Citizenship learning in the context of an aspect of Australian history

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to our class, 4b. I hope you all enjoyed having your children home for a couple of weeks. Once again, I am updating you on our class topic so that you can be involved in the learning process. Our next focus in Humanities and Social Sciences will be History. Primarily, we will be looking at contact between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the Europeans.

I understand this topic can be difficult for some people to discuss due to its sensitive nature, and one that I am sure you all may have an opinion about. My goal is to encourage your child to think critically and to form their own opinions, so they can become active and informed citizens. Please support your child in their learning experience and allow them to develop their own ideas.

While engaging in the content, I aim to encourage your children to gain a sense of empathy. An example of how I will do this will involve splitting the class into 2 groups and giving them both a scenario. The first group will have a scenario from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples perspective, and the second group will have a scenario from the European perspective. In their groups, students will discuss and write down how their scenario made them feel.  

I will also extend this activity to encourage your children to use critical thinking skills. In their groups, students will need to create a debate for their scenario, even if they do not agree with it. This might be a difficult task, as they will need to put feelings aside to think critically and logically. After having the class debate, we will have a class discussion about the scenarios. 

We will begin to delve deeper into the concept of terra nullius, and I will show students the following video:

After watching the video, we will have a class discussion. We will spend the next few lessons looking at Eddie Mabo and the case. This will involve looking at land rights and native title. We will also have a look at James Cook’s secret instructions.

Students will also be engaging in inquiry-based learning throughout this unit. The reason I want them doing this is because I do not want to simply pass information on to your children. I want them to do research, think critically, and develop their own opinions. For example, the class will be put in small groups where they will choose a topic to research in greater detail (terra nullius, native title, land rights, the black war, dispossession, disease, etc.). They will need to research this topic, form their own opinions through their research, and create a presentation to share to the rest of the class.

My goal for this year has been to create a culturally sensitive classroom. I am hoping this unit will reinforce this idea, and your children will develop respect for Indigenous culture and contribute to the process of reconciliation. 

Curriculum links:

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). Civics and Citizenship. Retrieved from https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/learning-areas-subjects/humanities-and-social-sciences/civics

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). General Capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking. Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences: Year 6. (Version 8.3). Sydney, NSW. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/

Behind the News. (10 June 2014). Indigenous Australian Land Rights & Mabo Day – Behind the News. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiQ8YHDfySA

Cultural Synergies. (2016). Strategies For Overcoming Bias – Perspective Taking. Retrieved from https://culturalsynergies.com/strategies-for-overcoming-bias-perspective-taking/

Lutheran Education Queensland. (n.d.). Approaches to Learning: INQUIRY BASED LEARNING. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1360/lutheran-education-queensland-inquiry-based-learning.pdf

Melbourne Child Psychology & School Psychology Services. (n.d.). Why We Need Empathy, and How We Teach it to Children. Retrieved from https://www.melbournechildpsychology.com.au/blog/why-we-need-empathy-and-how-we-teach-it-to-children/ 

Migration Heritage Centre. (2010). Objects through time. 1768 ­James Cook’s Secret Instructions. Retrieved from http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/secret/index.html

My English Teacher. (2017). Empathy Definition. Retrieved from https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/empathy-definition/

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. (n.d.). Mabo. The Native Title Revolution. Retrieved from http://www.mabonativetitle.com/find.shtml