Advice for Teachers

Public Record Office Victoria's online exhibition of the Native Police of the Port Phillip District offers educational content suitable for the middle to upper school curriculum in a range of areas within the Social Sciences and Humanities. The site provides resource material which may be adapted to suit learning areas appropriate to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (which replaces the Curriculum Standards Framework in 2006) and the VCE. It offers an opportunity to explore the principles of historical research, analysis and representation by providing access online to scanned and transcribed original documents, images and maps from PROV's - and other - collections. Primary sources are supported by a thoroughly researched interpretive text, timeline, glossary and list of references for further study.

The education material developed to support the online exhibition is designed to invite adaptation and creative use by teachers and students rather than simply present prescriptive, easily duplicated units of work. The material can be extended or simplified to suit particular areas of learning and year levels, or to develop the skills necessary to achieve specific learning outcomes. History/Humanities skills standards outlined by VELS have been adhered to.

The site's role as a rich resource of original material from a specific period in Victoria's social and cultural history offers opportunities for students and teachers to explore a diverse range of issues not limited to any one area of study, subject area or year level. The history of the Native Police raises issues relevant to legal studies, politics and studies of contemporary society, as well as language study, visual arts and English. For example, the story of the search for the white woman may be used to explore issues about the motives and power of the media and the ways that stories are interpreted from different perspectives to serve different interests.

Tracking the Native Police supports the new VELS while providing a resource that may be incorporated into VCE History units 1/2 and 3/4.

VICTORIAN ESSENTIAL LEARNING STANDARDS - DISCIPLINE-BASED LEARNING STRAND

Humanities/History
Humanities, from Prep to Year 4 (levels 1 to 3), is the study of the culture of human societies in the past and present. Specific standards for History are introduced at level 4 (Year 5).

Level 3 Humanities skills
Students:

• use original documents, oral history, artefacts, narratives and pictures to retell events and describe historical characters.
• explain differences between a range of types of historical evidence.
• frame questions to further explore historical events.

Level 4 Learning focus - Australian history
Tracking the Native Police provides an excellent resource for teachers and students at this level and above, in which students are encouraged to 'use a range of written, visual, oral and electronic sources to study the past'. The site combines interpretation, maps, original sources accompanied by transcriptions, and images representing events from a variety of perspectives. Referencing and citations introduce a key principle of academic research.

Historical knowledge:
Students describe key events in the colonisation of Australia such as:

• the impact of European settlement on the Indigenous population.
• the growth of New South Wales and the Port Phillip District, including the founding of Melbourne and 1850s gold rushes.

Historical reasoning:
Students use a range of primary and secondary sources to investigate the past in order to:

• frame research questions and plan enquiries.
• question sources and form opinions about the views they express, the values they represent, and the completeness of the evidence.
• use historical vocabulary, including the language of time and comparison.
• construct timelines.
• develop explanations and narratives in a variety of forms.

Level 6 Learning focus – Australia’s social, political, cultural development
Students investigate how Australia developed in terms of social, political and cultural structures and traditions. At this level students develop knowledge about the struggles of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to gain political and social rights, including full citizenship, as well as their ongoing campaign for land rights and self-determination. The impact of the European occupation of Australia, and the perspective of that occupation as invasion, are explored.

Historical knowledge:
Students:

• analyse and describe the factors involved in the British colonisation of Australia and evaluate its impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
• compare different perspectives on a significant event.
• explain the historical foundations of contemporary issues such as land rights, multiculturalism, and changing community values and beliefs.

Historical reasoning:
Students:

• frame research questions.
• locate relevant resources.
• use a range of primary and secondary sources.
• use historical conventions to document sources.
• critically evaluate sources of evidence and recognise that in history there are multiple perspectives and partial explanations.

Tracking the Native Police is a useful resource for the following VCE History studies:

• Applied history in the community – unit 1. Area of study 1 – People and place; Area of study 2 – Investigating community history; Area of study 3 – The community historian at work.

The combination of interpretive text, primary sources, transcriptions, illustrations and maps in Tracking the Native Police makes it a useful resource for the teaching and study of the new unit 1 subject, Applied history in the community. The activities of the Native Police Corps took them to most areas of Victoria, from the Western District to Gippsland, from the high country to the goldfields. The broad geographical sweep of their story thus ensures its relevance to both urban and regional communities today.

• Koorie history – unit 2. Area of study 2 – Caring for country.
• Australian history – units 3 and 4. Area of study 1 – A New Land: Port Phillip District [and later Colony of Victoria] 1830-1860.

Links and Resources

Study Design for VCE History detailing areas of study, outcomes and assessment for History units 1-4 for accreditation period 2005-2008

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/history/history-sd.pdf

Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) - Discipline-based Learning Strand - Humanities/History

http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/downloads/vels_standards/History_19-04-05.pdf

History Education and Information Communication Technologies - An introduction

http://www.hyperhistory.org/images/assets/pdf/ict.pdf

The National Centre for History Education

http://www.hyperhistory.org/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=215&op=page

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Website. A resource guide for Indigenous Studies including Aboriginal education, culture, history and issues

http://www.natsiew.nexus.edu.au/lens/abstudies/index.html