I have a lot to ask here so thank you in advance for your patience and hopefully some helpful info. At the beginning of 2006 I moved from Victoria to NSW and am now coordinating HSIE in a rural school. The school has only been established 5 years so there are no precedents and everything (as well as me) is new. Having dealt with Modern History for the first time we are now starting out with Extension for the 2006/07 year. I'm pretty excited about finding a subject with such intellectual challenge in the secondary syllabus but also a little daunted by the lack of direction and prescription available. I have a great bunch of 9 very keen students and have spent the past few months overdosing on historiography. (It's a long time since university!) What is really concerning me is some of the nuances of hidden agendas within the examination marking! I would really like to do Option 17 (Imperialism) as the case study but it seems from my reading of examiners comments there would be about 25 students in the state doing this? Am I stacking the odds against my students? Does anyone out there do this case study and if so could you let me know what texts/sources you use - the more I look at it the bigger it gets. Who would you recommend as the 'historians'? The last dot point - ' impact and influence on colonising and indigeneous nations' is huge and could even encompass the 'history wars' etc. etc. Where do I stop or would I be wiser not to start? Any advice will be much appreciated.
I can't offer any advice on Imperialism but more generally I would suggest you teach to your strengths regardless of any perceived hidden agendas. My class has done one of the niche topics, Women Convicts, this year. I'm not worried that very few schools will atttempt this. I was more interested in doing a topic that I had experience in and could motivate the students for. So if Imperialism is your thing, go for it...
Hi Nola This is the first time I have used the bulletin board so please forgive the lateness of this response but I have taught the imperialism option for the last few years and have an extensive collection of resources. I can suggest a variety of historians from a variety of perspectives. The imperialism option is huge, as content, but remember that the topic is not truly about imperialism. It's about how different historians have different perspectives and what shapes those different perspectives. In other words, you are still doing "What is History?" but you are just using a case study to demonstrate that.
Brian Everingham Head Teacher - Birrong Girls High School brian.everingham@det.nsw.gov.au
