What is Education for? Situating History,Cultural Understandings and Studies of Society and Environment against Neo-Conservative Critiques of Curriculum Reform
Free accessResearch articleFirst published online November, 2005
What is Education for? Situating History,Cultural Understandings and Studies of Society and Environment against Neo-Conservative Critiques of Curriculum Reform
This article explores some of the debates about the nature and purpose of education in the social sciences in the Australian curricula. It examines recent attempts in studies of society and environment and history curricula to prepare students for global citizenship and responds to neo-conservative critiques that our ‘politically correct’ curricula does not impart the ‘truth’ about our ‘European’ heritage. This article argues that while the neo-conservative discourse makes claim to traditional views of knowledge and rationality, its discursive field does not address the broader questions of what sort of education our students require for the twenty-first century.
Australian Education Council (AEC). (1991). National report on schooling in Australia. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation.
2.
Australian Education Council (AEC). (1994a). A statement on studies of society and environment for Australian schools. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation.
3.
Australian Education Council (AEC). (1994b). Studies of Society and Environment—A curriculum profile for Australian schools. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation.
4.
BernsteinR. (1991). The new constellation. Cambridge: Polity Press.
5.
BoltA. (2000, June 10). Class revolution. The Courier Mail, p. 33.
6.
BourdieuP. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7.
BourdieuP. (1990). The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.
8.
ChakrabartyD. (1992). Trafficking in history and theory: Subaltern studies. In RuthvenK.K. (Ed.), Beyond the disciplines: The new humanities (pp. 101–108). Occasional Paper no. 13. Canberra: Australian Academy of Humanities.
9.
CopeB. (1986). Traditional versus progressivist pedagogy. Social Literacy Monograph 11. Sydney: Common Ground.
10.
CopeB.KalantzisM. (1990). Literacy in the social sciences. In ChristieF. (Ed.), Literacy for a changing world. Hawthorn: Australian Council for Educational Research.
11.
CosgroveP. (2003). Understanding Asian culture: Helping the ADF achieve in the region, Keynote Address, National Summit, Studies of Asia in Australian Schools at a Crossroad: Strategic Directions, 2004–6, Report of National Summit. Asia Education Foundation, Melbourne.
12.
Curriculum Corporation. (2002). Global perspectives: A statement on global education for Australian schools. Melbourne: Author.
FoucaultM. (1979). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.
15.
GilbertR. (2003). SEAA tomorrow: SOSE and the future. Keynote Address, SEAA Conference. The Social Educator, 21(2), 8–14.
16.
GilbertR. (Ed.). (2004). Studying society and environment: A guide for teachers (3rd ed.). Southbank: Thomson/Social Science Press.
17.
GilbertR.HoepperB. (1996). The place of values. In GilbertR. (Ed.), Studying society and environment: A handbook for teachers (pp. 59–79). Melbourne: Macmillan.
18.
GilbertR.HoepperB. (2004). The place of values. In GilbertR. (Ed.), Studying society and environment: A guide for teachers (3rd ed., pp. 93–111). Southbank: Thomson/Social Science Press.
19.
HabermasJ. (1971). Knowledge and human interests. London: Heinemann.
20.
HabermasJ. (1987). The philosophical discourse of modernity (F. Lawrence, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
21.
HuntingtonS. (1994). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of the world order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
22.
KemmisS. (1990). Curriculum in Australia: Contemporary issues. In D'CruzJ.LangfordP. (Eds.), Issues in Australian education. Melbourne: Longman.
23.
KemmisS.ColeP.SuggettD. (1987). Towards the socially critical school. Melbourne: Victorian Institute of Secondary Education.
24.
LevinasE. (1969). Totality and infinity (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
25.
LukeA.CarpenterM. (2003). Literacy education for a new ethics of global community. Language Arts, 81(1), 20–22.
26.
MasonB. (2000, September 11). SOSE critics are speaking out and encouragingly will not be silenced. Courier Mail, p. 13.
27.
MilnerA. (Ed.). (1996). Australia in Asia: Comparing cultures. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
28.
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). (1999). The Adelaide Declaration of National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century. Canberra: Author.
29.
Queensland School Curriculum Council (QSCC). (2000). Studies of society and environment: Years 1 to 10 syllabus. Brisbane: Author.
30.
RizviF. (1993). Asia and the search for an Australian identity. Social Alternatives, 12(1), 23–26.
31.
RizviF. (2004). Debating globalization and education after September 11. Comparative Education, 40(2), 157–171.
32.
RuddK. (1995). Creating an Asia-literate Australia. In SheridanG. (Ed.), Living with dragons: Australia confronts its Asian destiny (pp. 21–44). St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
33.
SaidE. (1978/1991). Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
34.
SaidE. (2001, October 11–17). Edward Said on Samuel Huntington, Al Ahram Weekly On-line, p. 555.
35.
SalusinszkyI. (1987). Criticism in society. London: Methuen.
36.
ScholteP. (2000). Globalization: A critical introduction. New York: St Martin's Press.
37.
Social Education Association of Australia (SEAA). (1984). Social education for the eighties. Brisbane: Author.
38.
Social Education Association of Australia (SEAA). (1990). Social education in the nineties: A basic right for every person. Sydney: Author.
39.
TaylorT. (2004). Redirecting the history debate. EQ Australia, (2), Winter, 18–19.
40.
TaylorT.YoungC. (2003). Making history: A guide for the teaching and learning of history in Australian schools. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation.
41.
‘The debate on school education‘. (2000, August 5). Editorial. The Courier Mail, p. 22.
42.
TheunissenM. (1984). The other (C. Macann, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
43.
ThomasM. (2000, June 3). School syllabus swings to the left. The Courier Mail, p. 3.
44.
TiklyL. (2001). Globalisation and education in the postcolonial world: Towards a conceptual framework. Comparative Education, 37(2), 151–171.
45.
TudballL. (2003). Internationalising education: The curriculum challenge for school. IARTV Seminar Series Paper No. 130. Jolimont, Victoria: IARTV.
46.
YoungR. (1990). White mythologies: Writing history and the west. London: Routledge.
