Scotch College

VCE: History

Rationale 

History is the practice of understanding and making meaning of the past.  Students learn about their historical past, their shared history and the people, ideas and events that have created present societies. It builds a conceptual and historical framework within which students can develop an understanding of the issues of their own time and place.  It develops the skills necessary to analyse visual, oral and written records. The study of history draws links between the social/political institutions and language of contemporary society and its history. It sets accounts of the past within the framework of the values and interests of that time.

Structure and Units 

Unit 1: Twentieth-Century History (1900-1945) 

This unit concentrates on Germany, especially in the period 1918-1945.

Students analyse the emergence of new political ideas, including liberal democracy, socialism, communism and  Nazism in Germany after World War I, with emphasis on the conflict that arose from these ideas. They examine  the change that occurred in everyday life in Weimar Germany and Nazi Germany. In particular, they research the effects of Nazi policy on Jews, intellectuals, Slavs, women, youth and religion. 

Students consider the impact of the work of a group or individual in Weimar Germany and the effect of propaganda on the cultural life of Nazi Germany.

Unit 2: People and Power 

This unit concerns various historical challenges to authority. The unit is divided into three areas of study:

Power and Authority. Here students examine the ideology and institutions that supported an established authority, for example in Imperial China or Medieval Christian Europe.

Dissenting Groups and Challenges. Students consider the reasons for changes in authority, such as the downfall  of the Imperial Chinese Government, of Papal authority in 16th century Germany, or of the English monarchy in the Civil War. 

Change. Here we examine changes that dissenting groups wrought in government and society. For example we compare China under the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai Shek and under the Communist government led of Mao Tse-Tung. The England of the early Stuarts is compared to that of 1689, after the ‘Glorious Revolution’.  Students also consider the means by which new authorities consolidated their power through language and symbols. 

Unit 3 and 4: Australian History 

Unit 3 focuses on the European experience in Australia from the early years of the Port Phillip District (later Victoria) through the nineteenth century and up to the eve of World War I. Unit 4 continues the exploration of the ideas and visions underpinning Australian society by offering students the opportunity to examine a time when these visions were under threat, creating division within Australian society.

A New Land:  Port Phillip District 1830-1860. Students will analyse the visions and ideas which underpinned colonial society and the way that they changed under the impetus of specific events. These visions will also be explored in relation to their impact on the Indigenous people of Port Phillip District.

Nation, Race and Citizen 1888-1914. The latter decades of the nineteenth century represented a period of prosperity, growth, pastoral expansion, urbanisation, immigration and an emerging sense of national identity. Nationhood was achieved in 1901 and between 1901-1914 profoundly important new legislation was introduced.  What visions of nationhood were achieved? Who was included in this new nation and who was excluded?

Testing the New Nation 1914-1918. Students will analyse the ways in which Australians acted in response to World War I.  The emergence of the ANZAC legend brought ideas of Australian identity into sharper focus However, the war  also opened up deep divisions in Australia, culminating in the bitter debates over conscription in 1916 and 1917.  

Debating Australia’s Future 1960-2000. Students will evaluate the change in Australian attitudes to the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1970.

Unit 3 and 4: Revolutions 

In these Units, students examine the way in which the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917 first erupted and then brought about profound political and social change. Because of their rapidity and violence, these revolutions polarised the societies in which they occurred, and also divided the historians who have written about them.

Students consider the causes of the sudden collapse of the traditional social orders. They study the leaders, ideas and movements that dominated the revolutions: for example, Napoleon and Lenin, Jacobinism and Bolshevism, Terror and the purges. They examine the key events of those Revolutions, including the storming of the Bastille and the execution of King Louis XVI in France, and the civil war between Reds and Whites and the murder of the royal family in Russia. Finally, they analyse the new societies that emerged, often in a shape unforeseen by those who brought about the revolution. 

Assessment

Units 1 & 2: Document Analysis & Writing Tasks (Examination)

Research

Analytical Tasks

Essay

Unit 3: School-Assessed Coursework 25 per cent

Unit 4: School-Assessed Coursework 25 per cent

Units 3 & 4: Examination 50 per cent