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the inclusion of critical literacy in the curriculum, with commentators arguing for a return to
an often undefined ‘basics’. One such commentator, then-Archbishop (now Cardinal) George
Pell claims critical literacy is causing dominant discourses to be “undermined by a...focus on
‘texts’ which normalise moral and social disorder” for school students (Rowbottom, n.d., p.
1). The word “normalise” as used by Pell is linked to the conservative, politically right values
which, in his opinion, the community should hold and schools held responsible to instill in
students. The influence commentators such as Pell try to exert on the curriculum is not
limited to literacy, but often cross into other areas of schooling such as values education. This
has led to a larger debate surrounding educational outcomes and testing at schools; perhaps
influencing former Prime Minister John Howard’s wife, Janette Howard to call it a
“Standards War” (Devine, 2007, para. 10).
Adi Wimmer describes the history/culture wars as being a “paradigm wars” (2002, p, 2)
providing an apt description of the two sides of the debate that have emerged as significant
contributors to this ongoing conflict about national history and its impact on national identity
and culture. The paradigms, either from a conservative modernist or from a postmodernist
perspective have underpinned the major shifts in the debate, as is illustrated in Figure A1.2:
Timeline of major shifts in the history/culture wars 1993-2008.
A1.2 Transnational Contexts: History/Culture Wars Debates
As in Australia, history/culture wars debates have emerged in other nations, along similar
lines of a binary between politically left and politically right, debated within a Western,
modernist, ‘progressive’ framework of neo-liberalism. So significant are these debates that
they have entered both the general public discourses and academic fields of debate. This
section will look through the lens of the academic debates of other nations. Whilst Australia
too has academic debates on topics related to the impact of national history on contemporary
culture (see, for example, Clendinnen, 2006; Curthoys and Docker, 2006; Carter, 2006; Teo
& White, 2003; Curthoys, 2003; and Windschuttle, 1996), the focus on the Australian section
will be on public discourses influencing the history/culture wars debates and the subsequent
impact on schooling. The purpose of this section then is to provide an overview of the
history/culture wars as played out in a variety of nations in the same or similar timeframe as
the Australian history/culture wars, rather than a detailed, in-depth critique of the finer points
of each of the featured nations’ specific debates.
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