Mrs Romy Fritz, Humanities Faculty
Has the world gone mad? In the last six months we have seen numerous events that paint a distressing and chaotic picture of the world. The sharp spike in terrorist attacks around the world set against a backdrop of seemingly incomprehensible wars and the resultant global flow of refugees has led many to retreat to the apparent safety of populist politics that offer simple solutions to complex problems. Brexit and the rise of Trump politics are perhaps emblematic of this bigger dynamic.
As a teacher of adolescent girls, I sometimes wonder how my students make sense of the world around them. How do they ‘join the dots’ between what may seem like a series of disparate and disconnected events? The media environment that they, and indeed most of us, inhabit is largely one comprised of short information grabs; often decontextualised images designed to illicit an emotional response but lacking in explanatory narrative. The now famous image of the Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach is a classic case in point. No one could fail to be moved by this image and there was an immediate yet short-lived global response. Missing from most reports was an explanation of why so many families would risk the treacherous journey across the sea in hope of a better life, or any analysis of the underlying causes of the crisis which might reach back 50 or 100 years; such explanations do not fit into five minute news stories.
Statistics show that 88 per cent of Australian teenagers go online more than once a day (Australian Government, 2016).While they are surrounded by and seem to engage in a constant flow of information, the opportunity for a deep understanding to emerge out of this immersion is questionable. Brian McNair, Professor of Media, Journalism and Communication at QUT, suggests this media environment can have a destabilising effect not simply because there is more information but also because
‘…the speed of its flow has increased. The networked nature of the online media means that an item posted in one part of the world immediately becomes accessible to anyone with a PC and an internet connection, anywhere else — linked, signposted, rapidly becoming part of the common conversation for millions’ (McNair, 2016).
When I consider the world into which my students were born, I wonder how they feel about their own futures and their capacity to be agents of change. The recent Brexit campaign may provide some insight into how young people more generally understand and engage with the world. Results from the campaign reveal that only 64 per cent of registered voters aged 18–24 went to the polls, in comparison to 90 per cent of those aged over 65 (Helm, 2016). These statistics suggest that young adults appear to be disengaged with the world, yet after the vote came in, many of them took to social media to express their anger and frustration at the older generations for voting to leave the European Union. Obviously this demographic does have an opinion and is anxious about its future — perhaps they misjudge the complexity of issues or do not understand the limitations of the media.
Could it be argued that since 2001 when the World Trade Centre was attacked, ‘the unthinkable (has) become mainstream?’ (McNair, 2016). This is the environment into which our current Year 9 and 10 students were born. Their access to the bigger global picture is often not ‘driven by rational calculation but [through] the power of testimonies, narrative and images captured and shared on digital media’ (McNair, 2016). The challenge then is how we, as teachers, prepare our students to make the connections that the media often miss.
This makes me reflect on my role as a teacher of History. History is crucial in helping students make sense of what they witness on news media. As a study of the past, history’s emphasis on depth mitigates against the often shallow and fleeting treatment of global events we see in the media. It seeks to understand the world not merely as a series of disjointed and disconnected events but rather as an unfolding interplay of reactions and responses that may have immediate causes or be the result of far-reaching developments in the past.
History is not simply about events (and their dates) but is an exploration of the impulses from which these events emerge. It provides the opportunity for narrative by ‘negotiating between the familiar and unfamiliar, and involves investigation, debate and reasoning about the past’ (ACARA, 2009). Essential concepts such as continuity and change, cause and effect, evidence, significance and contestability provide students with the tools with which to understand the complexity of our world and the relationships between societies, cultures and traditions.
Students of History are able to make sense of what may seem like a very chaotic world; the understanding they gain is empowering. This understanding of the world comes as a result of being challenged to think deeply about the issues they are exposed to and having ‘the capacity to formulate problems in a manner amenable to informed reasoning’ (ACARA, 2009). Therefore, the study of History also provides students with the capacity to articulate their thoughts and develop empathy. While it may seem that the world has gone crazy, I find comfort in knowing that our students, through the study of History, are able to make sense of what they see and draw connections between events that seem so disparate. The challenge, though, is to ensure that what students learn in their History classroom is able to be transferred to their daily lives.
REFERENCES
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2009). 7–10 history. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/Curriculum/F-10?layout=1
Australian Government, Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2016). Aussie teens and kids online. Retrieved from http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/engage-blogs/engage-blogs/Research-snapshots/Aussie-teens-and-kids-online
Helm, T. (2016, July 10). EU referendum: youth turnout almost twice as high as first thought. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/09/young-people-referendum-turnout-brexit-twice-as-high
McNair, B. (2016). When terror goes viral it’s up to us to prevent chaos. The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/when-terror-goes-viral-its-up-to-us-to-prevent-chaos-62687