Rebecca Cairns
Biographic Data
| ID | 761536 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebecca Cairns |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebecca |
| FAMILY NAME | Cairns |
| SIGNATURE | CAIRNS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Deakin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3393-6679 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Middle East as a history curriculum discourse in the context of the Gaza crisis
As life for Palestinians in Gaza is eviscerated, the ongoing effects of the historical events so neatly compressed into the pages of official history curricula are lived out in the present. This should compel curriculum inquiry scholarship to investigate how the distorted narratives and the historiography represented in curricula are shaped by asymmetrical power relations. In this article, I interrogate the Middle East as a history curriculum dis…
Engaging diverse voices across sites of curriculum making in Australia: Realities and possibilities
Research to date has pointed out that during periods of curriculum reform, public debate gets politicised resulting in an over-emphasis on top-down approaches to curriculum making. As a group of curriculum inquiry researchers, we are concerned that teachers, students, school leaders and community organisations are often side-lined as integral curriculum actors in curriculum making processes. This paper challenges top-down, discipline-siloed conce…
Solving' the curriculum resource 'problem'? A critical policy analysis
With the proliferation of the online curriculum resource marketplace, policy actors are increasingly looking to invest in curated hubs of ready-made resources. Policy discourses indicate this phenomenon is heralded worldwide as a panacea for improving teacher workload issues and student achievement. Focusing on Australia, this article examines how federal government recommendations for the provision of ‘evidence-based’ and ‘quality assured’ curri…
Decolonising Australian History Education: Fresh Perspectives from Beyond the ‘History Wars’
‘Learning from history is something that is important for the future’: Why Australian students think history matters
Research suggests young people generally do not perceive History to be a subject that is relevant to their lives and futures. Across the world, history curriculum policy regularly attracts public debate but, as it is usually dominated by political rhetoric, the students who experience it remain overlooked as policy actors with valuable perspectives. This article foregrounds the voices of Australian secondary school students by drawing on a nation…
The status of History in the subject-selection ‘marketplace’: Insights from Australian students
Concern about declining enrollments in senior school History subjects has been a regular feature of history education discourse in Australia for at least 30 years. This concern is also evident in international discourse about History being a subject “in crisis”. In Australia and elsewhere, there has been increased speculation about the reasons History enrollments are contracting. However, students are not often included in these discussions, and …
Towards Asia “curriculum-as-lived”: Amplifying student voice in the Asia literacy curricular landscape
For the last five decades, the development of “Asia-literate” students has been a key objective in Australian education policy. The contentions surrounding this educational goal have been well documented by academic literatures, policy documents and media commentary. This paper seeks to redress the absence of student voices in these debates by examining students’ experiences with Asia-related curriculum in the context of Languages and History tea…
Anticipating Controversy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be in Australian Policies for the Selection of Learning Resources
Teachers’ decision-making about resource selection is made more complex when resources are appraised for their potential to raise controversial issues or cause offence to others within school communities. Debates around the use of trigger warnings, freedom of speech and the impact of exclusionary practices further complicate these processes. In this article, Bacchi’s ( Bacchi, 2012 ; Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016 ) What’s the problem represented to be? …
Recognizing, reproducing and resisting West as method discourse: An analysis of senior secondary Asia-related history curriculum enactment
Across the world, history curriculum is often criticized for being ethnocentric or for privileging a nation’s preferred historical narratives through which it imagines itself and the world. It is also a site through which ethnocentric narratives can be resisted. Within these debates there tends to be little consideration of the influences on the curricular decision-making of the teachers who actually enact curriculum. After decades of critique of…
Exams tested by Covid-19: An opportunity to rethink standardized senior secondary examinations
Deimperialising Asia-related history: An Australian case study
History curriculum in Australia has moved beyond its traditional British imperial roots and currently takes a world history approach. Postmodern and postcolonial approaches have challenged the dominant Western metanarrative projected on and by curriculum and the inclusion of Asia-related histories has contributed to the diversification of the narratives represented. Nonetheless, as the analysis presented in this paper demonstrates, the traditiona…
Tracing the Unsteady Relationship between Asia Education Policy Discourse and History Curriculum in Australia
In Australia, Asia-related history has been part of secondary school history curriculum since the 1960s and Asia engagement has been an education policy imperative for decades. At the national level, different governments have attached competing rationales to the study of Asian histories and cultures. However, little is known about the extent to which these policy discourses influence state-based history curriculum. This article examines the Asia…
Solving' the curriculum resource 'problem'? A critical policy analysis
With the proliferation of the online curriculum resource marketplace, policy actors are increasingly looking to invest in curated hubs of ready-made resources. Policy discourses indicate this phenomenon is heralded worldwide as a panacea for improving teacher workload issues and student achievement. Focusing on Australia, this article examines how federal government recommendations for the provision of ‘evidence-based’ and ‘quality assured’ curri…
Deimperialising Asia-related history: An Australian case study
History curriculum in Australia has moved beyond its traditional British imperial roots and currently takes a world history approach. Postmodern and postcolonial approaches have challenged the dominant Western metanarrative projected on and by curriculum and the inclusion of Asia-related histories has contributed to the diversification of the narratives represented. Nonetheless, as the analysis presented in this paper demonstrates, the traditiona…
Tracing the Unsteady Relationship between Asia Education Policy Discourse and History Curriculum in Australia
In Australia, Asia-related history has been part of secondary school history curriculum since the 1960s and Asia engagement has been an education policy imperative for decades. At the national level, different governments have attached competing rationales to the study of Asian histories and cultures. However, little is known about the extent to which these policy discourses influence state-based history curriculum. This article examines the Asia…
Deimperialising Asia-related history: An Australian case study
History curriculum in Australia has moved beyond its traditional British imperial roots and currently takes a world history approach. Postmodern and postcolonial approaches have challenged the dominant Western metanarrative projected on and by curriculum and the inclusion of Asia-related histories has contributed to the diversification of the narratives represented. Nonetheless, as the analysis presented in this paper demonstrates, the traditiona…
Recognizing, reproducing and resisting West as method discourse: An analysis of senior secondary Asia-related history curriculum enactment
Across the world, history curriculum is often criticized for being ethnocentric or for privileging a nation’s preferred historical narratives through which it imagines itself and the world. It is also a site through which ethnocentric narratives can be resisted. Within these debates there tends to be little consideration of the influences on the curricular decision-making of the teachers who actually enact curriculum. After decades of critique of…
Exams tested by Covid-19: An opportunity to rethink standardized senior secondary examinations
Towards Asia “curriculum-as-lived”: Amplifying student voice in the Asia literacy curricular landscape
For the last five decades, the development of “Asia-literate” students has been a key objective in Australian education policy. The contentions surrounding this educational goal have been well documented by academic literatures, policy documents and media commentary. This paper seeks to redress the absence of student voices in these debates by examining students’ experiences with Asia-related curriculum in the context of Languages and History tea…
Anticipating Controversy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be in Australian Policies for the Selection of Learning Resources
Teachers’ decision-making about resource selection is made more complex when resources are appraised for their potential to raise controversial issues or cause offence to others within school communities. Debates around the use of trigger warnings, freedom of speech and the impact of exclusionary practices further complicate these processes. In this article, Bacchi’s ( Bacchi, 2012 ; Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016 ) What’s the problem represented to be? …
Decolonising Australian History Education: Fresh Perspectives from Beyond the ‘History Wars’
‘Learning from history is something that is important for the future’: Why Australian students think history matters
Research suggests young people generally do not perceive History to be a subject that is relevant to their lives and futures. Across the world, history curriculum policy regularly attracts public debate but, as it is usually dominated by political rhetoric, the students who experience it remain overlooked as policy actors with valuable perspectives. This article foregrounds the voices of Australian secondary school students by drawing on a nation…
The status of History in the subject-selection ‘marketplace’: Insights from Australian students
Concern about declining enrollments in senior school History subjects has been a regular feature of history education discourse in Australia for at least 30 years. This concern is also evident in international discourse about History being a subject “in crisis”. In Australia and elsewhere, there has been increased speculation about the reasons History enrollments are contracting. However, students are not often included in these discussions, and …
Engaging diverse voices across sites of curriculum making in Australia: Realities and possibilities
Research to date has pointed out that during periods of curriculum reform, public debate gets politicised resulting in an over-emphasis on top-down approaches to curriculum making. As a group of curriculum inquiry researchers, we are concerned that teachers, students, school leaders and community organisations are often side-lined as integral curriculum actors in curriculum making processes. This paper challenges top-down, discipline-siloed conce…
Solving' the curriculum resource 'problem'? A critical policy analysis
With the proliferation of the online curriculum resource marketplace, policy actors are increasingly looking to invest in curated hubs of ready-made resources. Policy discourses indicate this phenomenon is heralded worldwide as a panacea for improving teacher workload issues and student achievement. Focusing on Australia, this article examines how federal government recommendations for the provision of ‘evidence-based’ and ‘quality assured’ curri…
The Middle East as a history curriculum discourse in the context of the Gaza crisis
As life for Palestinians in Gaza is eviscerated, the ongoing effects of the historical events so neatly compressed into the pages of official history curricula are lived out in the present. This should compel curriculum inquiry scholarship to investigate how the distorted narratives and the historiography represented in curricula are shaped by asymmetrical power relations. In this article, I interrogate the Middle East as a history curriculum dis…
Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Curriculum (8 works) · Pedagogy (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Global Education and Multiculturalism (7 works) · Psychology (5 works) · History (4 works) · Mathematics education (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works)