The Absence of Knowledge in Australian Curriculum Reforms

Abstract

This article draws on a study of Australian curriculum shifts between 1975 and 2005 to take up two themes of this special issue: the question about what conceptions of knowledge are now at work; and the consideration of global influences and national specificities in the reformulations of curriculum. It discusses two important approaches to curriculum in Australia in recent times, the ‘Statements and Profiles’ activity of the early 1990s, and the ‘Essential Learnings’ formulations of the past decade. The global tendencies we see at work in these two major approaches are, first, an increasing emphasis on externally managing and auditing student progress as a key driver of how curriculum policies are being constructed; and, secondly, a growing emphasis on approaching curriculum aims in terms of what students should be able to do rather than what they should know. We argue that in the contexts we discuss here, these approaches offered a way of marrying 1970s progressive views on child development and knowledge‐as‐process (views widely held by influential curriculum professionals in Australia) with late 20th century technologies of micro‐management and instrumental agendas favoured by politicians — but that many questions about knowledge were left off the agenda.

Young people with health conditions and the inclusive education problematic

“…I am not dealing directly in this article with how the content of curriculum or the hidden curriculum of a particular school culture also has important social outcomes for young people, as the Keeping Connected project was less well directed to answering those questions, which I have been concerned with in other projects (cf Yates and McLeod 2000;McLeod and Yates 2006;Young 2008;Yates and Collins 2010). But I think lack of attention…”

Student Wellbeing and the Therapeutic Turn in Education

“…The details of this are complex, but in short reflect a shifting emphasis towards the development of skills and capabilities rather than simply the acquisition of subject-based based knowledges. Put another way, the overriding focus shifted to what students could do, rather than what they knew (Yates & Collins, 2010).…”

“…While a child-centred and caring approach has formed one part of the social justice agenda, another important aspect was the move away from the academic curriculum, which since the 1970s was seen as part of the problem of social injustice (Yates & Collins, 2010). Arguments for finding different ways of organising the curriculum have thus drawn, at least in part, on attempts to make schooling, especially the senior secondary years, more inclusive and democratic.…”

National agendas in global times: curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA since the 1980s

“…By 1991, the states had agreed to statements about the shape and rationale of eight KLAs: mathematics, English, technology, science, the arts, health, languages other than English and studies of society and the environment. This was achieved despite considerable political manoeuvering and resistance between the states and their representatives (Marsh 1994;Yates and Collins 2010). In 1993, National Statements and Profiles for all the agreed learning areas were finalised, however, their national adoption was rejected and subsequently failed for political reasons, with states reluctant to relinquish curriculum control to the federal government 4 (Reid 2005).…”

“…In 1993, National Statements and Profiles for all the agreed learning areas were finalised, however, their national adoption was rejected and subsequently failed for political reasons, with states reluctant to relinquish curriculum control to the federal government 4 (Reid 2005). Despite this, all states took on the statements to some extent as curriculum framework documents in the late 1990s (Yates and Collins 2010).…”