Contesting the Curriculum: An Examination of Professionalism as Defined and Enacted by Australian History Teachers

Abstract

In this article, I present an analysis of professionalism as defined and enacted by the History Teachers’ Association of New South Wales (HTANSW). This analysis was part of a larger doctoral project (2000–2005) in which I employed critical qualitative inquiry to compare and contrast the contribution that two subject teaching associations (science and history) make to the project of teacher professionalism in Australia. My aim for this project was to explore what professionalism means in practice for a unique group of teachers: those who have made an active and fundamental commitment to their subject community by voluntarily serving on the executive committee of their subject-based professional association. In this article, I present findings from the case account of the HTANSW—an organization that operates locally as a professional teacher community and a representative organization for school-based history teachers. This case account details the manoeuvrings of an association that powerfully asserts an expansive role for history teachers as both contributors to, and critical commentators on, curriculum policy. In this article, I conceptualise the actions of this association as an enacted form of teacher professionalism. Drawing on study findings, I explicate my conception of professionalism as an enacted discourse of power and I show how this discourse is enacted in subject-specific ways.

Notes

Notes

1 “Values for Australian Schooling” are identified in the Australian Government Department of Science, Education and Training’s document, National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (2005). This document asserts that some values are shared as part of Australia’s democratic way of life and that these core values are to be taught within all Australian Schools.

2 The NSW BoS is the statutory body responsible for curriculum determination in NSW, Australia.

3 The NSW DET is the state government department responsible for coordinating all public education and training services.

4 This is a membership category for libraries, university faculties, school departments, and other institutions that comprise multiple members.

5 In Australia, schools can be categorised as public or private. Funding of public schools is primarily borne by the state government, with parental input comprising a voluntary school contribution. Independent and Catholic schools are classed as private and these schools are partially government funded with parents also paying significant school fees.

6 The specific breakdown of the executive is 12 currently teaching in state schools; 6 in independent schools; 2 teaching in universities (but both with a long history of employment in state schools); and 1 retired teacher, also from the state school system.

7 This assertion is partially supported by the recent inquiry into school History. Taylor (2000) found that the study of History suffers within a Studies of Society and Environment framework.