What is Real History ? Historical Literacy and The Australian Curriculum: History

1. What is RealHistory? Historical Literacy and The Australian Curriculum: History Sue Burvill-Shaw Head of Humanities St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School

2. Today’s Aim • What do we mean by “Historical Literacy”? • How can I help my students to develop Historical Literacy?

3. What is Historical Literacy? (From the 2010 document) Rationale “History is a disciplined inquiry into the past that develops students' curiosity and imagination. It develops understanding of cultural, social and political events, processes and issues that have shaped humanity from earliest times. (page 1)

4. History, as a discipline, has its own methods and procedures that make it different from other ways of understanding human experience. … … • It is interpretative by nature, promotes debate and encourages thinking … …” (page 1)

5. Implications? History Literacy, then is the literacy skills needed by students to conduct “a disciplined inquiry into the past”. These include:

6. What is “Historical Literacy”? (page 2)

7. Developing Historical Thinking "Historical thinking, like other forms of disciplinary thinking, begins with clear-eyed wonder before the world. But questioning is an extraordinarily difficult skill for most students, probably because for their whole lives teachers and textbooks have posed the questions for them ("Write an essay on the following question . . ."). Feeding students a steady diet of other people's questions is a sure-fire prescription for mental dyspepsia (page 11)

8. … … the first move students need to learn is that of asking good historical questions. To this end the first meeting in every unit is designed to intensify students' desire to inquire." (Lendol Calder, 2006) (page 11)

9. What is Historical Thinking? The Canadian Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness argues “that historical thinking — like scientific thinking in science instruction and mathematical thinking in math instruction — is central to history instruction”

10. Peter Seixas: Focuses on "three ways of dealing with...conflicting interpretation of the past" (p. 20). 1. "best story" approach- "historical knowledge appears as something fixed by authority rather than subject to investigation, debate, and its own system of warrants" (p. 23). – the ‘Grand Narrative’ of the past. (page 3)

11. 2. History as an exercise in Disciplined Knowledge; as a Way of Knowing- an emphasis upon historical concepts and skills, their vital relationship with knowledge, and the importance of historical inquiry. (page 3)

12. 3. The Postmodern approach- "the task for students in the third orientation is not so much to arrive at a "best" or most valid position on the basis of historical evidence as to understand how different groups organize the past into histories and how their rhetorical and [narrative] strategies serve present day purposes" (p. 20-21). (page 3)

13. Seixasposes the question: "Understanding their interplay, can we find ways to introduce their various insights at different levels of schooling, while mitigating their weaknesses by being alert to their dangers and flaws?" (p. 32).

14. Implications? To teach students to think like a historian and work like a historian… We need to be able to think like historians!

15. What is History? “… … history is a narrative about the past written in the here and now, rather than some distanced mirror of it … …” Munslow, Professor Alun, October 2001, What history is, viewed July 17, 2005, http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Whatishistory/munslow6.html (page 4)

16. history is a narrative about the past written in the here and now, rather than some distanced mirror of it

17. What is Historiography? Literally, the word means "the writing of history." In modern usage, however, the word refers to the study of the way history has been and is written--the history of historical writing. SOURCE: ConalFuray and Michael J. Salevouris, 1979, The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, pp 223-4, 231. (page 5)

18. History: Meaning and Method “The primary sources of historiography are the works of historians. … …” SOURCE: Donald V. Gawronski, 1975, History: Meaning and Method, 3rd ed. , Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Company, pp 59-60. (page 6)

19. The Language of Historiography DIRECTIONS: Match each of the following terms with the definitions below. (page 7)

20. Analysing a Cartoon How reliable and representative is this cartoon? The author, Gary Larson, (page 8)

21. Analysing a Cartoon HINT: • What aspects did the cartoonist get right? • What aspects did the cartoonist get wrong? • What aspects of Viking life are covered? • What aspects of Viking life are not covered? • How do the nature of the source and its context of production affect its reliability and representativeness? (page 8)

22. Using cartoons as evidence (page 9)

23. WORKING WITH HERODOTUS • Can we trust Herodotus? Some people call him the Father of History, but other people call him the Father of Lies. Read the biographical details below and decide whether it supports the claim he was a good historian or an untrustworthy historian for a study of Ancient Egypt. Highlight each fact and match it to the claim you think it supports. Be ready to explain your choices. (page 10)

24. Teaching History with Film “Unlike other secondary sources such as textbooks or documentary film, which are viewed by many teachers as inherently ‘accurate’ because of their perceived neutral, authorless tone, Hollywood films are often recognised by teachers as a challenge in terms of historical accuracy.” (pg 91-92) (page 12)

25. “Therefore, teachers and students can approach film as they would any source, considering issues of context and sourcing, such as analysing the purpose and background of the author or ‘source’ of the document, while also comparing film to other secondary and primary sources, activities crucial to using film as a primary source as well.” (pg 92) (page 12)

26. Reflection… • What have we learned about how we might help students develop historical literacy?

27. Any Questions?