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Voting and belonging - unit of work

Teacher guide Voting and belonging - unit of work

TLF ID M009611

This is an extended unit of work about enfranchisement and parliamentary representation. Intended for lower secondary students, the unit focuses on three aspects: the struggle of women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to gain the vote, their continuing under-representation in Australian parliaments, and the role of individuals in seeking to achieve both rights. The unit includes a social action activity in which students consider what they can do to enfranchise others and increase representation of a diversity of people.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This is a useful resource for history teaching and learning in year 9. It is relevant to the elective depth study 'Making a nation', particularly to the content description about key events and ideas in the development of Australian self-government and democracy, including women's voting rights.
  • The unit is also of value in civics and citizenship. Its major thrust is about how both having the right to vote and having proportional representation affect the participation, sense of belonging and equality of citizens. One interesting question raised in the unit for students to consider is whether Australia should have dedicated seats in parliaments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as New Zealand has had for Maori people since 1867.
Year level

9

Topics Activism Australian history Economic growth Chinese history Voting rights Imperialism Democracy Indian history Indonesian history Japanese history Suffragettes
Learning area
  • Civics and citizenship
  • History
  • Humanities and Social Sciences

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Name: The Department of Education\, Employment and Workplace Relations (DE
  • Organization: The Department of Education\, Employment and Workplace Relations (DE
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.deewr.gov.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Unknown
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
Rights
  • © Commonwealth of Australia 2009. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and the DEEWR logo and copyright material that is owned by third parties, you may use the material in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA) 3.0 Australia licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/ provided that appropriate acknowledgement is made, the material is not subjected to derogatory treatment and any derivative work attributes the original material and identifies the changes that have been made to it.