The Australiana Pioneer Village serves as a powerful community resource for supporting the conceptual understanding of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) curriculum in the primary years. As a living history site, the village provides authentic opportunities for students to explore key concepts such as continuity and change, perspectives, and significance, which underpin the HaSS strands of History, Geography, and Civics and Citizenship (ACARA, 2022). Its immersive environment fosters experiential learning, enabling children to engage with the past through direct interaction with artefacts, reconstructed buildings, and community narratives.

One of the central strengths of the Pioneer Village is its capacity to position learning in a tangible and meaningful context. Research emphasises that children learn most effectively when abstract ideas are connected to lived experiences (Bruner, 1961; Kolb, 1984). Walking through the schoolhouse, cottages, and blacksmith’s workshop allows students to connect syllabus outcomes, such as recognising how daily life has changed over time (HT2-2, HT2-5) (NESA, 2022), with concrete sensory experiences. This aligns with Seixas and Morton’s (2013) framework of historical thinking, where evidence, continuity, and empathy are developed through engagement with primary sources and authentic environments.

The site also supports the integration of multiple strands of HaSS. In Geography, for example, the location of the village, on Darug land, provides an avenue to explore interactions between people, place, and environment, and to embed cross-curriculum priorities, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, into learning experiences (NESA, 2022). By foregrounding Indigenous perspectives alongside colonial narratives, teachers can encourage critical engagement with multiple viewpoints, a key aim of Civics and Citizenship education (Reynolds, 2012; Gilbert & Hoepper, 2017).

Importantly, the Pioneer Village fosters inquiry-based pedagogies that are central to contemporary HaSS teaching. Inquiry encourages students to pose questions, gather and analyse evidence, and communicate their understandings (Falk & Dierking, 2016). For example, when students investigate differences between their own schooling and that of pioneer children, they are not only building historical knowledge but also practicing the habits of inquiry, problem-solving, and reflection. Such practices contribute to developing the General Capabilities of Critical and Creative Thinking, Literacy, and Ethical Understanding (ACARA, 2022).

Engagement is another significant benefit of community resource use. Studies highlight that learning outside the classroom can heighten student motivation, deepen curiosity, and increase knowledge retention (Behrendt & Franklin, 2014; Falk & Dierking, 2016). The act of visiting the Village, along with opportunities for role-play and storytelling, encourages students to see history as authentic and meaningful rather than distant or made-up. This experiential connection strengthens long-term memory pathways, supporting the accessibility of historical knowledge in future learning (Engle, 2003).

In sum, the Australiana Pioneer Village exemplifies how community resources can enrich Humanities and Social Sciences teaching by grounding concepts in authentic, experiential contexts. It supports the development of disciplinary thinking, integrates cross-curriculum priorities, and enhances student engagement through inquiry and storytelling (Gilbert & Hoepper, 2017; ACARA, 2022; Falk & Dierking, 2016). By embedding visits to such sites into classroom practice, teachers can cultivate active, informed, and empathetic citizens who understand both the continuity and diversity of Australia’s past and present. (507 words)