Historical cosmologies: Epistemology and axiology in Australian secondary school history discourse

Abstract

This paper considers the discourse of modern history in Australian secondary schools from the perspectives of systemic functional linguistics and social realist sociology of education. In particular it develops work on genre and field in history discourse in relation to knowledge structure, and the role of technical concepts realised as '-isms'. These are interpreted in relation to recent social realist work on the axiological charging of terms, especially in humanities and social science discourse, so that how you feel turns out to be as important as what you know as far as an historian's gaze on the past is concerned. This cosmological perspective is illustrated from textbooks and classroom interaction, examining the ways in which history students are apprenticed into relevant constellations of meaning.