Debra J. Donnelly’s dissertation introduces an Australian voice and perspective into the scholarly discourse in the new area of history education and film. The research project outlined in this dissertation explores the relationship between the use of historical feature film in the secondary history classroom in Australia, its link to, and implications for the creation and development of historical understanding. The research project examines theoretical and empirical work in the fields of education, history and media. In addition, Donnelly’s research investigates current methods of film utilization in teaching history, explores the impact of implementation, and develops guiding principles for optimizing historical understand when using feature films in history classrooms.

The dissertation is composed of eight chapters. Chapter one introduces the purpose of the research. In chapter two, Donnelly includes a literature review of recent scholarship on the topic of historical understanding. Chapter three is a synthesis of the published literature in the field of visual learning, and film in particular, and its relation to history, history education and the imperative for multi-literature history students. The methodology of the research project is explained in chapter four. Chapter five outlines the findings of the teacher and student self-completion questionnaires. The teacher semi-structured interviews are described and analyzed in chapter six. Chapter seven presents two case study descriptions and findings, which includes detailed narratives of two teaching units from each teacher and their assessments based on classroom observation, unstructured teacher interviews, and document analysis. In chapter eight Donnelly discusses her findings based on a grounded theory approach. Lastly, in chapter nine, Donnelly proposes six guiding principles as recommendations for teacher practice when using film to teach history, as well as a model for film’s role in the development of historical understanding and consciousness.