Name: Emily Greenberg

Student number: 26005123

Unit code/name: EDF1304/Learning and educational inquiry 2
Tutor name: Geraldine Burke
Tutorial date/time: Monday 10am
Assessment Task 2: Critique of the Australian Curriculum Intercultural
Understanding

Introduction:
Since there is no solitary definition for curriculum it can, at times, be a difficult
concept to explain. However, through combining a selection of descriptions and
fundamental elements, curriculum can be best described as the variety of academic
content that is taught to pupils enabling them to receive coherent learning
experiences in order for them to make meaningful links and informed decisions about
the world in which we live (Brindley, 2013). Within Australia there are several
curricula that can be adopted by schools including the national Australian curriculum,
AusVELS (the Victorian curriculum) and BOSTES (the New South Wales curriculum)
as well as the International Baccalaureate, Australian Steiner curriculum Framework,
the National Montessori curriculum and many more. Generally, these curricula aim to
serve the same purpose: build on personal, academic and professional learning and
development through integrated content knowledge to essentially enhance an
individuals opportunities and chances of educational success (Egan, 1978).
However, every curriculum is slightly varied in their overall mission making each
framework unique. The content that is incorporated within these curricula also
fluctuates across cultures and countries and is continually being modified to meet the
needs and requirements of all individual learners. These unique requirements include
cultural diversity, gender differences and individuals with disabilities and learning
difficulties, and need to be considered and respected when supporting a curriculum
as it is crucial that all curricula strive to achieve equity and justice (Marsh, Clarke, &
Pittaway, 2014).
Throughout this assignment, I will be focusing on the Australian curriculum, as
developed and devised by the ACARA The Australian curriculum and Assessment
and Reporting Authority (ACARA, 2014). Specifically, I will be critiquing how
effectively this curriculum addresses the issue of cultural diversity within the
classroom with regards to the general capability: Intercultural Understanding. In
todays society, cultural diversity is more prominent than ever. In order to motivate
and encourage individual students to learn within and amongst a crowd of students
with ethnicities and cultures that differ from their own, it is important for teachers to
incorporate culturally friendly activities and tasks within everyday learning
pedagogies. This can be easily done when cultural diversity is recognised,
acknowledged and accommodated for within the curriculum. In educating students
about cultural diversity, students not only gain knowledge about other foreign cultures
and values but they also learn to appreciate disparity, create connections, strengthen
relationships and cultivate mutual respect (ACARA, 2014). These values will remain
with students throughout their lives as they enter the diverse world of the twenty-first

century, having completed their schooling career, and will equip them with the social
knowledge and interpersonal skills to be able to work together with others
harmoniously in a multi-cultural, interconnected world (Bal, 2015).
Benefits of the Australian curriculum with regards to diversity
In critiquing the Intercultural Understanding strand of the Australian curriculum, I
have found many positive aspects as supported by theory, including:

The focus on developing knowledge about culture.

Incorporating culturally focused learning areas within the Australian
curriculum, allows students across Australia to be exposed to relevant
information and knowledge about different cultures. According to Bryam
(1999), learning another culture is essentially learning otherness. In other
words, through learning about cultural disparity, students are able to see the
world from a completely fresh and unknown perspective. As they expand on
their cultural filters, students become more wary and accepting of difference
and more respectful and empathetic towards their classmates. Learning about
culture has the potential to generally change the way that people perceive the
world around them (Lawrence, 2010). According to Professor Reid, the
national curriculum aims to teach students about the personal requirements
needed to live, work, and sustain relationships in a globalising world through
intercultural understanding and acquiring knowledge about culture, including
ones own culture as well as that of others (Donnelly, & Wiltshire, 2014). This
follows Vygotskys theory of constructivism where humans generate
knowledge and meaning from interactions between real life experiences and
their own ideas (Anonymous, 2014).

The push towards recognition and acceptance of cultural disparity and

cultural awareness within the classroom.
The rate at which Australia is promoting multiculturalism, particularly within
schools, is rapidly increasing. Therefore, it is important to note that school
cultures are continually evolving. Within these school cultures, two
perspectives are considered. Firstly, the aesthetic perspective which includes
the cultural content within particular subjects and the cultural support within
the community, and secondly, the anthropological aspect, which focuses on
understanding and appreciating experiences, achievements and traditions of
individual students (Marsh, Clarke, & Pittaway, 2014). Sieburth (1988)

proposes that multicultural education potentially reveals cultural differences

amongst students from very early learning stages, for example, within a
kindergarten classroom, and henceforth strategies need to be devised that
address cross-cultural communication, understanding, acceptance and
awareness, to ultimately lead to enhanced learning outcomes. One strategy
particularly, as formulated by Howe and Lisa (1995), categorises the four
elements that need to be targeted in order to develop a multicultural learning
environment. The first stage focuses on awareness to specifically alleviate
prejudice and discriminatory offences. The second stage is referred to as the
knowledge stage where the students learn about culture, for example, what it
is, how it differs, why we need it, etc. The third stage is associated with the
skills that teachers require to be culturally responsive educators and the final
stage is the action stage, where teachers physically implement programs,
strategies and methods in order to support their understanding of
multiculturalism (Tan, 2002).

The encouragement of working together with others as a team.

It is evident that the curriculum strongly aims to improve cross-cultural
communication. Within the classroom, more and more teachers are
encouraging their students to work in groups with people that they usually
wouldnt choose by first or second preference. This not only promotes good
work ethic, but also leads to strengthened bonds and relationships within the
classroom, positive team-working skills, awareness of cultural values and
tests patience levels, planning and initiative. These are skills that are not only
highly regarded within the classroom, but also, within the workforce. Teachers
are equipping their students with these skills in preparation for the world
outside of the school gates and well beyond. This is known as lifelong
learning and is a prerequisite component in transitioning from one area of
work to the next (Beutel, 2009). Workforce diversity is a priority in most
organisations around the world today. A diverse workforce is one that
effectively takes advantage of the full potential, talents, energy and
commitments of all employees. Thus, in promoting, demonstrating and
practicing positive strategies within the classroom that endorse diversity,
students are already being prepared for what their futures may have in store
for them, without even realising (Stepich, Chapman, Bryson, Lay, & Al, 1993).

Disadvantages of the Australian curriculum with regards to diversity

Despite the positive aspects of the Australian curriculum, I have also developed
some negative characteristics of which I believe hold a significant impact on the
diversity and intercultural traits within the classroom:

Issues with regards to equality, social justice, integration and social cohesion.
Offering equal opportunities across the board to all students within a
classroom is in fact an extremely challenging task. The Australian curriculum
aims to provide social justice, however, it cannot always be achieved. For
example, according to Forrest & Schodde (2014), the English curriculum
content only focuses on the English language. This is extremely excluding of
ESL (English as a Second Language) students and does not assist in
narrowing the gap of difference between the superior and inferior cultures.
Language barriers are a crucial detriment to the curriculum and as a result,
ESL students tend to segregate themselves away from non-ESL students.
This leads to an even greater disparity between cultures, which ultimately
defeats the purpose of equal learning, and social inclusion. Moreover, barriers
in language also lead to inequality in learning. For instance, if a student can
not understand what is being taught in class, he or she is automatically
disadvantaged and henceforth, his or her learning is not equitable. Therefore,
this student falls behind and obtains grades of a lower standard than others,
is socially isolated from the rest of the class and is not obtaining a fair
education. So how can the Australian curriculum prevent this from occurring?
According to Zabjek, 2015, it essentially takes between three and five years
for a student to achieve basic conversational skills in another language and
between five and seven years for them to become fluent. Ultimately, by
making the curriculum more ESL friendly, international students have a
greater chance of success. This means ensuring that other languages are
promoted and taught in schools and perhaps even subjects such as History
and Geography are taught in other languages also. It also means providing
literacy support and extra guidance by teachers. This could involve the use of
vocabulary lists during lessons such as maths so students have the chance to
comprehend particular mathematical signs or even labelling items within the
classroom to demonstrate, practice and expand upon students knowledge
and their English vocabulary repertoires.

Cultural biasness

Despite the fact that the Australian curriculum does a fantastic job at
incorporating the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander and Asian cultures
within the education system, the focus here is too narrow. According to Mr
Peter Abetz, MLA, the particular focus towards cultures and identities of
Indigenous Australians can be considered exclusive of other cultures, such as
the Muslim minority, the Jewish religion, and European Christians, for
example (Donnelly, et al., 2014). Thus, essentially resulting in high levels of
social tension amongst these cultures. Moreover, it seems that when the
curriculum refers to culture it is referring more often than not, to other
cultures rather than the Australian culture. This is particularly evident when
students of a Year 3 age group are required to discuss and analyse particular
texts whilst taking into account and referring back to Asian or Aboriginal or
Torres Straight Islander cultural perspectives or when students in Grade 1 are
expected to compare Asian and European cultures (Forrest, et al., 2014).
Ultimately, the Australian curriculum should aim to consider and provide
examples specifically linked to all cultures, including Australian culture. If
students are directly acknowledged and recognised within the curriculum,
they are more likely to feel accepted into the school community, which, in
turn, increases levels of self-confidence and enjoyment at school. It narrows
the gap between superior and inferior culture, as the curriculum would deem
all cultures as equally as important as one another, and essentially opens
many more doors and opportunity pathways to all students of different
natures.

Unnecessary teaching
It has been argued that perhaps the intercultural understanding capability of
the Australian curriculum should no longer be taught across the whole
curriculum and instead should only be embedded into subjects and particular
learning areas where relevant (Topsfield, & Knott, 2014). As a more general
overview, intercultural understanding focuses on feeding students with
knowledge about their own and others cultural perspectives in order to assist
them in developing practices and informed decisions related to cultural
diversity. This, for example, is not applicable in a subject like maths or science
where it is not crucially important for students to learn to appreciate the
contribution that diverse cultural perspectives have made to the development
of science or mathematics (Forrest, et al., 2014). On the contrary, a language
subject is one in which cultural diversity is the highlight of the subject as the

student is developing another source of communication, and in doing so a

newfound respect for that particular culture is created (Lawrence, 2010).
Similarly, within humanities students explore the history, geography, civics
and citizenship, economics and business of cultures, values and beliefs of
people beyond Australia and are able to draw on comparisons and similarities
between two or more cultures. This allows them to take traditions, customs
and religions into consideration in order to appreciate how various cultural
identities are shaped. Students also explore how these cultural identities may
have changed since the past and for what reason, whether it be cultural
independence, dispossession or conflict (ACARA, 2014). Therefore, the
curriculum should be filtered and the intercultural understanding capability
should only be incorporated in areas where it can be acknowledged and dealt
with in a comprehensive fashion (Topsfield, et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Ultimately, the Australian curriculum acknowledges the difference in learning
outcomes between, for example Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students or
Asian students against students of an Australian culture and strives to attend to this
by providing opportunities such as integrated learning methods, improved networks
and increased levels of respect and understanding towards disparity and differences
in culture. By including the Intercultural Understanding strand within the curriculum,
an individuals views are inclined towards acceptance of diversity, their knowledge is
deepened, and empathy is developed. Moreover, they are able to work in groups and
in teams harmoniously with people of other cultures and still achieve desirable
outcomes. The individual who is culturally diverse from the dominant culture of which
they are exposed to are made to feel included and accepted into a new environment,
that might sometimes be rather uneasy and uncomfortable. On the contrary, there
are some aspects of the Australian curriculum that are not so desirable. For example,
individuals who are trying to fit in to society may still be viewed as outcasts due to
communication barriers and integration issues. This can be addressed by providing
attention and support towards ESL programs and ESL teachers within the curriculum.
Other aspects of the curriculum that can be improved upon include the biasness
towards particular cultures more so than others and the inclusion of intercultural
knowledge into subjects that are not deemed directly suited or relevant to the culture
theme. The overall objective of including the Intercultural Understanding strand within
the curriculum is to provide equal opportunities for all individuals, despite race,
ethnicity, cultural beliefs, lifestyle and/or background. Upon critiquing the curriculum, I

ultimately believe that despite a few minor issues, the Australian curriculum has been
successful in achieving this.

References

Anonymous (2014). National curriculum review: the expert verdict. The Drum.
Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-13/the-conversation-expertverdict-on-the-curriculum-review/5809706
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, ACARA. (2014). The
General Capabilities: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Bal, A. (2015). Culturally Responsive Experimental Intervention Studies: The
Development of a Rubric for Paradigm Expansion. Review of Educational Research.
Beutel, D. (2009). Transitioning to the real world of education: An introduction. In J.
Millwater & D. Beutel (Eds.), Transitioning to the Real World of Education (pp. 1-17).
Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Brindley, A. (2013). What is a 'creative curriculum'? Prep School, 28-29.
Byram, M., & Risager, K. (1999). Language teachers, politics and cultures.
Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Donnelly, K., & Wiltshire, K. (2014). Review of the Australian Curriculum Final Report.
Retrieved from
https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review_of_the_national_curricul
um_final_report.pdf
Egan, K. (1978). What is Curriculum? Curriculum Inquiry, 8(1).
Forrest, S., & Schodde, C. (2014). Australia's English Curriculum: A critique. Institute
of Public Affairs. Retrieved from https://ipa.org.au/portal/uploads/31-oct-14English_curriculum_report.pdf
Kramsch, C. (1995). Redefining the boundaries of language study.
Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle.
Lawrence, G. P. J. (2010). Learning about otherness: A comparative analysis of
culture teaching and its impact in international language teacher preparation.

Marsh, C., Clarke, M., & Pittaway, S. (2014). The Australian curriculum. In Marshs
Becoming a teacher (6th ed., pp. 74-88). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Marsh, C., Clarke, M., & Pittaway, S. (2014). Equity, ethics, and legal issues in
teaching. In Marshs Becoming a teacher (6th ed., pp. 367-399). Frenchs Forest,
NSW: Pearson Australia.
Marsh, C., Clarke, M., & Pittaway, S. (2014). Professional and cultural dimensions of
teaching. In Marshs Becoming a teacher (6th ed., pp. 340-366). Frenchs Forest,
NSW: Pearson Australia.
Stepich, J., Chapman, C., Bryson, V. D., Lay, K. R., & Al, e. (1993). Workforce
diversity. Black Collegian, 23, 68.
Tan, G. (2002). The need for multiculturalism in the classroom as perceived by
mexican american schoolchildren. Multicultural Education, 9(3), 21-24.
Topsfield, J., & Knott, M. (2014). Education review: overhaul of 'bloated' national
curriculum widely supported The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/education-review-overhaul-ofbloated-national-curriculum-widely-supported-20141012-114zkz.html
Zabjek, A. (2015). Number of ESL students in area schools on the ride; Both public
Catholic boards affected by jump in children learning English. Edmonton Journal.