Teaching Australian Politics

Abstract

A citizen’s understanding about their nation’s system of politics and government is crucial for how they engage with and participate in the political system. This chapter discusses the political, institutional, and pedagogical changes to teaching young people about Australian politics over the last thirty years, examining how successive Australian national governments have sought to enhance students’ political knowledge and how the constitutional limitations of the federal system have impacted their approaches. It also explores how political factors have impacted government actions on civics and citizenship education as well as the pedagogical debates which have shaped the curriculum. The chapter concludes by assessing the efficacy of these reforms and what steps can be taken to strengthen teaching and learning approaches in the future.

The origins of the Anglosphere idea and the contestation of Australian nationhood, 1991–2007

“…In the 1990s, however, civics and citizenship became an area of significant interest for national governments. The Keating Government, for example, prioritised boosting civic knowledge among young people in the early 1990s by allocating funding to implement a new national civics and citizenship education programme (Ghazarian and Laughland-Booÿ 2020).…”

“…to reassert our cultural self-belief is an important armor [sic] plate in the battle of ideologies that is being waged at the present time’ (Howard, 2011). The Howard Government also implemented a new national civics and citizenship curriculum partly because the prime minister believed that there was ‘thin knowledge of the triumphs of democracy in Australia’ (cited in Ghazarian and Laughland-Booÿ, 2020).…”

“…This project ostensibly sought to provide teachers and students with resources and materials required to learn about Australia’s political system, and focused on the institutions of government, law and Australian democracy. It ran from 1998 to 2004, cost over $30 million, and was made available to all school students and teachers across the country (also see Ghazarian and Laughland-Booÿ, 2020).…”