The Abbott government is officially reviewing the national school curriculum in order to address ideological “partisan bias” according to the Education Minister Christopher Pyne and his supporters.
Conservative thinker, teacher, unionist, and chief of staff of Liberal parliamentarians Dr Kevin Donnelly, and professor of public administration of the business school at the University of Queensland Ken Whiltshire, are heading a review that aims to limit the scope of critical education and steer it towards a business, according to critics.
There is no doubt that the deliberations and recommendations will be highlighting the ideological priorities of the current government and its own view on the role of education in 21st century Australia. However, within the parameters of the review and of the debate that is already taking place amongst educators and in the media, there is scope for discussion to implement options of policies that enrich substantially, without really challenging the hard core beliefs of the reviewers and government alike.
The review of the national school curriculum is an important opportunity for multicultural Australia to make sure that it retains and extends its own registered history, presence and contribution within the broader Australian community. The non-Anglo migrant contribution in Australia is somewhat documented in the school curriculum and celebrated in various public festivals and ceremonies, but so far is not part of the national narrative and the national history, and it does not register in our collective consciousness.
Yes, individual migrant success stories are acknowledged and celebrated. Non-Anglo individual achievers in sports, arts, sciences, business, politics and in other disciplines are acknowledged when the opportunity arises. However, this recognition in 2014 focuses mostly on the efforts of individual achievers, who through their personal endeavours earn the recognition and acceptance of the dominant linguistic, cultural, economic and political Anglo-Irish establishment.
It is people who make the difference. Individual stories do matter, but when individual efforts create, for example, a collective Greek Australian, Italian Australian and Chinese Australian effort, that contributes to the best aspects of the dominant Anglo foundations of this land, then the heritage, language and cultural footprint of these communities become part of the broader Australian identity. The migrants’ history, languages, culture and contributions within Australia need to be officially acknowledged and taught through the national curriculum, more extensively, as part of the greater Australian narrative, because these communities are also Australians, albeit with alternative beginnings.
The Pyne review of the national school curriculum in history, in our case, is an opportunity not only to retain what it was achieved in the 2009 Australian Curriculum but also, through consultation, to raise even more student and public awareness about the immense contributions that non-Anglo Australians have made to this country. It is also an opportunity for all major migrant communities to come together and make a joint claim in the national narrative of the country. The people who used to be called Non English Speaking Background (NESB) in the past, and are now called Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds (CALD), are by choice also Australians and should be given the chance, through the education system, to enjoy extensive acceptance in the hearts and minds of the entire Australian community.
Legal and political equality is important but it is also inadequate, especially if we take into account that this is a somewhat fluid and constantly negotiated-on situation with a dependence on prevailing social and historic conditions.
Migrant Australia needs to come together to face the Pyne review, in order to register even more boldly the other side of their own frontier, to borrow a reference from historian Henry Reynolds, in the education system and in the national consciousness of this land. Leading Greek Australian and migrant community organisations and leaders need to take advantage of this opportunity in making their voice heard on the national school curriculum review and the report that is due by the middle of the year.
The fact that this has not happened yet, let us hope, can be attributed to the early days of the debate and not to complacency, indifference, compromise, or political naivety…