Its all a question of narratives and themes

John Hirst has an illuminating article in The Age today, describing what he sees as the outcome of last week’s much discussed history forum.

The most interesting section is when he describes that ‘in teaching, the place to begin is with the questions; the narrative is the end; not the beginning.’ So, the forum decided that history teaching will now revolve around asking and answering important historical questions. And Hirst gives us some examples,

How did a convict society change into a free society?
What were the relations between Aborigines and settlers?
Why did Australia become so prosperous?
What were the relations between men and women?
What were the plans and dreams for Australian society?

As far as I can tell these are what are usually called ‘themes’ in the study of history. I should know, I’ve studied quite a few of them myself. But as I understand it the Prime Minister does not like ‘themes’ but he does like‘ narratives’. So we shall call them narratives from now on.

Everyone else happy to agree to that? I am.