Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Remembering Australia’s past project: pre-service history teachers, national narratives and historical consciousness

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

Abstract

Historical consciousness is a complex phenomenon that has been defined, in the North American tradition, as how we understand and relate, both cognitively and affectively, to the past (Seixas 2006), and in the German tradition from which it arose, as the act of orienting oneself in time through the construction of narratives about the past (Rüsen, 2004). It manifests through the narratives we use to make meaning of the past and our relationship and attitude to particular times, events and groups. In post-colonial Australia, the so-named History Wars controversy of the 1990s and early twenty-first century brought into question how aspects of national history should be interpreted and how they should be represented in everyday historical cultures, such as museums and film, and in school curricula (MaciIntyre and Clark 2004; Sharp 2017). The Remembering Australia’s Past (RAP) project, conducted by a history research group at an Australian regional university in New South Wales, sought to examine how pre-service history teachers articulate a narrative of national history. These participants engaged in the study of history during or in the immediate aftermath of the History Wars, and they will have an important influence as future History teachers. Using an open-ended narrative methodology, the project aimed to explore what pre-service History teachers know, understand and believe is important about Australia’s past. This paper will report on what events, people and groups were viewed as historically significant in these national narratives and make some preliminary observations on the influences that shape the pre-service History teachers’ national narratives.

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

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahonen, S. (2005). Historical consciousness: a viable paradigm for history education? Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37(6), 697–707.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahonen, S. (2013). Postconflict history education in Finland, South Africa and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education, 1, 90–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angier, K. (2017). In search of historical consciousness: an investigation into young South Africans’ knowledge and understanding of ‘their’ national histories. London Review of Education, 15(2), 155–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anico, M., & Peralta, E. (Eds.). (2009). Heritage and identity: engagement and demission in the contemporary world. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashton, P., & Hamilton, P. (2007). History at the crossroads: Australians and the past. Ultimo: Halstead Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashton, P., Connors, H., Goodall, H., Hamilton, P., & McCarthy, L. (2000). Australians and the past at the University of Technology, Sydney. Going Public: Public History Review, 8, 168–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, K. (1997). “I just kinda know”: elementary students’ ideas about historical evidence. Theory & Research in Social Education, 25(4), 407–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barton, K. (2001). History education and national identity in Northern Ireland and the United States: differing priorities. Theory Into Practice, 40(1), 48–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barton, K. (2008). Research on students’ ideas about history. In L. Levstik & C. Tyson (Eds.), Handbook of Research in Social Studies Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, K., & McCully, A. (2005). History, identity, and the school curriculum in Northern Ireland: an empirical study of secondary students’ ideas and perspectives. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37, 85–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blainey, G. (1993). Drawing up a balance sheet of our history. Quadrant, 37(7), 10–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. S. (2012). Big history: from the big bang to the present. New York: The New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christian, D. (2008). Big history: the big bang, life on earth, and the rise of humanity. The Great Courses (The Teaching Company): Virginia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (2008). History’s children: history wars in the classroom. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A., & Peck, C. L. (2019). Introduction: historical consciousness: theory and practice. In A. Clark & C. L. Peck (Eds.), Contemplating historical consciousness: notes from the field (pp. 1–10). Berghahn: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnelly, K. (1997). The black armband view of history. Agora, 32(2), 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duraisingh, E. D. (2017). Making narrative connections? Exploring how late teens relate their own lives to the historically significant past. London Review of Education, 15(2), 174–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egan, K. (1986). Teaching as story telling. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzmaurice, A. (2007). The genealogy of Terra Nullius. Australian Historical Studies, 129, 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, H.-G. (1975/1994). Truth and method (J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans. Second Revised ed.). New York: Continuum.

  • Goldberg, T. (2013). “It’s in my veins”: identity and disciplinary practice in students’ discussions of a historical issue. Theory and Research in Social Education, 41, 33–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, T. (2017). The useful past in negotiation: adolescent’s use opf history in negotiation of inter-group conflict. London Review of Education, 15(2), 194–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granatstein, J. L. (1998). Who killed Canadian history? Toronto: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, B., & Reid, J.-A. (2002). Constructing the teacher and schooling the nation. History of Education Review, 31(2), 32–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harsin, J. (2018). Post-truth and critical communication studies. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.757.

  • Holmberg, U. (2017). ‘I was born in the reign: Historical orientation in Ugandan students’ national narratives. London Review of Education, 15(2), 212–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, J. (2006). Unity vital in battle against terrorism (p. 11). The Sydney Morning Herald.

  • Hunt, M. (2000). Teaching historical significance. In J. Arthur & R. Phillips (Eds.), Issues in history teaching. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Land, R. (1994). Invasion and after: a case study in curriculum politics. Brisbane: Queensland Studies Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Létourneau, J. (2006). Remembering our past: an examination of the historical memory of young Québécois. In R. Sandwell (Ed.), To the past: history education, public memory, & citizenship in Canada (pp. 70–87). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MaciIntyre, S., & Clark, A. (2004). The history wars. Victoria: Melbourne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, R., & Baveystock, Z. (2009). What role can digital heritage play in the re-imagining of national identities?: England and its icons. In M. Anico & E. Peralta (Eds.), Heritage and identity: engagement and demission in the contemporary world. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munslow, A. (2010). The future of history. Hampshire: Palgrave, Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nash, G. B., Crabtree, C., & Dunn, R. E. (1998). History on trial: culture wars and the teaching of the past. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olofsson, H., Samuelsson, J., Stolare, M., & Wendell, J. (2017). The Swedes and their history. London Review of Education, 15(2), 243–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, R. J. (2007). Reading history curriculum as postcolonial text: towards a curricular response to the history wars in Australia and beyond. Curriculum Inquiry, 37, 383–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, R. J. (2009). Teaching history as historiography: engaging narrative diversity in the curriculum. International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research, 8(2), 118–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, R. J. (2015). What paradigms inform the review of the Australian curriculum: History? What does this mean for the possibilities of critical and effective histories in Australian education? Curriculum Perspectives, 35(1), 52–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck, C. L. (2010). “It’s not like [I’m] Chinese and Canadian. I am in between”: ethnicity and students’ conceptions of historical significance. Theory and Research in Social Education, 38(4), 574–617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Read, P. (2013). Making Aboriginal History. In A. Clark & P. Ashton (Eds.), Australian History Now (pp. 24–39). Sydney: New South Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricoeur, P. (1981). Hermeneutics and the human sciences: essays on language, action and interpretation (J. B. Thompson, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rüsen, J. (1996). Some theoretical approaches to intercultural comparative historiography. History and Theory, 35(4), 5–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rüsen, J. (2004). Historical consciousness: narrative structure, moral function, and ontogenetic development. In P. Seixas (Ed.), Theorizing historical consciousness (pp. 63–85). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rüsen, J. (2006). Preface to the series. In J. Straub (Ed.), Narration, identity and historical consciousness. New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rüsen, J. (2012). Tradition: a principle of historical sense-generation and its logic and effect in historical culture. History and Theory, Theme issue, 51(1), 45–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, P. (1997). The place of history within social studies. In I. Wright & A. Sears (Eds.), Trends & issues in Canadian social studies. Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, P. (Ed.). (2004). Theorizing historical consciousness. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, P. (2005). Historical consciousness: the progress of knowledge in a postprogressive age. In J. Straub (Ed.), Narration, identity, and historical consciousness (pp. 141–159). New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, P. (2006). What is historical consciousness? In R. W. Sandwell (Ed.), To the past: history education, public memory, & citizenship in Canada (pp. 11–22). Toronto: Toronto University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, H. (2017). After the ideological battles: Student views on sources representing the Gallipoli conflict. In International perspectives on teaching rival histories: pedagogical responses to contested narratives and the History Wars (pp. 229–252). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Straub, J. (Ed.). (2005). Narration, identity, and historical consciousness. New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, T. (2000). The future of the past: final report of the national inquiry into school history. Available online at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/45302877. Accessed 6 Mar 2018.

  • Taylor, T. (2009). Howard’s end: a narrative memoir of political contrivance, neoconservative ideology and the Australian curriculum. The Curriculum Journal, 20(4), 317–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, T., & Guyver, R. (Eds.). (2012). History Wars and the classroom: Global perspectives. New York: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorp, R. (2014). Towards an epistemological theory of historical consciousness. Historical Encounters, 1(1), 17–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Havere, T., Wils, K., Depaepe, F., Verschaffel, L., & Van Nieuwenhuyse, K. (2017). Flemish students’ historical reference knowledge and narratives of the Belgian national past at the end of secondary education. London Review of Education, 15(2), 272–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wertsch, J. V. (2002). Voices of collective remembering. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Willis, J. S. (2011). Misremembering as mediated action: schematic narrative templates and elementary students’ narration of the past. Theory and Research in Social Education, 39(1), 115–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts: charting the future of teaching the past. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

    Debra J. Donnelly, Robert J. Parkes, Heather L. Sharp & Emma L. Shaw

Authors
  1. Debra J. Donnelly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert J. Parkes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Heather L. Sharp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Emma L. Shaw
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Debra J. Donnelly.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Donnelly, D.J., Parkes, R.J., Sharp, H.L. et al. Remembering Australia’s past project: pre-service history teachers, national narratives and historical consciousness. Curric Perspect 39, 159–168 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-019-00087-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-019-00087-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation