Commonwealth Policy Initiatives

Crucial to an understanding of the policy context of cultural diversity in schools is a review of  the following Commonwealth policy initiatives:

The Discovering Democracy policy (1997-2004) presents one definition of the aim of multicultural policy:

“The policy of multiculturalism does not seek to give advantage to any group. It is based on the idea that people’s chances in life should not be affected by their ethnicity, religion, language or place of birth, and that they should be able to maintain their own culture. However, there are some conditions of citizenship which have to be met – commitment to Australia and its needs, and acceptance of the essential values of Australian society. These values include:

  • respect for the law
  • freedom of religion
  • equality of all people in the eyes of the law
  • the majority rules, but minorities are protected and their views and interests are considered in the formulation of policy
  • respect for people from different cultures
  • equality of men and women
  • people do not have the right to encourage violence of racial hatred.” [1]
The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century (1999), for example, identified core goals, such as:
  • A better understanding and acknowledgement of “cultural and linguistic diversity”;
  • Students’ school experience ought to be “free from the effects of negative forms of discrimination based on sex, language, culture and ethnicity, religion or disability”. [2]

Commonwealth and State policies since 1996 have tended to emphasise the identification of “core values” for secondary education, focussing on integrative citizenship education as a unifying mode of diversity management.

The decision in 2002 to undertake a Values Education Study reflects the prominence of values as an education priority in the global context. The Virtues Project which began in 1991 and UNESCO’s Values approach developed in 1997, for example, have been widely implemented internationally. The Values Education Study report (August 2003) similarly positions values as central to curriculum development initiatives in state education policy. These are enunciated in the Draft National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (2003), and were implemented through the Discovering Democracy curricula.

A further refinement of the values to be adopted in Australian schools was articulated in the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (2005), which emphasises the need to “Be aware of others and their cultures, accept diversity within a democratic society, being included and including others.” The National Framework identifies Nine Values for Australian Schooling:

  1. Care and Compassion
  2. Doing Your Best
  3. Fair Go
  4. Freedom
  5. Honesty and Trustworthiness
  6. Integrity
  7. Respect
  8. Responsibility
  9. Understanding, Tolerance and Inclusion

These are supported by guiding principles for teaching which include “partnerships within the school community” and “whole of school approach”. Suggestions for this approach are outlined here. [3]

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(1) ‘Activity 7: Conditions of citizenship’. Discovering Democracy Units http://www.curriculum.edu.au/ddunits/units/ms5fq2acts.htm

(2) The Adelaide Declaration - Preamble and Goals http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/

(3) http://www.valueseducation.edu.au/

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