Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
- 1 Compulsory History: the Issues Confronting Teachers
- 2 Student Engagement through Historical Narratives
- 3 Pedagogical Dimensions of Historical Novels and Historical Literacy
- Part II Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
- Part III Deconstructing the Historical Novel
- Conclusion
- References
2 - Student Engagement through Historical Narratives
from Part I - The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
- 1 Compulsory History: the Issues Confronting Teachers
- 2 Student Engagement through Historical Narratives
- 3 Pedagogical Dimensions of Historical Novels and Historical Literacy
- Part II Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
- Part III Deconstructing the Historical Novel
- Conclusion
- References
Summary
As the teaching of History in Australia undergoes substantial changes through the implementation of the national History curriculum, undergraduate student teachers and teachers in classrooms are being required to re-think their teaching/learning strategies for the teaching of History. With the developments in SOSE/HSIE since the 1970s, curricula researchers have found that during the last few decades the teaching of History has drifted almost into oblivion in many Australian schools. More recently, with the implementation of the National History curriculum undergraduate teachers and teachers in classrooms have been asked to re-engage with the subject (Rodwell, 2010). In this chapter, I argue historical narrative offers many effective possibilities for this re-engagement process.
Developments in the use of the historical novel in History classrooms
In this book's Introduction I looked at several authors of historical fiction who were passionate about the use of their genre in the classroom. Some teachers are also passionate about the use of the genre in their teaching. For example, Moran (2005) writes about why she decided to use historical fiction in her classroom. It relates to the curiosity and discourse that the reading of historical fiction generates amongst students:
For many of my tenth graders, it was historical novels that had them coming to me even after the school day had ended. They wanted to ask if Henry VIII had really sent Anne Boleyn to the chopping block after failing to give him a son; if three hundred Greeks had really slayed eighteen thousand Persian warriors before being killed themselves, as depicted in Steven Pressfield's Gates in Fire. I wondered: if their reading at home sparked such enthusiasm, why not extend it to the curriculum as well? (2005, n.p.)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Whose History?Engaging History Students through Historical Fiction, pp. 17 - 28Publisher: The University of Adelaide PressPrint publication year: 2013