Teaching for ‘Historical Understanding’: What Knowledge(s) do Teachers Need to Teach History?

Oct 15, 2026

Recent curriculum reform in Australia promotes “historical understanding” through discipline-based history teaching practice, yet many middle school teachers lack familiarity with the required historical knowledge and skills. The study reports a case study of five Queensland secondary teachers conducting a school-based trial of the Year 8 Australian Curriculum: History (2012–2013). Findings show the curriculum’s intent is weakened by teachers’ insufficient knowledge of curriculum scope and uneven understanding of key substantive and procedural concepts, with recommendations for teacher education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Historical consciousness and curriculum intent

Curriculum implementation across states and territories

Case study focus

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 42 | Issue 5 | Article 3 | | --- | --- | 2017 Teaching for ‘Historical Understanding’: What Knowledge(s) do Teachers Need to Teach History? MallihaiM. Tambyah Queensland University of Technology, [m.tambyah@qut.edu.au](m.tambyah@qut.edu.au) Recommended Citation Tambyah, M. M. (2017). Teaching for ‘Historical Understanding’: What Knowledge(s) do Teachers Need to Teach History?. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42 (5). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2017v42n5.3](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2017v42n5.3) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol42/iss5/3](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol42/iss5/3) Australian Journal of Teacher Education Teaching for ‘Historical Understanding’: What Knowledge(s) do Teachers Need to Teach History? Mallihai Tambyah Queensland University of Technology Abstract: Recent curriculum reform in history in Australia promotes‘historical understanding’ through discipline-based teaching practice. However, many middle school teachers are new to the scope of historical knowledge and skills required. This paper reports on a case study of five Queensland teachers in one secondary school who undertook a school-based trial of the Year 8 Australian Curriculum: History in 2012-2013. Drawing on notions of historical consciousness and frameworks for curriculum alignment, the case study indicates that the intent of the stated curriculum to develop concepts of ‘historical understanding’ is undermined by two factors – first, teachers' inadequate knowledge of the scope of the curriculum and second, a patchy understanding of how key substantive and procedural historical concepts contribute to ‘historical understanding’. The research identified significant gaps in the disciplinary knowledge of history teachers and makes recommendations for pre-service and in-service history teacher education. Introduction The Australian Curriculum: History [AC: History](ACARA, v8.2, 2016) has been a source of controversy with many contesting its purpose, prescriptive and content-driven approach and insufficient curriculum theorisation as a ‘product’ to be delivered (Atweh & Singh, 2011; Ditchburn, 2015; Gilbert, 2011; Reid, 2009). The conceptualisation of history asa school subject is harnessed to contemporary notions of historical awareness and consciousness (Lee, 2011; Lee & Ashby, 2000; Seixas, 2006; 2012) rather than intuitive, memory-based understandings ofthe past. The Shape of the Australian Curriculum: History [Shape Paper](NCB, 2009, p.3) asserted that history was a distinctive form of knowledge with its own methods and procedures, and furthermore, that the curriculum was intended to promote ‘historical understanding’ and ‘historical consciousness’ of the past. These terms which are relatively new to secondary history teachers provide the focus for this study. Although undefined in the Australian curriculum documents, historical consciousness is the individual and collective cognitive and cultural awareness of links between the past and present which help inform the future. The Canadian history educator Peter Seixas (2015) emphasises that historical consciousness embraces an understanding of the relationship between present, past and future and between “the knower and the known”(p. 4) . Thus,“Historical consciousness is defined as the understanding of the temporality of historical experience or how past, present and future are thought to be connected”(Glencross, 2015, p.413) . Retz (2016) stresses that history education today is concerned with “orienting oneself in the framework of time”(p. 514) . Arguably this contemporary understanding of time is a Vol 42, 5, May 2017 35 Australian Journal of Teacher Education significant departure to previous conceptualisations of school history and underpins the focus on historical consciousness and understanding in this study

FAQs

What does the paper examine about teaching history?

It examines what knowledge(s) teachers need to teach “historical understanding” within the Australian curriculum approach to history.

Why does the study argue the curriculum intent may be undermined?

It identifies two main factors: teachers’ inadequate knowledge of the curriculum’s scope and a patchy understanding of how key substantive and procedural historical concepts support historical understanding.

How was the case study conducted?

The research reports on five Queensland teachers in one secondary school who undertook a school-based trial of the Year 8 Australian Curriculum: History in 2012–2013.

Oct 15, 2026

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