‘Evidence-free beliefs: history in the hands of the Coalition‘, The Conversation, 22 August 2014
The author anticipates the (possibly imminent) release of the Donnelly-Wiltshire report to Minister Pyne on the national curriculum, including the history component. He reports a survey and interview project covering 240 secondary teachers and education professionals. He summarises the results as follows:
Based on the reactions of our respondents, the curriculum needs to cut back on content in Years 7-10, students in Year 7 should be able to study Egypt, Greece and Rome, the curriculum needs to have a little less Asian history and the states and territories should make sure that teachers get enough professional development so that history staff can approach Indigenous issues with accuracy and confidence. There should also be less emphasis on the world wars and maybe there should be a bit on the Vietnam war. That’s about it.
There are around 50 comments, including a link to a recent article about the senior history curriculum in the United States and a sidebar link to a British article critical of overemphasis on British aspects of the curriculum. Earlier material on the history curriculum review is here.