Case Study: Issues in Teaching Humanities in Schools

This case study examines the complexities of teaching humanities, focusing on a teacher's background, curriculum areas, and student demographics. It explores the importance of humanities in contemporary schooling, critiques both single-subject and cross-disciplinary approaches, and identifies practical and contextual issues that impact teaching, such as resource allocation, time constraints, and school culture. The analysis highlights the challenges posed by student diversity, including cultural backgrounds and mental health concerns. The case study uses the example of a teacher named Kate, who has been teaching since 1990 and builds a strong relationship with the students. The Victorian curriculum is used within teaching which focused upon Humanities, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, English and Science because it set out students should learn during their first eleven years. The students come from global level and teachers focused upon special needs and track the performance through NAPLAN results. The case study also touches on the benefits and drawbacks of different teaching methods, such as single-subject and cross-disciplinary approaches, and references relevant literature to support its claims. The case study concludes by posing questions that require further research in teaching humanities.

Humanities case study

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Context.........................................................................................................................................2
Importance of Humanities...........................................................................................................2
Single-subject approach...............................................................................................................2
Cross-disciplinary approach and issue.........................................................................................2
Issue that impact upon teaching...................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Context
Kate, a teacher teaches since 1990 and build strong relationship to their students.
Victorian curriculum is used within teaching which focused upon Humanities, Mathematics,
Health and Physical Education, English and Science because it set out students should learn
during their first eleven years. The students come from global level and teachers focused upon
special needs and track the performance through NAPLAN results.
Importance of Humanities
In contemporary school, Humanities study strengthen the capability of student in order to
communicate clearly with others in academic or non-academic world. Through this, students
learn about values of different culture, and learn about how history is made (Cantwell and
Petersen, 2021).
Single-subject approach
It is a traditional way to organize the curriculum into different disciplines and it is a
method of teaching leaves the students with a split view within a curriculum. However, on the
critically note, it is also analyzed that the approach separate into various discipline but it
sometimes connected, but mainly stay separate (Gordon, 1991). For example, Jennifer
transferred from biology (interested in geography and environmental studies) course to Public
course in St. Kilda , though she has been teaching for 3 years and school uses single subject
approach. She has asked to identify the challenge along with ways of improvement so that
Humanities can be better integrated. Students belong to different community and a problem with
drug use, homelessness and mental health issues. Though schools have enough resources and
parents are highly engaged with their children’s learning, but poor time make it more difficult.
Benefits of Single- Subject approach
It helps to provide more clarity to students and also gain better understanding as well as
knowledge. In order to study, students must have skills such as reading statistics from
mathematics and good knowledge of Science. Moreover, students gain explicit goals which will
help to have a Masters. Therefore, it help to enhance the learning among students.

Cross-disciplinary approach and issue
It is refers to any activity which involves two or more academic discipline. Through this,
teachers deal with connection, interrelations between different fields of knowledge and highlight
the aspect of discipline. Further, cultural, economic and psychological approaches also consider
in learning History that helps to gain knowledge by students. On the negative side, there are
different students who belong to various cultures and that is why, teacher faces issue of
developing common language and knowledge. The major issue concerned with this is related to
its boundaries and there are very few standards linked with it.
For example, study of physics of music or politics of ecology and it helps in Medicine,
architecture and environmental planning that students can be used in future.
Issue that impact upon teaching
Practical issue:
 Resource: There are many resources required to provide effective teaching upon
Humanities, however these are not provided by the University and this in turn considered
as an issue, thus it causes negative impact upon teaching. For example, technologies are
not provided to teachers in order to increase the interest of the students (Fogarty, 1991).
 Time allocation: There is no specific instruction offered regarding time allocated to the
teachers to teach Humanities. Such that for other subjects, 30 minutes were assigned but
in contemporary schools, there is not enough time allocated to the teachers and this in
turn consider another issue.
 Another issue faced by the teacher is to deal with different cultural students and some of
them face issue of mental illness that is why, it might affect the communication level of
teacher with students. Also, this cause direct impact upon teaching and they are not able
to share relevant information to their students. Therefore, it cause adverse impact upon
the teaching style
Contextual issue:

 School culture: The culture or environment of the school is not positive and this causes
direct impact upon students learning. In the case of Kante, there is behavioral issue and
low results in a particular group identified. That is why, having students from different
culture and there is no common language used to teach the students. This might affect the
humanities within schools and creates negative impact upon their learning as well.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cantwell, C.D. & Petersen, K., (2021). Digital Humanities and Religious Studies: A “Why” To
Guide. In Volume 2 Digital Humanities and Research Methods in Religious Studies (pp. vii-
xx). De Gruyter.
Fogarty, R. (1991). Ten ways to integrate curriculum. Educational Leadership, 49(2), 21-61
Gordon, P. (1991). Approaching the Humanities. In Gordon, P., Vincent, J. &, Burgess, T. (Eds.)
Teaching the Humanities. Taylor & Francis Group.