Abstract:
This paper presents the findings of a study exploring how history teachers perceive their work, taking up Stephen Ball's (2011) theory of policy enactment. Ball considers teachers' interpretations of policy (curriculum), the material resourcing they have available, and the discursive landscape they position their practice within as key lenses to understand how curriculum is enacted in classrooms. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with teachers and curriculum authority staff, predominantly in Queensland, the study aimed to investigate the relationship between history education and and the development of democratic dispositions. Going beyond the history wars debates which rage after every curriculum update, our findings show that teachers utilise the curriculum to serve their own, broader educational agendas. They make choices based on the material resources available to them, and interpret the curriculum for their context. Importantly, the public rhetoric of history education differs from the discursive landscape within which history teachers undertake their day to day work, where they see themselves as fostering in students the skills they need to be effective and thoughtful participants in civic life. By teaching students the discipline of history, with its focus on consideration of evidence from a range of perspectives to reach conclusions, teachers foster in students democratic dispositions they can carry well beyond the confines of the history classroom.