Back to Search
Start Over
Teaching the nation's story: comparing public debates and classroom perspectives on history education in Australia and Canada.
- Source :
- Journal of Curriculum Studies; Dec2009, Vol. 41 Issue 6, p745-762, 18p
- Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- Teaching national history in school generates significant public anxiety and political debateāas the various 'history wars' around the world reveal. For many school students, however, studying their nation's past is dull and repetitive. Such lack of interest has been confirmed by surveys and research reports that reveal alarmingly low levels of national historical knowledge among young people, and there is growing popular concern that their ignorance of the past endangers the nation's future. Yet preoccupation with students' apparent national illiteracy tends to overlook how they connect with history in the first place. This paper draws on findings from a comparative Australian and Canadian research project that interviewed students and teachers about the ways they learned and taught history. It argues that any return to 'the facts' at the expense of critical historical engagement in class could turn students away from the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- HISTORY education
POLITICAL debates
EDUCATION
WAR
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
RESEARCH
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00220272
- Volume :
- 41
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Curriculum Studies
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 44633098
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270903139635