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tawil, S., & Harley, A. (2004). Education, conflict and social cohesion. Geneva: UNESCO IBE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yunkaporta, T., & McGinty, S. (2009). Reclaiming Aboriginal knowledge at the cultural interface. The Australian Educational Researcher, 36(2), 55–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Amy Morris & Cathie Burgess

Authors
  1. Amy Morris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cathie Burgess
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cathie Burgess.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Morris, A., Burgess, C. The intellectual quality and inclusivity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the NSW Stage 5 History syllabus. Curric Perspect 38, 107–116 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-018-0045-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-018-0045-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation