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consciousness through the media of the contentions surrounding schooling and the pattern
emerging of Federal government intervention on the perceived inadequacies of the States’
running of education.
Despite a conservative federal government for eleven years and conservative state Labor
governments, state-based education departments retained syllabuses that were largely of an
ideology different to the government of the day. This can be viewed as testament to the
independence of the state based syllabus committees, despite significant pressure from the
Federal government, including linking curriculum changes with funding. Whether the
curriculum of the respective states is as strong and relevant to students’ learning needs as it
needs to be is another point, but a national curriculum in and of itself would not create a
school curriculum that leans more to one political ideology than another, a point often missed
by proponents and critics alike of the push for a national curriculum.
A1.8 Significant Points of Debate on School Curriculum
A conflict of differences between how people perceive the world should be (through the lens
of personal values) is a significant factor in the ongoing SOSE debates. Criticisms of SOSE
and debates about values in the school curriculum are closely linked. For example, when
criticisms (or allegations) of subversive or non-existent values allegedly taught in classrooms
are published in the media and presented by political leaders such as John Howard and
former Federal Education Minister, Brendan Nelson (Crabb & Guerrera, 2004; Nelson,
2002). On this issue, one-time Acting Minister for Education, Peter McGauran stated “...too
many government schools are either value-free, or are hostile or apathetic to Australian
heritage and values” (Riley, Doherty, & Burke, 2004, p. 3). Neo-conservatism can be seen as
transcending traditional boundaries of politics with politicians from both ends of the political
spectrum agreeing on conservative approaches of content-driven curriculum. The overall
criticisms of the neo-conservatives towards SOSE have been summarised by Deborah
Henderson, “according to recent neo-conservative critiques, SOSE is ideologically driven and
flawed for not providing the sort of knowledge students require...” (2005, p. 311). Since the
introduction of the SOSE syllabus, the same argument has been used repeatedly, of teachers
indoctrinating students into neo-Marxist views of the world (Donnelly, 2005, p. 57).
Knowledge that students should be learning, according to those who hold neo-conservative
views, invariably means very traditional, transferable teaching, and requires thereby a
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