A group of religious private schools has called for the national curriculum to include a “western/Judeo-Christian” influence category, an idea that is likely to appeal to the team reviewing what students are taught.



Christian Schools Australia’s suggestion is broadly in line with the direction the education minister, Christopher Pyne, signalled in January when he launched a rapid review of the national curriculum and argued it downplayed western heritage.

But an association representing history teachers argues that the existing cross-curriculum priorities have not been as controversial as some critics have suggested, while the Independent Education Union of Australia says the entire review is premature.

One of the two people appointed to lead the review, the conservative education commentator Kevin Donnelly, has previously attacked the curriculum for “uncritically promoting diversity” and undervaluing western civilisation and “the significance of Judeo-Christian values to our institutions and way of life”.

Christian Schools Australia, which represents 130 schools, argues in its submission for a “rebalancing” of the three existing cross-curriculum priorities: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures; Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia; and sustainability.

The group suggests the inclusion of an additional cross-curriculum priority to ensure “the continued recognition of the ‘western/Judeo-Christian’ influences on our society”.

Mark Spencer, executive officer of Christian Schools Australia, acknowledges “the importance of the current cross-curriculum priorities in the context of educating for the 21st century” but says that “there is at least a presumption by many people that these priorities are more in the nature of dominant, almost exclusive, themes that effectively exclude other perspectives and approaches”.

The Australian Christian Lobby’s submission says the review is “a good opportunity to end the culture wars that have seen Australia’s Christian and European heritage airbrushed from history”.

“In particular, the history curriculum must accurately represent the influence that Christianity, the Bible, and European culture had in the early development of Australia,” the ACL’s managing director, Lyle Shelton, says in a submission that specifically references past comments by Donnelly.

Shelton says the three existing cross-curriculum priorities are valuable but “none are as significant in understanding Australia’s history, its institutions, and its culture as the western, and particularly the Christian, perspectives shared by most of its founders”.

The History Teachers’ Association of Victoria strongly supports the national curriculum.

“Despite the media focus on the cross-curriculum priorities, we have received very few queries on these, suggesting they are not uppermost in teachers’ minds,” the association’s curriculum project manager, Ingrid Purnell, says in a submission.

“The depth studies cover significant developments including ancient civilisations, the medieval and Renaissance eras, exploration, colonisation, industrialisation, migration, colonial life, key ideas and movements, economic life and global conflicts.

“Through these and the overviews, students get a good understanding of how Australia fits into world history.”

Purnell points to the fact the extensive consultation process that led to the development of the national curriculum was begun by the former Liberal prime minister John Howard and showed “a welcome example of bipartisanship in the national interest”. Purnell calls on the review to “support teachers as they continue to implement the curriculum into which they have invested so much time, care and professionalism”.

Similarly, the Independent Education Union of Australia says the national curriculum was developed through a “systematic and consultative approach”. In the union’s submission, the federal secretary, Chris Watt, argues the Pyne-ordered review is premature as the national curriculum is yet to be fully implemented in every state and territory.

The Institute of Public Affairs, which is closely linked to the Liberal party, has voiced its opposition to the entire concept of a national curriculum, saying the process was vulnerable to politicisation.

“Even if the Coalition makes changes those changes are going to be inevitably reversed by the next Labor government,” the institute’s executive director, John Roskam, told Guardian Australia.

Roskam said the institute’s submission to the review would argue the curriculum took a relativist approach to history without acknowledging “that one approach, one system of government is better than another”.

He said modern history looked at Kevin Rudd’s national apology to Indigenous Australians “without recognising reasons why John Howard may not have apologised”.

“There’s a big focus on asylum seekers without recognising why people may have a different approach,” Roskam said. “There’s a big focus on multiculturalism without focus on our Anglo-Celtic roots.”

Donnelly and his fellow reviewer, the university academic Ken Wiltshire, are due to present a report to the government by mid-year. The deadline for public submissions was extended by two weeks due to the “high level of demand”.