The Australian History Summit : a case study in history education, politics and multiculturalism

This thesis examines created rhetoric and polemic regarding history and social education in Australian schools in the context of the prevailing discourses within a modern democratic, multicultural political system. Changes and reform to the history curriculum within the last fifteen years are analysed in terms of understanding the orientations of selected policy processes at government level which address what history or histories should be taught in Australian schools and the methodologies by which these teachings should be implemented. The conclusion of this thesis is that recent curriculum reform in history education 2005-2007 has been a product of political partisanship and that Australian history is a topic area that is viewed by neoconservative politicians as a channel for the promulgation of political and economic principles that are to be developed in school to promote a particular type of thinking.