Understanding Curriculum: The Australian Context (original) (raw)

The reluctant birth of James’s Talks to Teachers.

History of Psychology, 18, 218-220., 2015

Of all of William James’s accomplishments, the one most often overlooked is perhaps his most influential. The Talks to Teachers was adapted by may teachers’ reading circles and was used for teacher preparation for a generation. With hindsight, however, it seems miraculous that the project ever came to fruition. Several significant factors were aligned in opposition to the talks: among them, reluctance bordering on hostility to the idea of teacher preparation and uncertainty over what the lectures should entail.

Curriculum Studies in Australia: Stephen Kemmis and the Deakin Legacy

When the history of curriculum studies in Australia is written, it is likely that the work done at Deakin University from the latter part of the 1970s to the early 1990s will figure significantly in it. Under Stephen Kemmis’ leadership and example, a group of researchers and educators produced at least two major bodies of scholarship, one addressed to action research and practitioner inquiry, and the other to rethinking curriculum “beyond reproduction theory”. While the work on Participatory Action Research is perhaps more well known, and internationally so, this chapter focuses on Deakin’s contribution to curriculum studies, as a distinctive field of inquiry and praxis. Three aspects are discussed: firstly, the relationship between action research and curriculum inquiry; secondly, the concept of the “socially-critical school”; and thirdly, the conceptual shift in critical curriculum inquiry from working with(in) the so-called reproduction thesis to a focus on what was labelled the “representation problem”, and beyond. Although now little acknowledged, the Kemmis-led Deakin project surely represents an important and distinctive contribution to curriculum studies in Australia, as well as constituting an object of interest for curriculum history more generally.

‘A Chart for Further Exploration and a Kind of Rallying Call’: James Moffett and English Curriculum History in Victoria

Changing English, 2010

Both James Britton and James Moffett were keynote speakers at the Sydney IFTE conference in 1980 -a fact reflective of the wide recognition and acceptance of their work and influence throughout Australia by that time. In Victoria, Moffett's writings became known initially through teacher education, in particular at the University of Melbourne and the State College of Victoria, Rusden, then through the visits and writing of figures from the London Institute and others, and through the State and national English teaching association, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English. In the 1970s, Moffett's influence in Victoria came rather through the mix of his vision and writing, both theoretical and practical, in conjunction with others in Australia and elsewhere. This paper takes two separate but related sites or moments in English education in the 1970s in the Australian city of Melbourne, Victoria, as instances of the permeating influence of Moffett's work -in conjunction with leading figures from the London School associated with the 'New' English' -on education discourses and practice in that State's English curriculum history. It concludes with a consideration of the ways in which Moffett's work might still act as a 'rallying call' today.

The Construction Of Education as an Area of Study at Murdoch University: 1974-2003

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2010

Australia, from the mid 1970s to 2003. Regarding structural factors, the fact that the University was established as one of a number of 'new' universities on the national scene, with a brief to break out of the curricular traditions of the established universities, meant that there was latitude for the adoption of new curriculum structures in outlining the parameters of Education Studies. However, it required the agency of Brian Hill, the Foundation Professor of Education, to make this happen. The paper outlines how the nature of the model that eventuated was largely a transfer of models which Hill witnessed both in North America and within Australia and which he adapted to local conditions, seeking in the process to bring about what he considered to be an improved composite version based on his professional experience in a number of universities.

The Australian Curriculum over a decade: the status of the promises, problems, and possibilities

Curriculum Perspectives

Over a decade has passed since Australia's first national curriculum, the Australian Curriculum (AC), was implemented in 2011. The development was reported as 'unprecedented in Australia's history, with the processes involved having produced unprecedented opportunities for debates and positiontaking in Australia on the curriculum for the twenty-first century' (Yates, 2018, p. 137). The development and initial versions of the official AC were documented and debated by 21 leading curriculum scholars in the Australian Curriculum Studies Association publication, 'The Australian Curriculum: Promises, Problems, and Possibilities' (Reid & Price, 2018). The edited collection aimed to record the background and rationale of the AC and to 'contribute to insights about the processes of curriculum making in a federal system… and assist people to understand and analyse the curriculum debates' (Reid & Price, 2018, p. v). In efforts to provide a responsive and relevant national curriculum, continuous development has ensued across updated versions, with the latest version 9.0, released in 2022. Thereby, this point and counterpoint engages with three Australian scholars in critiquing the progress towards meeting the intended aspirations and educational goals for young Australians across the fields of; The Arts and Cross-Curriculum Priorities (CCP), Science, Technologies, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and English. A key theme emerging across the papers reinforces the 'recognition that a quality curriculum is always in a state of becoming' (Reid and Price 2018, p. viii) and the need for curriculum to be dynamic, living, and responsive.