The Australian Curriculum: Promises, Problems and Possibilities

Alan Reid AM is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of South Australia. Hisresearch and publications focus on the broad themes of education policy, curriculum, andthe history and politics of public education; and he has been influential in education policydevelopment at the state and national levels. Angela Scarino is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics in the School ofCommunication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia,and the Director of the Research Centre for Languages and Cultures. Her research expertiseis in languages education in linguistically and culturally diverse societies second languagelearning, language assessment, intercultural learning and second language teachereducation. She has been a Chief Investigator on a number of research grants, for example,Assessing the Intercultural Language Learning (Australian Research Council Linkage 2006¿09)and Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education (Department of Education,Employment and Workplace Relations 2009¿11). She is currently the Chair of theMulticultural Education and Languages Committee, an advisory committee on languagesand multicultural education to the Minister for Education in South Australia. Brenton Doecke is Emeritus Professor at Deakin University. He has published widely in thefield of English curriculum and pedagogy. He is an Honorary Life Member of the VictorianAssociation for the Teaching of English and the Australian Association for the Teaching ofEnglish. Larissa McLean Davies is Associate Professor (Language and Literacy) and Associate Dean(Learning and Teaching) in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the Universityof Melbourne. Larissa is a leading Australian academic in literary education, with herresearch and publications spanning the fields of literary studies and English education. Wayne Sawyer is Professor of Education at Western Sydney University. He has publishedwidely in the field of English curriculum and pedagogy. He is a former Chair of the NSWBoard of Studies English Curriculum Committee and an Honorary Life Member of both theNSW English Teachers¿ Association and the Australian Association for the Teaching ofEnglish. Deborah Corrigan is a professor in Science Education and Deputy Dean in the Faculty ofEducation, Monash University. She was a chemistry and biology teacher before moving intoteacher education. Her research interests include technology and industry links with science,curriculum design, science education policy and values that underpin science education. Merrilyn Goos is Professor of Education at the University of Queensland. Her currentresearch interests include numeracy across the curriculum and collaboration betweenmathematicians and mathematics educators in pre-service teacher education. Marilyn Fleer is the Foundation Professor of Early Childhood Education and Developmentin the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her longstanding research into children¿sdevelopment and learning has centred on the subjects of technologies and science. Shehas published extensively in these areas, including Technologies for children, a textbook thatdraws upon the content and context of the Australian Curriculum, published in 2016 byCambridge University Press (Melbourne). She was a writer and advisor to both subjectareas of digital technologies and design and technologies for the development of thetechnologies learning area of the Australian Curriculum. Associate Professor Libby Tudball lectures and teaches in the Faculty of Education,Monash University. She is the President of the Social and Citizenship Education Associationof Australia and actively involved in CITIZED, an international organisation promotingscholarly development of citizenship education. Her research interests and publicationsfocus on civics and citizenship and values education, the internationalisation of education,studies of Asia, teacher professional learning and education, the inclusion of Indigenousperspectives in the school curriculum, and humanities and social science education. Robyn Ewing AM is Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts, University of Sydney. Aformer primary teacher, she is passionate about the role quality arts experiences andprocesses can and should play in creative pedagogy and in transforming the curriculumat all levels of education. Her current research interests include drama and literacy,reflection in teacher education, the experiences of early-career teachers, the role ofmentoring in professional learning and sustaining curriculum reform. Dawn Penney is a Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Education at Edith CowanUniversity and an Adjunct Professor of Physical Education and Sport at Monash University.Dawn is a leading figure in policy and curriculum research in health and physical educationinternationally. Her recent publications include Examination physical education: Policy,practice and possibilities (Brown & Penney, 2017, Routledge) and School health educationin changing times: Curriculum, pedagogies and partnerships (Leahy, Burrows, McCuaig,Wright & Penney, 2016, Routledge). Michelle Kohler is Senior Lecturer in Languages Education and Indonesian at FlindersUniversity and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Research Centre for Languages and Culturesat the University of South Australia. Michelle¿s research interests and expertise focus onlanguages education including language policy and planning, intercultural mediation andlanguage(s) pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. She has been a major contributor to anumber of state and national research projects, curriculum and assessment initiatives, andteacher professional learning programs. She was the Coordinating Writer of the AustralianCurriculum: Indonesian and member of the ACARA Languages Advisory Group. Rob Gilbert is Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland. His expertise is incurriculum development, research and evaluation. Particular applications have includedresearch in curriculum change and leadership, social and citizenship education, gender ineducation, the education of boys, standards-based curriculum and assessment, andresearch training. Rob is editor (with Brian Hoepper) of the pre-service teacher educationtextbook Teaching humanities and social sciences: History, geography, economics andcitizenship in the Australian Curriculum (6th edition, 2017). Deborah Henderson is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at QueenslandUniversity of Technology. Her transdisciplinary research interests include values, interculturalunderstanding, critical inquiry and global perspectives in relation to history andcivics and citizenship curriculum in pre-service teacher education and the internationalisationof teacher preparation. Claire Wyatt-Smith is the Director of the Learning Sciences Institute Australia at AustralianCatholic University and Professor of Educational Assessment and Literacy. Her researchfocuses on classroom assessment and teachers¿ work, and more specifically professionaljudgement, standards and moderation. Lenore Adie is a Senior Research Fellow in the Learning Sciences Institute Australia, AustralianCatholic University. Her research focuses on assessment and moderation processes as thesecontribute to supporting teachers¿ pedagogical practices and student learning. Marie Brennan is currently an Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University in SouthAfrica and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. She has worked atfive universities in Australia after a number of positions with the Victorian EducationDepartment. She has been active in curriculum debates and supporting teachers asresearchers, as well as working on participatory research, including action research, overfour decades. Lew Zipin is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Australia, andExtraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His research includesprojects funded by the Australian Research Council aimed to further social justice througheducation that recognises needs, aspirations and cultural diversities of learners frompower-marginalised groups. A key feature of this work is collaborations among students,school staff, family/community members and academic teams to: (a) research for richfunds of knowledge (FK) in learners¿ social-cultural lifeworlds; and (b) build FK intocurriculum units that engage and intellectually challenge learners, enabling their academicsuccess. Lester-Irabinna Rigney is an internationally renowned expert in Aboriginal education.Professor Rigney is a proud man from the Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri AboriginalNations. He is Professor of Aboriginal Education in the Centre for Research in Education,School of Education, University of South Australia. He is a registered teacher and hasworked in Aboriginal schooling and education for over 30 years. He has published widelyon inclusive curriculum, teacher pedagogy and education policy. His previous appointmentsinclude Dean Indigenous Education at the University of Adelaide; Director of WirltuYarlu Aboriginal Education; and Director of the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre atFlinders University. He has a Doctorate by Research and is a Senior Research Professor inthe Centre for Research in Education at the University of South Australia. Dr Philip Roberts is an Assistant Professor (aka Senior Lecturer) in Curriculum Inquiry andRural Education at the University of Canberra. Philip¿s ongoing research focuses on place,the sustainability of rural communities, and the interests of the least powerful in oursociety. His work is situated within rural sociology, the sociology of knowledge, educationalsociology and social justice, and is informed by the spatial turn in social theory and sustainability.Philip has an ongoing concern about quality and equity in education and therepresentation of the rural in contemporary society. Roger Slee is a professor of education at the University of South Australia and the inauguralEditor of the International Journal of Inclusive Education. He is a former Deputy Director-General of Education Queensland and held the Chair of Inclusive Education at the Instituteof Education, University of London. Dr Nicole Mockler is a Senior Lecturer in Education in the Sydney School of Educationand Social Work at the University of Sydney. Her research interests are in education policy(particularly the relationship between education policy and teachers¿ work), teacherprofessional learning and curriculum enactment. Glenn C. Savage is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Sociology of Education at theUniversity of Western Australia. His current research examines the development of nationalschooling reforms and how policies in federal systems are mediated by transnational flowsof policy ideas and practices. He currently holds an Australian Research Council DiscoveryEarly Career Researcher Award titled National Schooling Reform and the Reshaping ofAustralian Federalism (2016¿19). Professor Bob Lingard works in the School of Education at the University of Queensland,where he teaches and researches education policy and the sociology of education. Hismost recent books include Globalizing educational accountabilities (Routledge, 2016) andPolitics, policies and pedagogies in education (Routledge, 2014). He is also editor of thejournal Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education and of the Routledge, NewYork book series Key ideas in education. Bill Green is Emeritus Professor of Education at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NewSouth Wales. His work has ranged across literacy studies and curriculum inquiry, with aparticular focus on curriculum history and English teaching. His publications include theedited volumes Designs on learning: Essays on curriculum and teaching by Garth Boomer(Australian Curriculum Studies Association, 1999) and Rethinking rural literacies: Transnationalperspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).