Deimperialising Asia-related history: An Australian case study

Exams tested by Covid-19: An opportunity to rethink standardized senior secondary examinations

“…As a result of this “curricular efficiency”, content is in danger of becoming more homogenized. When recent Study Designs are compared with earlier ones, there is a clear trend towards content prescription, which has concerning implications for the representation of historical contexts and the capacity of curriculum to cater to increasingly diverse student cohorts (see Cairns 2020a ). In history, increased content prescription means there is less time for students and teachers to engage with deeper historiographical issues or do the sort of critical reflection that is required to challenge ethnocentric metanarratives (Cairns 2020a , 2020b ).…”

“…When recent Study Designs are compared with earlier ones, there is a clear trend towards content prescription, which has concerning implications for the representation of historical contexts and the capacity of curriculum to cater to increasingly diverse student cohorts (see Cairns 2020a ). In history, increased content prescription means there is less time for students and teachers to engage with deeper historiographical issues or do the sort of critical reflection that is required to challenge ethnocentric metanarratives (Cairns 2020a , 2020b ). Similarly, a New Zealand study found senior secondary History teachers “have considerable concerns about the impact of assessment on the delivery of history education” (Ormond 2019 , p. 151), which was seen to result in the narrowing of history programs.…”

Embracing New Perspectives in History, Social Sciences, and Education

“…None of the articles included in this study are from the former colonizer context. They are either in the countries that were formerly colonized such as Brazil (Júnior 2016), Kyrgistan (Ismailova 2004), Caribbean (Johnson 2002), Cameroon (Ndille 2018), Kenya Modiba & Odhiambo 2009), Singapore (Lee 2012); or in the settler countries such as Australia) (Cairns 2020a(Cairns , 2020b) and the US) Shear et al 2015;Stanton 2014). In contrast, the decolonization of history curriculum was inevitable process in both former colonized countries and settler countries.…”

“…More spaces were given to accommodate content related to the indigenous history, but the Euro-American settler's interest continued to drive the curricular decision making which resulted in the oversimplification of the indigenous history (Shear et al 2015;Stanton 2014). Australia also acknowledged and included the indigenous as well as the Asian history in the curriculum, but the worldview remains Eurocentric (Cairns 2020a(Cairns , 2020b.…”

Historically consciousness curriculum inquiry

“…Contemplating how to meaningfully incorporate an ecology of knowledges has been an ongoing challenge in my own curriculum inquiry. My analysis of Asia-related history curriculum practices (e.g., Cairns, 2020) and a co-authored book, The Asia Literacy Dilemma: A curriculum perspective (Cairns & Weinmann, 2023) draws on Asian Cultural Studies scholar, Chen's (2010) Asia as method and deimperialisation as a theoretical framework for challenging outmoded curricular conceptualisations of Asia. Viewing Asia from 'alternative axes of alterity' (Yew, 2011, p. 4) is essential for disrupting the reproduction of the idea of 'Asia' as a colonial, orientalist imagination, which tends to be perpetuated by historically fixed binaries such as East/West, coloniser/colonised, self/other, and so on.…”