Connections between the history curriculum and the R.E. curriculum

1. Connections between the history curriculum and the R.E. curriculum Secondary

2. Issues for history • Indicative hours for writers versus time available in schools • How to complete 3 depth studies? • Might it be possible for one of the history depth studies to be covered in Religious Education under “Church History”?

3. This is not an opportunity for you to decrease the amount of time available to teach history But It is a recognition that in many schools it is not going to be possible to do the three depth studies (entitlement) in the time allocated to history/humanities and social sciences.

4. This issue is particularly pertinent in the crowded curriculum of Years 7 and 8. However, this suggestionmay work best in Years 7 and 8 where it may be possible for the teacher of religion to also be the history teacher.

5. How might it be possible • Clever links have been made with the history curriculum by the R.E. writers. • Year level time frame descriptions are the same. • Knowledge and understanding descriptions often overlap in at least one history depth study. • The R.E. skills mirror the history skills for this unit. • The Inquiry pedagogy is shared.

6. Challenges? • The APRE and the AC history would need to work closely together. • Some history teachers might be reluctant to give up favourite topics and allow R.E. people to do them. • R.E. teachers will need to understand the nature of historical inquiry. This means that students will need to use a range of sources (including biblical sources) to investigate the ancient past and they will need to evaluate these sources.

7. Year 7. • Common Depth Study – Mediterranean World : Ancient Rome (R.E. : 6BCE- c.650CE) • Religion content: The beliefs, values and practices of early church communities were influenced by ancient Mediterranean societies…. • History: Physical features of ancient Rome; key groups; significant beliefs, values, practices; contacts and conflicts; significant individuals

8. Year 8 (650 -1750) • Church history: challenge and change, church responds to many internal and external threats… questions nature and role in the world • History : The Ancient to the Modern World Depth Study 1 – Medieval Europe or Renaissance Italy Or Depth Study 3 – Black Death or Spanish Conquest of the Americas

9. Year 9 (1750-1918) • Church History: The Church’s response to the making of the modern world. • History: The making of the Modern World Depth Study1 Progressive ideas and Movements – what was Socialism or Darwinism and how did the church respond to the challenges posed? Or Movement of Peoples – the slave trade, Christianity and William Wilberforce.

10. Year 10 (1918-present) • Church history The Church, Australia and the Modern World • History : no exact fit in the depth studies but the study of the changing nature and influence of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century would arguably be a good depth study to answer the inquiry question: How was the Australian society affected by significant global events and changes in this period? - Secularisation; women’s equality (including birth control issues); indigenous rights; rights of the child (including child abuse)