Discourses of democratic consciousness in key Australian curriculum documents

Bibliographic Data

ID12737486
AuthorsDavid Nally (0000-0002-7769-3314, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia), H Sharp (0000-0001-8487-6605, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia)
Year2025
Volume24
Issue1
Pages18-33
Publication date2025-02-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Social and Economics Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2047-1734 • E-ISSN: 2047-1734
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14788047251313813
OpenAlexW4407344090
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited28

This article analyses examples of democratic values within content about forms of government as evident in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration and the Australian Curriculum: History. Taking a contemporary focus of the current national curriculum implemented in 2011—which was the first iteration of Australia's first national curriculum, the paper examines forms of government as presented to students from their historical and any current day perspectives. In Australia, History is a compulsory subject for primary school to year 10 in high school (when students are generally 16 years of age). History then splits into Modern History and Ancient History as elective courses of study in the senior years of schooling and History Extension which focuses on historiography. The analysis of curriculum shows that opportunities to introduce into the classroom current day topics in relation to citizenship, democracy, and functions of government are missed in lieu of content that stays in the past within its own chronological historical context

Consciousness · Curriculum · Democracy · Epistemology · Key (lock · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy

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