Consultation Guide for Phase 5 History (Years 11–13)

History Phase 5 Draft Content
  • Note the survey questions are recorded via sliding scale BUT space is provided to load up additional feedback via PDF and comments

Overview

Purpose: Sets out what students must know and do in History across Years 11–13. Emphasises contested histories, multiple perspectives, and connections to Aotearoa NZ.

Historical Context — causes/course/consequences; significance of place

Historical Narratives and Interpretation — people and perspectives; systems and influence (power); historiography (from Year 12–13)

Historical Methods — working with evidence; working with Māori evidence and artefacts (tikanga-based); the ethical dimension; research/inquiry/investigation

Depth Studies

Critical Considerations

Power is named as a concept but treated mostly as content, not as something operating on the classroom itself.

Māori knowledge is integrated but structurally subordinate.

Contestability" and "multiple perspectives" can function as depoliticising devices.


The "knowledge-rich," "science of learning" framing sits in tension with critical/inquiry pedagogy.


International Comparable

Parallels with NSW curriculum

  • Depth studies the same compulsory-plus-choice structure this NZ draft uses
  • Historical-thinking concepts are nearly identical vocabulary
  • Tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori content bolted on

Parallels with UK curriculum

  • Same underlying conceptual skeleton at pre 2014 UK
  • Explicitly instructs teachers to "apply an established historical framework (e.g. Christine Counsell's 5Rs)
  • Split between a "historical context" (contextual overview knowledge) and named "depth studies" with fixed date ranges mirrors UK


Key Noticings

  • A framework built for a metropolitan, majority-settler curriculum is being asked to hold Indigenous epistemology.
  • Fails to recognise the recent debate around UK curriculum about working to decolonise
  • Unlike the UK curriculum the students abiiity to pursue enquiries ' they have framed themselves ' is absent

Summary