The inaugural text books for the Australian Curriculum in History were recently published and will be introduced into the curriculum in 2013. 

Manning Clark Professor of History, Angela Woollacott, is the series editor of the texts. Here she talks a little about the making of the new textbook series, History for the Australian Curriculum.

The new National Curriculum in History for Years 7 to 10, currently being introduced, is a wonderful development. For one thing, it means that students and teachers across the nation will work on the same topics and themes, placing their own local stories in national and global contexts. The curriculum considers Australian history in its full richness and diversity, and places it within the whole of world history. It is designed to help students become educated citizens with a broad grasp of all major historical developments. The new curriculum puts Australian history in the context of Asian and Pacific histories, as well as European, American and other histories.

I was honoured to be asked by Cambridge University Press to be Series Editor for History for the Australian Curriculum, consisting of four textbooks for Years 7, 8, 9 and 10, each with its own workbook and online resources. The team of fourteen authors were drawn from around the country, and include academics and teachers with a wealth of expertise and depth of teaching experience from various levels of secondary and tertiary education. I learned a great deal from authors and from the Cambridge editorial team about how to present material in engaging and provocative ways, and to provide primary source materials, first-person voices and a range of resources for student activities and research. I am delighted with the final product. The volumes are beautifully produced, with terrific colour, layout and illustrations. I hope that high school students and teachers will find them a valuable resource for the new National Curriculum.

More information about the History for the Australian Curriculum