The status of History in the subject-selection ‘marketplace’: Insights from Australian students

Abstract

Concern about declining enrollments in senior school History subjects has been a regular feature of history education discourse in Australia for at least 30 years. This concern is also evident in international discourse about History being a subject “in crisis”. In Australia and elsewhere, there has been increased speculation about the reasons History enrollments are contracting. However, students are not often included in these discussions, and the external conditions affecting their subject choices tend to be overlooked. Our mixed methods research draws on descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of data from an online survey of 293 students in years 10, 11, and 12 from across Australia. This article examines influences on History’s status in the subject ‘marketplace’ from the perspective of students and conceptualizes three sets of influences: instrumental, subject status, and local context. We position this work in the context of history education, subject selection, careers education research literature, and policy. The dominance of instrumental influences on the decisions of participants to choose or reject History as a senior secondary subject also leads us to examine how, in uncertain times, the forces of neoliberalism are shaping young people’s perceptions of the alignment of school and future work.