HAA professional learning plans for 2024

The HAA Interim Council has been busy organising the professional learning program for the remainder of 2024 and early in 2025. The following posting provides details of the events planned and how to register. Places are limited, so register as soon as you can!

Image above: The HAA Interim Council, July 2024

• Connecting with Civics and Citizenship: 2 October from 2.00 – 4.30pm at the South Australian Parliament House: Natalie Badcock, Community Education officer at Parliament House will conduct a session on how to engage students with civics and citizenship learning. Resources will be provided at  the workshop. Free for HAA members. By joining HAA at https://hassaa.org.au/haa-membership-form/ you will be eligible to attend for free. To register, just email president@hassaa.org.au

• Creative teaching in HaSS: 30 October from 5.00 – 7.00pm (face to face and online – hybrid format): Teacher panel on creative HaSS teaching, involving outstanding HaSS educators from all the HaSS subject areas discussing example of creative teaching. The workshop is being conducted at the Magill Campus, UniSA in Room G1-72. All participants will receive a creative teaching resource. Members cost is $20 for teachers and free for pre-service educators. Non-members registration cost is $30. To register, go to Humanitix at https://events.humanitix.com/creative-teaching-in-hass

• Mapping and practical fieldwork skills: 16 November from 9.00am-1.00pm on the Uni SA Magill Campus. This session will not be provided online and is an in-person learning experience in the field. The session will be conducted in collaboration with the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia. The workshop will commence in Room G1-72 at the Magill Campus and then around the Magill Campus. Members cost is $20 for teachers and $10 for pre-service educators. Non-members registration cost is $30. To register, go to Humanitix at https://events.humanitix.com/mapping-and-practical-fieldwork-for-hass

• HaSS network meeting with the HAA Patron: This evening of HaSS presentations, discussion and good cheer is planned for 12 February from 6.00pm onward. Further details in January 2025. To register, go to Humanitix at (URL to register will be available soon).

• Early in 2025: In collaboration with the Women’s Studies Association of South Australia, exploring women’s studies in the HaSS curriculum and classroom – details still to be developed on content of session. To register, go to Humanitix at (URL to register will be available soon).

The importance of the Humanities in education

THE THREAT OF FOCUSSING ON UTILITARIAN EDUCATION : THE IMPORTANCE OF HASS EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS 

With today’s global competition, there is increasing concern about the nature and quality of education– should it be primarily practical and utilitarian and equipping students to be competitive in the workforce or should it rather a liberal education with broad ideas and values to prepare a well-rounded student with the capacity to be fully functional democratic citizens, prepared for life in contemporary society? For students to be successful in today’s global economy, it should be seen that utilitarian and liberal education need to be tightly coupled, and that students’ academic, developmental, interpersonal and experiential lives are entwined. Schools should move towards developing transformational learning for students and not just focus on providing knowledge and understandings based on employability. Such questioning of the utilitarian trend in education around the world is critical when we consider the decrease in curriculum time for humanities in schools and the significant drop-off in the number of students studying humanities subjects in the senior school in Australia and around the world. Transformational learning means that the “whole student” has to develop so as to prepare them as a thinker and citizen for a challenging world; to question and affirm or change what they believe; and come to a greater understanding of the complex questions of their own life and the lives of others than they otherwise would. By attending to both leads to transformational learning and the development of the whole person into a flourishing individual and citizen. Traditionally in our school system the humanities’ (history, geography, studies of society etc) have developed those capacities referred to as liberal education. Ironically, it was the liberal subjects that dominated early education. In the present economic and educational environment, the humanities are being devalued and squeezed out of the curriculum in face of utilitarian demands. In Australia, the humanities is declining in schools in terms of numbers, prestige and general influence. Many young people now leave school with a scant knowledge of history, geography and our society in general (law, government etc). The impact is particularly serious in the senior secondary years that provide a sophisticated understanding of the humanities for young people. The utilitarian demands on a young person when choosing subjects has resulted in significant reduction of the perceived ‘non employment direct’ subjects such as history, geography. In fact, the humanities subjects do have significant and much needed career pathways but they are often not seen as direct and thus not promoted as getting a student a job. Australians hold what appear to be conflicting aspirational and practical notions of the purposes and value of a schooling. Economists and corporate leaders refer to this function of education as the development of human capital. “…education is more than preparing for a job; it should be for acquiring the knowledge, skills, competencies, values, dispositions and capacities for many life roles in a world of inevitable change and that this is ultimately the more “practical” preparation for life.” Anecdotally the trend away from the liberal humanities in school education, towards the demands of a utilitarian education, in particular in senior secondary, is common throughout the western world and similar OECD countries to Australia. 

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at the University College London 

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at the University College London 

Here are two really interesting articles from the UK re: importance of geography and diminishing numbers. Seems that the drift to utilitarian education is happening everywhere. As humanities teachers, we need to be strategic and work towards reversing this trend. 

1. "Without geography, the world would be a mystery to us" Geography is the subject that contributes more than any other to young people’s knowledge of the world, writes Professor David Lambert. 

2. The article "History and geography 'diminishing' in schools" says that subjects such as English, history and geography are being marginalised as schools ditch academic rigour in favour of “accessibility”.

There is a need to get quantitative and substantiated data on the trend away from the humanities and to research what other countries are doing to arrest the trend away from the humanities as highly respected (in number and prestige) subjects in schools. Those involved in humanities education consider that the trend away from the humanities towards utilitarian education in our schools (and universities) is undermining and threatening the development of a ‘well-rounded, thinking, socially analytical young citizen ready for the demands of the 21st Century globalised world.   

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at the University College London 

In the case of geographical education, the irony is that geography and the associated spatial technology tools it uses are seen as a non-vocational area of study and just a nice subject to do for those interested. Geography is not only a great humanities subject for young people to do as citizens now and in the future but it also is a subject with increasing vocational opportunities in the branches of geography (climatology, economic analysis, planning, environmental management, disaster mitigation etc etc) and the related areas of the spatial industry. Geography is also a subject which goes somewhere in the world of employment. 

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at the University College London 

There is a lot of work to be done with subject counsellors, vocational consultants, parents and the community to get the message across that humanities subjects such as geography, with all the knowledge, skills and capacities they develop in young people is and should be promoted as a learning area with great (and increasing) vocational opportunity. 

The graphics from the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at the University College London used in this blog posting further highlight the worth and employability capacity of the humanities:

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at the University College London 

The Virtual War Memorial - a go to resource for commemoration

 

Image above: The Virtual War Memorial site at https://vwma.org.au/

A resource for schools on commemoration and stories of sacrifice and service 

With Remembrance Day soon to be commemorated, we thought it would be a worthwhile posting to highlight the wonderful Virtual War Memorial at https://vwma.org.au/ 

The Virtual War Memorial has been available online since 2015 and is a great source of research, resources and teaching materials. The Virtual War Memorial Education Portal is supported by a grant from the Minister for Education and provides excellent support to schools undertaking commemorative activities and teaching the global conflicts Australia has been involved in since 1899. In particular, the site is an invaluable resource for the teaching of World War 1 in Year 9 and World War 2 in Year 10 of the Australian Curriculum: History. 

Here is some information from the Virtual War Memorial site about the Schools Program and links to key education sections of the site.

The VWMA provides Professional Development and professional networking. Go to Professional Learning 2023 to view the current training schedule. If the scheduled dates are not suitable, contact the Schools Program Manager to arrange for onsite training for the History Teachers at your school, tailored to the needs of your students.

The VWMA provides information about Australia’s involvement in Conflicts from the Boer War through to Afghanistan with specific information about different battles and offensives. Information is also provided about the different Units that Australians served in. Our interactive Timeline is a particularly useful resource to build your students’ understanding of Australia’s involvement in wars and peacekeeping operations.

The Resources for Teachers page has supporting resources for the delivery of the Australian Curriculum at Year 9 and Year 10. Further resources will be added over time, so keep visiting to see what’s new. If you would like to share resources you have developed for your fellow teachers to access, please contact the Schools Program Manager at schools.program@vwma.org.au. Contributions are greatly appreciated, and your authorship will be acknowledged.

https://vwma.org.au/explore/schools# 

https://vwma.org.au/education/excursion--adelaide-commemorative-precinct-walking-tour

https://vwma.org.au/education/resources-for-teachers

https://vwma.org.au/education/resources-for-students

https://vwma.org.au/education/anzac-day-resources

https://vwma.org.au/education/remembrance-day-collection

We recommend that you get on the email list for the Virtual War Memorial Memoriam Newsletter - just email schools.program@vwma.org.au 

Also consider joining the AWVM Schools Program and take a deep dive into commemoration and historical learning through authentic research using the Virtual War Memorial. 

HAA is launched and blog underway

Image above: The HaSS Association Australia logo represents the four subject areas of HaSS (Geography, History, Civics and Citizenship and Economics and Business) and the bringing together the disciples and educators of each into the one learning area of HaSS.

Welcome to the blog for HaSS Association Australia Incorporated (HAA). This professional teachers association has been established in 2023 to support the teaching of HaSS and promote HaSS education as an important component of a balanced curriculum in schools. Whilst for many years there have been subject association across Australia for history, geography, legal studies, social education, business and environmental studies, there has not been a HaSS specific association for teachers to join.  To meet this need, a group of educators in South Australia have established HaSS Association Australia (HAA). 

The Mission Statement for HaSS Association Australia reads:

At HaSS Association Australia (HAA), our mission is to create an informed, dynamic, innovative and collaborative professional community of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) educators. HAA aims to be the united voice for HaSS Education in the political landscape and is committed to advancing quality curriculum and teaching of the HaSS subjects, including history, geography, civics and citizenship, and economics and business. Together, we strive to promote knowledge and understanding of the world within which our students live and contribute to the betterment of society through the study and teaching of the HaSS learning area.  

This blog will be published regularly and aims to be a vehicle to meet the goal of HAA to support quality HaSS education though the sharing of thinking, resources and information with HaSS educators. Through comments posted from those following this blog, we also hope that it becomes a collaborative online environment for HaSS teachers to be involved with.

We sincerely hope that HAA meets the aspirations it has to see HaSS grow as a vibrant and important innovative learning area in Australian schools.

Download HaSS Association Australia Incorporated (HAA) information flyer