Week 3: Citizenship Learning in the Context of an Aspect of Australian History
(SNAICC - National Voice for Our Children, 2017)
An important aspect of Citizenship learning is Australian history. Students will focus on the essential question 'How have Australians changed over time?'. History and Civics and Citizenship Education work closely together to ensure students are provided with are rich authentic learning experiences for students to engage with (Tudball, 2010). By the end of year four, students should be able to “explain how and why life changed in the past and describe the experiences and perspectives of an individual or group over time and recognise the significance of events in bringing about change” (ACARA, 2017). This unit will aim to develop students sense of historical awareness and make them conscious of the diversity and history of Australia’s population (Reynolds, 2012).
(ACARA, 2017)
“Australia will never matter as a nation unless we know what our roots are and our roots lie firmly in Aboriginal culture” (Craven, 2003, p. 168) therefore to embark on this topic students will look Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander [ATSI] history and cultural. ATSIs play an integral part of Australia history, therefore it is vital that students gain knowledge about this providing them with the opportunity to achieve greater empathy and appreciation of ATSI histories and cultures, and acknowledge the impact they have had, and continue to have, in our world (ACARA, 2017).
To begin students will look at aboriginal narratives and will use this as inspiration to make their own dreaming inspired story, aiming for students to think creatively and reflect on stories from the past. In the coming week's students, will look at the ATSI people that live in the local area and describe the relationship between language, country, and place through investigating the rituals surrounding Corroboree. They will also look at why people choose to remember significant events of the past such as National Sorry Day.
(Carnsew, 2014)
Introducing the book ‘The Rabbits’ by John Marsden, students will reflect on what life was like for the Aboriginal People before the Europeans arrived and the nature and consequence of contact.
(Marsden, 1988)
To finish off, students will think critically by discussing ‘What is Australia Day’. They will watch a clip to identify the different perspectives which will aid in their final assessment where students will be divided into two groups ‘Australian Settlers’ and ‘Aboriginal Australians’. They will create a poster using PicCollage to present to the class what Australia Day means to their chosen group to ‘jigsaw’ their knowledge together.
As a teacher, it is important to deliver content in a respectful way regarding Aboriginal history and being mindful and sensitive to what students know. We rely heavily on the use of language to either exchange information or communicate ideas (Thijs, 2008) therefore anger can be provoked in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students by using the incorrect terminology and comparing the Aboriginal community to ‘them and us’ (O’Dowd, 2011). By modeling to students the correct language when discussing ATSI people support in respecting one another and endeavoring to make all students comfortable in their learning environment (AISTL, 2017).
References
References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2017). Cross-curriculum priorities. Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2017). Australian professional standards for teachers. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards
O'Dowd, M. (2011). Australian identity, history and belonging: the influence of white Australian identity on racism and the non-acceptance of the history of colonization of Indigenous Australians. The international journal of diversity in organizations, communities, and nations, 10(6), 29-43.
Reynolds, R. (2012). Teaching history, geography, and SOSE in the Primary school. (2nd ed.). South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.
Thijs, K. (2008). The metaphor of the master: 'Narrative hierarchy' in national historical cultures of Europe. In S. Berger, & C. Lorenz (Eds.), The contested nation: Ethnicity, class, religion, and gender in national histories (pp. 60-74). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tudball. L. (2010). Putting Civics and citizenship education back on the education agenda: Responding to global imperatives and learning from international research. The social educator 28(3) 17-24.
Westaway, M. (2014). Why our kids should learn Aboriginal history. Retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/03/14/why-our-kids-should-learn-aboriginal-history
Images
Carnsew, B (2014). Lost conversations - finding new ways for black and white Australians to lead together. retrieved from http://leadership.benevolent.org.au/publications/lost-conversations-finding-new-ways-black-and-white-australians-lead-together
Marden, J. (1998) The rabbits. Sydney, Australia: Hachette Australia
SNAICC - National Voice For Our Children. (2017) Introduction. Retrieved from http://aboriginalchildrensday.com.au
Another great blog! Again, just be careful about grammar and spelling errors. Just give the blog a read through and you will soon identify the errors needing attention.
ReplyDeleteI love that you have considered the sensitivities of the Aboriginal people in your opening by placing a warning. This immediately shows that you have the knowledge and respect for the topic and those that it relates to. You have managed to devise activities that allow children to explore and develop their empathy when considering the feelings of others. The use of the book 'The Rabbits' is a great choice, as it introduces the concept of first contact, and the stolen generation in a way that allows the topics to be further explored.
Given the sensitive and potentially upsetting nature of the topic, you could possibly add something into your blog about what supports will be provided for children that do find the information confronting.
Rebecca, your blog is great.
ReplyDeleteIt is such an important part of Australian history and I don’t think focused enough on throughout primary school. Your plans are great with a wide range of different resources to understand all different and significant things within Australian history, especially the history of ATSI people. National sorry day was such an iconic moment in history that our future generations wouldn’t have witnessed or really understand or had learnt about, so exploring that with them is great.
Maybe inviting an Aboriginal guest to come and speak and engage with the children would also seek great help and allow them to be able to ask direct questions to them.
Awesome work!
Wow, What a blog. If it was my children you where teaching you would have my backing. I found it to be very clear and easy to understand. Love the idea if finish the unit with getting the students to understand what Australia Day is all about. It is quite a topic for debate in getting the date changed and the reason behind that. You could almost include that which would also give you other cross curriculum to the unit of work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe just rethink the picture of Australian as a jigsaw as I am just not sure how it fits in. Unless that was to represent National Sorry day. If that is the case it works. May be if the Picture had a name it might help parents understand that.
Over all love the topic.