NSW high school students will learn about Indigenous Australians’ experience of colonisation, a detailed history of the Holocaust, and the impacts of climate change as part of a major overhaul of the state’s curriculum.
The new curriculum, announced by the state’s government on Thursday 12 September, will also mandate the study of civics education to ensure young people have a better understanding of government, democracy, law and diversity.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said the history syllabus would help students become well-rounded and better informed.
“The new syllabuses will provide students with opportunities for in-depth learning and support teachers with essential content for evidence-based explicit teaching.”
‘Meeting the needs of a modern society’
NSW Secondary Principals Council president, Denise Lofts, said the SPC welcomes the contemporising of the curriculum “to meet the needs of a modern society.”
“Each student in NSW Public schools, should have the opportunity to understand the world, develop their understanding, apply skills across the myriads of syllabus content,” Lofts told The Educator.
“In particular, how the explicit layers of understanding and skills are built within each syllabus structure is important in its ability to transform the learning experience.”
Lofts said it is important for the classroom learning experiences to be relevant, and therefore crucial for any syllabus to provide opportunity for students to build their understanding.
“Whether it be historical concepts and skills, learnt through historical contexts like Aboriginal Peoples’ experiences of colonisation, the making of the modern world, and human rights and freedoms,” she said.
Lofts said the SPC has been reiterating that academic literacy should be a relevant part of any curriculum “to ensure depth of understanding and rigor are enabling levers for learning growth.”
“SPC and teaching colleagues have been an ongoing part of the consultation for the syllabus development, which has been welcomed, to ensure that the teaching, learning and assessment improves the educational outcomes for our students.”
A deeper understanding of Colonisation and its impact
As part of the state’s curriculum overhaul, History students in Years 7 and 8 will now learn about the effects of colonisation on Indigenous Australians.
The changes to the History syllabus will see students undertake a mandatory, in-depth study of Indigenous Australians' experience of colonisation, including Aboriginal perspectives.
Dr Lorraine Towers is Lecturer of Indigenous Studies and Aboriginal Education at the University of Sydney’s School of Education and Social Work.
She says the momentum of ‘truth-telling’ highlights the urgent need for the curriculum to teach students both the colonial past and contemporary nation from First Peoples' perspectives, which she emphasised are crucial for future treaties with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
“NESA’s new History 7-10 Syllabus makes an important move towards this by introducing a core ‘Depth Study on Aboriginal Peoples’ experiences of colonization in Australia [1788-1901]’ as part of the Historical context (core): The era of colonization,” Dr Towers told The Educator.
“This creates a necessary focus on colonial frontier violence in NSW, although accompanying advice and the bibliography appear to centre this on the early colonial period with particular attention given to the Myall Creek massacre.”
Dr Towers noted that implementation will depend heavily on the strength and integrity of partnerships with local Elders and communities to provide a space for Aboriginal voices and experience.
“An explicit place for consideration of oral histories in the new curriculum would have made more apparent how to conceptualise a ‘shared history’ and hear perspectives on this that have so long been silenced,” she said.
Dr Towers said other core Historical contexts identified for study, including: The making of the modern world (1750-c.1945) and Human rights and freedoms (c. 1938 – c. 2017) offer the possibility for inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories but are not the focus for required depth studies.
“Although the possibility to examine the constitution, legislation in the context of core depth studies on ‘Australia: the making of the nation’ [including Federation] and ‘Human rights and freedoms’, implementation will dependent on teacher knowledges, skills and interest,” Dr Towers said.
It is telling that the 1902 Role of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 is highlighted to consider ‘the advancement of women’s rights’ but its effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is ignored.
“This is the Act that ‘specifically’ denied federal voting rights to every ‘aboriginal native’ of Australia (and beyond) ‘who, at the time of the Act, did not already have the right to vote in state elections.’
Dr Towers said the effect of colonial history “did not end with federation”.
“A greater focus on seeing the continuity of colonial thinking and its impact on the institutions and practice of the ‘new nation’ is due much greater emphasis.”
New syllabus will help counter racism and antisemitism
Students compulsory study of the Holocaust as part of a new standalone topic on World War II. The revised NESA 7-10 History Syllabus has substantially expanded the section on compulsory Holocaust education for Stage 5.
Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emeritus at the University of Sydney’s Department of Hebrew, Biblical & Jewish Studies, says this more than doubles the syllabus’ content and focus, as well as giving separate outcomes.
“In addition, it has provided a detailed array of footnotes that make explicit references to events and communal resources,” Professor Rutland told The Educator.
“Another important innovation, in terms of the Jewish experience, is a specific reference to the survivors of the Farhud – a violent attack on Bagdad’s Jews in June 1941 – as an example of testimony in addition to the USC Shoah Foundation and the Sydney Jewish Museum.”
Professor Rutland cited Ben Ezzes, Chair of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies who has written, “this ensures Sephardi/Mizrahi narratives are included in the broader story of Jewish survival.”
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention is also included, says Professor Rutland.
“As Holocaust scholar, Professor Yehuda Bauer has stressed: the Holocaust is ‘the paradigm of genocide’, but it is important for students to understand the concept of genocide as it can be misused,” she said.
“The challenge, now, will be to ensure that the Holocaust is taught effectively, with clear aims being delineated.”
Professor Rutland said that without a strong knowledge base and pedagogical understanding, Holocaust education will not succeed in countering racism and antisemitism.
“For this a properly developed professional development program is required.”
Doubts having over Civics and Citizenship push
The curriculum rewrite also aims to give high school students a more thorough understanding of democratic processes and the Australian constitution. However, one expert questions the effectiveness the changes will have.
Murray Print, Professor of Political Education and Chair of Education at the University of Sydney's School of Education and Social Work, says while the National Assessment Program Civics and Citizenship (NAPCC) has been aligned with the Australian Curriculum to ensure its validity, this assumes that the Australian Curriculum Civics and Citizenship (ACCC) is taught in schools.
“Until the new changes to the NSW curriculum are implemented, learning the ACCC has been difficult in NSW schools,” Professor Print told The Educator.
“Will the revised K-6 HSIE and 7-10 History Syllabuses enhance student knowledge, skills and values in civics and citizenship from 2027? Hopefully so but possibly not much in the first instance.”
Professor Print said there are “multiple constraints” at play.
“One of these is the question of how well informed teachers are to actually teach the new content, and will they actually teach it?” he said.
“Another constraint is the question of how well educators will teach this subject to make it meaningful to students.”
Professor Print also pointed out that the NESA History 7-10 Syllabus doesn't have much Civics and Citizenship content included, though the syllabus is compulsory.
“Given there is little opportunity to study any Civics and Citizenship in Years 11 and 12, when most students will become legal adult citizens, how much will be recalled?”
Teachers will have two years to adapt to the curriculum changes before the updated classes begin in 2027.