11–12History Extension 11–12 Syllabus (2024)

History Extension focuses on the nature of history as a discipline and the various ways humanity has attempted to investigate and understand the past. The course requires students to engage with complex historiographical ideas, methodologies and sources to communicate arguments about the nature and construction of history.

Through the study of History Extension, students:

• develop an understanding of how context, methodology and purpose can shape the ways in which historians and other producers of history have constructed their accounts
• examine the complexity of factors that shape historiographical perspectives
• develop their own views, and challenge those of others, on a variety of historical and historiographical issues.

Year 12 course structure and requirements

Constructing history – Key questions

Four key questions provide a framework for investigating the construction of history. Students engage with a range of relevant sources to investigate the following key questions:

• What is history?
• Who are the producers of history in different eras?
• How has history been constructed, recorded and presented in different eras?
• Why have approaches to history changed in different eras?

The historiographical skills are to be integrated with the key questions.

Constructing history – Case studies

The case study allows for the examination of historiography in a specific historical context. Students explore ONE case study with reference to the producers of history, and their perspectives and approaches, which have led to change in the THREE areas of historiographical interpretation. Students apply their understanding of the following questions to the selected case study:

• Who are the producers of history in different eras?
• How has history been constructed, recorded and presented in different eras?
• Why have approaches to history changed in different eras?

The historiographical skills are to be integrated with the case study.

History project

Students will undertake an individual investigation into an area of historical and/or historiographical interpretation. The historiographical skills are to be integrated with the History project.

Safety and risk management

Schools are required to ensure they follow Loading  in delivering the History Extension Syllabus.