Topics from Oceania: Units for Junior Secondary School History - A SPINF/TTPF/AAAPS/PHA Publication 2010
Welcome to your eBook archive of classroom units on Pacific History for junior and middle-secondary High School students.
1. How to use the units
You can browse the contents and download each unit for free by selecting individual lessons on a topic of interest, or by selecting a neighbouring North Pacific or South Pacific country, or your own nation’s history.
Or, you can also use the full list of contents to design a new curriculum in Pacific History for your students – the five themes included are: on early history, the colonial era, cultural sites, World War II and the contemporary Pacific as new nations and governments were created and re-created.
2. Who are they designed for?
The Units were designed for Pacific Island history and social studies students with English as a second language, and pitched at the middle secondary school years (13-16 year old students).
3. What is available in this eBook?
Each of the 44 units is based on a key question, a narrative text, and a set of simple questions or activities that can be completed in class time. Each unit is fully self-contained. (Some units have suggestions for other student assessment or work on the topic – such as an excursion, wall mural, debate, or performance). They are designed for immediate classroom use.
There are three background readings are for teacher preparation and a Glossary of Historical terms for student use.
4. The Five Themes
The units cover the North and South Pacific and nearly all nations, territories and dependencies. At this stage there are no units on West Papua, Kiribati, Tokelau or Rapanui. The units are divided into five themes of different size. The themes are:
· Part 1: The Pacific in 1500 (4 units of work)
· Part 2: Cultural Sites in the Pacific (16 units of work)
· Part 3: Pacific Histories around the region (10 units of work)
· Part 4: Your War – Our War: the impact of WWII (7 units of work)
· Part 5: My government, My nation (7 units of work)
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(Note: It is planned to add further units to this eBook archive as history teachers around the region make further contributions)
5 Background readings
There are three background readings or guidelines for teachers (Appendices 1-3) and a glossary. The appendices are:
· Cultural Sites; a heritage approach to teaching history and social studies in the Pacific Islands
· My country, my government: the path to self-government, independence and nation status
· The Past, the Other, Self, History and Histories
6 Expanding the teaching of Pacific Histories
The aim of this eBook and providing it free online is to supplement, and possibly replace the European History topics and the older history curriculum that developed out of the colonial education systems. Students need a global perspective, but these units of classroom work are definitely and purposefully local, indigenous and embedded in the stories, experiences and past events of Oceania. By providing the resources, we hope History and Social Studies Teachers will feel confident to embark on a new “Pacific History” curriculum.
7 The eBook project
These units were written by practicing History teachers from across the North and South Pacific in workshops in 1995-2002 and edited for publication as an online eBook. They were written initially as part of a professional development project for history teachers across the region called TTPF, coordinated by Associate Professor Grant McCall (Anthropology, UNSW) and Dr Max Quanchi (Pacific History, University of the South Pacific) and later as HistoryCOPS cocordinated by Professor Lau Asofou So’o (National University of Samoa). This project was funded by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation of Japan.
The units were revised and edited by a series of editors, and with a grant from the Pacific History Association (PHA) in 2009, finally prepared for publication as an eBook. The Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS) and the Fiji Islands History Association (FIHA) also became partners in the project.
The eBook is available free online on both the PHA and the AAAPS websites. (www.aaaps.edu.au and www.pha.com.au )
8 Acknowledgements
The Sponsors:
Ms Reiko Hayakawa, Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund (SPIFN) of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan
Dr Kambati Uriam, Tarawa, President, Pacific History Association (PHA)
Prof Clive Moore, Brisbane, former President, Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS)
Dr Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano, Mr Mika Vakasilimiratu and Ms Susie Sela, co-Coordinators, Fiji Islands History Association (FIHA), Suva, Fiji, partly funded by a UNESCO regional development grant.
The Editors and co-editors:
Several people have contributed to the editing of these units since the original project began in 1995, particularly Alli Suhonnen, Melinda Noble, Jenny Long and Jessica Bird.
The final version was prepared for publication in 2010 by Hannah Perkins, Max Quanchi and Samantha Rose. (For further information contact the Secretary of the PHA at www.pha.edu.au ).
Copyright:
These materials remain the property of PHA/AAAPS/FIHA and the individual authors, but may be reproduced freely for teaching purposes. All photographs were taken by Max Quanchi between 1971 and 2010. They may be copied for classroom use.
Cover photograph
Memorial for indigenous Fijians who served in World War I, Beach Street, Levuka, Fiji; photograph taken April 2010.