Education for reconciliation? Understanding and acknowledging the history of teaching First Nations content in Victoria, Australia

Bibliographic Data

ID21409579
AuthorsDanielle Hradsky (0000-0001-8314-8307, Monash University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume51
Issue1
Pages135-155
Publication date2022-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0046-760X • E-ISSN: 1464-5130
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0046760x.2021.1942238
OpenAlexW3187808995
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Contemporary Australian curricula require teachers to promote reconciliation through the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages. Engaging with First Nations knowledges and histories in education comes with a very complex and historically layered legacy. This paper examines the role of education in the ongoing process of colonisation by critically analysing historical and contemporary documents prescribing what Victorian students should learn about First Nations peoples, histories and cultures. These documents are discussed in the context of relevant events and policies, from the Terra Nullius ideologies that dominated curricula until the 1960s, through the growing agenda of self-determination in the 1970–1980s, and into the current swinging pendulum of political agendas. It is argued that contemporary curricula and policies promote reconciliation without embracing the necessary social justice and decolonising ideologies

Archaeology · Australian Curriculum · Context (archaeology) · Curriculum · Economic Justice · Ideology · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Project commissioning · Publishing · Social justice · Social science · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law

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