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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12Modern History 11–12 Syllabus

Record of changes
Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 12

Change in the modern world

Students investigate key features of the history of ONE of the following options, focusing on political and social change, and the role of individuals and groups.

The historical concepts and skills content is to be integrated as appropriate.

  • The Nuclear Age 1945–2021
  • Civil rights in the United States 1945–1972
  • The Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa 1948–1994
  • The struggle for democracy in Burma 1948–2021
  • From the Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square 1966–1989
  • The changing world order 1989–2016
Civil rights in the United States 1945–1972
Context
  • The nature and impact of racial segregation and forms of discrimination in the United States

  • The formation and ideologies of groups supporting civil rights

Civil rights: activism and opposition
  • The role and influence of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), including Brown v Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955–1956, and the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock Central High School

  • The nature and impact of civil rights groups and actions from 1958 to 1963, including ‘sit-ins’, the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington

  • Opposition to civil rights, including the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens’ Councils (WCC)

  • The reasons for the Voting Rights Act 1965

  • The significance of nationwide riots in 1967 and the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968

  • The influence of Malcolm X and the activities of the black power movement to 1972

Civil rights: leadership and achievements
  • The leadership and achievements of women activists in the period, including Ella Baker

  • The role and significance of Martin Luther King

  • The role of Federal governments in supporting or resisting change: Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson

  • The extent of political and social change in the period

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