State Heritage Convention

Ms Christine McMulkin
Manager Education Services, National Trust of Australia (WA)
"Heritage Conservation and Interpretation: What Schools Can Do?"

In planning for the twenty-first century and beyond, where do understandings of heritage conservation and interpretation fit in schools? How can the students of today effectively participate in decision-making for tomorrow? Does past history hold relevance for the present and the future?

The National Trust of Australia (WA) has taken a leading role in developing and providing education programs that offer opportunities to answer these questions. By addressing the outcomes of WA's new Curriculum Framework and by exploring the values inherent within it, the National Trust has placed itself to the forefront of heritage education.

Contemporary educational views about students and their education needs describe what students need to learn in order to lead successful and rewarding lives into the twenty-first century. The rapid technological changes, the diversity of cultures, families and institutions, changes in work and the nature of work, global environmental issues and social, political and economic conditions within our society pose challenges and offer opportunities throughout the twenty-first century and beyond.

To provide students with the tools to cope with the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century values are now both explicitly and implicitly taught in schools. Values are determined by the beliefs we hold. They are the ideas that a group or individual holds as important in life and are the basis for our decision-making. Values are expressed by the ways in which we think and act. Core shared societal values are explicitly stated and these values underpin all learning and teaching in Western Australian schools articulated by the Curriculum Framework. Effectiveness of learning and teaching is judged by the outcomes students achieve in both the formal schooling situation and in the communities in which they live.

The concept of Active Citizenship, a new area of the school curriculum, develops values related to social justice, democratic process and ecological sustainability.

The values of social justice encompasses learning that encourages empathy with others, justice and fairness, rights and responsibilities, redressing disadvantage and discrimination, and demonstrating respect and ethical behaviour in order to make a contribution to society.
The values and behaviours consistent with democratic process include the acknowledgement of individual freedom, respect for the law and legitimate and just authority, respect for diversity of views and lifestyles, and the demonstration of ethical behaviour and equitable participation in decision-making.
Ecological sustainability values are demonstrated through the development of strategies that ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, maintain healthy natural cycles and the biodiversity of all living species, and conserve, preserve and enhance cultural and natural heritage. Students acquire a commitment to the above values as they form the bases for decision-making and problem solving that promote a better quality of life.

The National Trust is ideally placed to help schools develop students' values. The Burra Charter encapsulates the National Trust's heritage charter of values and these values guide the conservation and interpretation work undertaken by it.

The National Trust of Australia (WA) has initiated education resource materials that support on-site visits to heritage places. It provides teacher professional development about heritage and heritage conservation and interpretation. Through its Tour Through Time program and the recent development of a partnership education program between the National Trust of Australia (WA), Kings Park and Parliamentary Education entitled Active Citizenship: Celebrating the Centenary of Federation at Parliament, National Trust and Kings Park, schools can support their classroom programs by engaging in community initiatives. By linking Western Australia's past with the present and by providing learning opportunities for the future schools are invited to participate in visits to heritage precincts and to engage their students in discussion and actions that relate to the Active Citizenship outcomes.

Students are offered ways to consider how people, as citizens, and their actions influenced the development of this State, including pre European settlement, the early years of European settlement and the decades prior to and post Federation. What were the ways in which people actively participated in changing and developing a federated nation? What groups were excluded? Who was included? What reasons and circumstances informed decisions that were made?

At Parliament students explore democratic process and Kings Park offers opportunities to explore ecological sustainability but how can the National Trust represent social justice? What would students learn about social justice by visiting The Old Perth Observatory or the Golden Pipeline or indeed any of the other heritage places that the National Trust manages? How could they make the connections between an historic place and active citizenship? What possible relevance do heritage places hold for the present day and for the future?

Dr Geoff Gallop, Premier of Western Australia and Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Interests, provided some clues in the foreword of the subsequent teaching resource. "Effective participation requires knowledge and understanding, not just of the present but also of the past. By visiting sites of importance in our story, the lessons of the past are made more tangible and human. Ideally, these young visitors will see themselves in the grainy photographs of our predecessors who were making vitally important decisions not very long ago." He went on to say, "The story of Federation shows how important the contribution of committed citizens is in making a real difference in our country. It took the participation of active citizens from all walks of life to develop what we have today - and that work continues into the future."

There are many places throughout the State that schools can visit as part of the National Trust's commitment to heritage. Schools can visit both metropolitan and regional places that describe and interpret both built and natural heritage sites. For example at Ellensbrook at Margaret River in the State's south west, students can engage in learning first hand about the indigenous heritage of the area, they can learn about environmental issues and engage in community care projects at the site, and they can learn about the European settlement through the stories surrounding the built environment that is Ellensbrook House.

It is the Trust's fervent belief that by developing hands on engagement with history, students and community members will find their own opportunities for involvement in heritage issues and will actively seek to conserve and interpret heritage places for future generations. Schools can engage their students in local issues of heritage conservation and interpretation. Students can be involved in issues relating to advocacy through informed debate and awareness of their immediate community concerns in relation to heritage.

Schools can do.

References:
Active Citizenship: Celebrating the Centenary of Federation at Parliament House, National Trust and Kings Park. PNK Education Group. 2001. Perth, Australia.
Curriculum Framework for Kindergarten to Year 12 Education in Western Australia. Curriculum Council of WA. 1998. Perth, Australia.