Politics
Politics empowers students to develop an understanding of the distribution and exercise of power and how that power is constituted. In doing so, they develop an understanding of their own role as members of the community and the potential they hold for promoting change.
Politics empowers students to develop an understanding of the distribution and exercise of power and how that power is constituted. In doing so, they develop an understanding of their own role as members of the community and the potential they hold for promoting change.
Students critically analyse and deploy, theories, concepts and methods that variously attempt to explain and understand political ideology and political change, and causes, processes, and consequences of political phenomena.
Students develop analytical and critical thinking skills and learn to question and challenge assumptions about the world around them. They develop thinking, literacy, communication, and numeracy skills that allow them to evaluate and apply political arguments. Students learn to develop research questions and methodologies. Furthermore, they develop skills to communicate effectively and present logical and coherent arguments whilst critically analysing the strengths and limitations of the arguments that ground their own thinking.
The study ofpolitics empowers students to become engaged, active, and reflexive citizens. In understanding a wide range of political and social phenomena, students develop intercultural understanding and cultural competence.
The study of Politics provides knowledge, skills and understanding to interpret the world, which can be utilised in a wide range of tertiary and industry pathways.
The Politics course is written under the Humanities and Social Sciences Framework
Achievement Standards for POLITICS can be found within the Framework.
Humanities and Social Sciences is the study of how people process and document the human experience and their place in it. It empowers students to better understand humankind, society and culture and communicate ideas for the future. Humanities and Social Sciences examines what it means to be human and to ask questions about society and its institutions.
By analysing how people have tried to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of the world, it promotes empathy and understanding. It also requires students to deal critically and logically with what can be subjective, complex and imperfect information.
Humanities and Social Sciences courses provide a context for the contemporary world and a framework for students to critically and creatively assess possible, probable and preferred futures for themselves and the world in which they live. It empowers students to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse and complex and interdependent world.
The study of Humanities and Social Sciences promotes well-rounded, thinking, analytical young citizens equipped for the demands of the 21st Century globalised world.
Courses written under this framework focus on concepts from a discipline or draw ideas from a number of disciplines. The analytical, critical and communication skills taught in the Humanities and Social Sciences will be valuable for future study, work or profession.
Political Theory
Students investigate a range of theories developed to explain the nature and use of political power in the world. They examine claims about human nature, the nature of political units and political actions using case studies and examples. Students investigate theories, world views, and events arising from theory and ideology. They reflect on and develop their own views on politics and theory. Students develop the research and communication skills relevant to the study of political theories.
Political Systems
Students investigate a range of political systems in the contemporary world. They examine a range of evidence to evaluate the nature and success of those systems in practice, and the theoretical perspectives and historical contexts from which they derive. Students clarify their own thinking about the nature of contemporary governmental systems. Students develop the research and communication skills relevant to the study of political systems.
Australia in the World
Students investigate the nature of politics in Australia and its relationships with the world. They examine political structures and practices of national and international politics in Australia. Students examine theory and practice of federalism, national security, and sovereignty. They evaluate the legitimacy and relative power of different structures, institutions, groups and individuals and their relationship to Australian politics. Students develop the research and communication skills relevant to the study of Australian politics and diplomacy.
Activism and Protest
Students investigate pressure group politics at the three levels of government. They investigate the political attitudes and beliefs that lead people to be active in political debates and campaigns. Students evaluate the role of media, social media and technology in the nature and practice of politics, and their own role in that system. They examine themselves and local institutions for the potential to bring about change. Students will develop the research and communication skills relevant to the study pressure group politics, activism, and protest.
Independent Study
An Independent Study unit has an important place in senior secondary courses. It is a valuable pedagogical approach that empowers students to make decisions about their own learning. An Independent Study unit can be proposed by an individual student for their own independent study and negotiated with their teacher. The program of learning for an Independent Study unit must meet the unit goals and content descriptions as they appear in the course.
Independent Study units are only available to individual students in Year 12. A student can only study a maximum of one Independent Study unit in each course. Students must have studied at least three standard 1.0 units from this course. An Independent Study unit requires the principal’s written approval. Principal approval can also be sought by a student in Year 12 to enrol concurrently in an Independent Study unit and their third 1.0 unit in this course of study.
