History Extension

The History Extension course must be studied in conjunction with either the HSC Modern History or Ancient History courses in Year 12.

The course is designed to provide enthusiastic students of history with the opportunity to explore the ways that history has been constructed and changed over time. Students focus on the essential question of ‘what is history’? They challenge their assumptions about what we can know about the past and, by extension, learn to apply a critical eye to the world around them.

As a result of this key question, the course is as much about the philosophy of history as it is about specific historical events. Students learn about the development of the discipline of history from ancient times to the present. The wrestle with the ideas of key schools of history such as Empiricism, Marxism, and post-modernism. They then look to apply these concepts to a case study on Female Convicts in New South Wales. In this, they look at different ways in which historians have portrayed female convicts and consider why historians come to different conclusions.

Students also have the opportunity to apply their understanding of history and historiography to an inquiry of their choice. This is developed from an initial idea into a coherent research essay.

Assessment

• History Project
• Trial Examination