Learning The System
Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday May 25, 1997
Democracy is always a fragile thing, writes MURRAY PRINT, so a course on its meaning is long overdue in school curriculums
RESEARCH has clearly demonstrated student understanding of civics, particularly political literacy, is dismally low.
Basically students don't know our political history, understand our government, democratic processes, parliament, voting in elections and their role as citizens in society.
These are important issues in our society. Yet evidence suggests that young people have little understanding of how to address them. They also have little substantive knowledge of these issues upon which they might act as a citizen.
This ignorance is reinforced by at best equivocal, but mostly negative, student attitudes towards politics, government and participation in democracy.
Without this knowledge how do young people exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens in Australia? How can they legally respond to the issues such as the "Hanson" factor?
If our democracy was threatened, how would our young people respond? And how will they maintain a healthy democratic, civil society for the future?
The Minister for Schools, Vocational Education and Training, Dr Kemp, has announced a new civics education program for Australian schools.
Called Discovering Democracy, it will attempt to raise student knowledge of civics and citizenship.
The program covers four themes - principles of democracy, government, the Australian nation and citizenship - across Years 4 to 10. All four themes will have a strong historical emphasis. The first two themes aim to provide a historical perspective to the development of Australia democracy and government.
The Australian nation theme focuses on ideas and events that have defined civic society in Australia. The role of indigenous peoples is included.
Citizenship focuses on laws, rights and civic responsibilities.
Nationally the initiative can produce substantial improvement in civic understanding. But school curriculums in the States must change first.
Many teachers require training to teach civics. The key factor in the success of the initiative will be the support provided by the States. If they allocate additional resources, and incorporate civics within their school curriculums, a difference can be made. If not, there will be expensive curriculum materials sitting unused in schools. School libraries and storerooms are full of dust-gathering curriculum materials.
While the States support the teaching of civics they need federal funds and political will.
NSW is the leading State in civics education and the NSW Department of School Education and the Board of Studies are also collaborating with the University of Sydney in a project of civics benchmarking. However, there are potential problems with the civics initiative. The States and territories are being encouraged to incorporate Discovering Democracy within their school curriculums. They are also encouraged to supplement teacher professional development. Whether they do so or not is critical to the program's success. Most States will integrate the civics program within the existing school curriculum. No special subjects. It will be a major challenge for curriculum developers and schools to integrate civics effectively.
The Federal Government has set aside $17.6 million over four years for the program, with the bulk of the funds to the Curriculum Corporation in Melbourne for curriculum materials such as CD-ROMs, student workbooks and teacher guides.
These are to be distributed to all 10,000 Australian schools.
Some $4.6 million is targeted for teacher professional development to be run by the States. A nationally-based Civics Education Group has been formed to advise the minister and scrutinise these projects. It comprises historians, lawyers and educational administrators, but no civics educators. It will play a vital role in directing this new civics initiative from a national perspective. The Curriculum Corporation's civics materials will play a pivotal role in schools. But only if they mesh with State initiatives. This task will require some delicate negotiations.
The lead-up time for development, testing and evaluation of curriculum materials is very tight. We are unlikely to see significant changes in schools before 1999.
This means years before we can detect any measurable effects in student performance.
Who will teach the civics initiative may be a problem. Classroom teachers in primary schools will carry the load, history teachers, most likely, in secondary schools.
If students are not actively engaged they will find civics boring and switch off and this is a professional challenge for teachers.
In the Federal Government's program, national comparisons will be difficult to gauge. There is no mechanism for determining what students know about civics among the States and there will be no national indicators of student performance.
Some educators suggest the Government's initiative is too narrow. It doesn't appear to cover values such as social justice or ecological sustainability which are fundamental to a civil society. The Discovering Democracy program addresses a real need in our schools. It should also make a difference to our students. But it has many obstacles to overcome first.
Will it encourage active participation by the next generation of citizens and nurture a civil society? The chances are good.
Democracy is always fragile. Any political system which allows free speech and an opportunity to state different views is always vulnerable. So we need to be vigilant to ensure our civil society continues.
The civic education of the young and their active civic participation will protect our democracy.
Kareen Salmon, 15, right, will have almost finished her school education by the time the Federal Government's Discovering Democracy program is introduced in schools. But she already knows enough about Australia's political system and politicians to have a firm view on the issue. "I think they are weird lots, those men," she says. "They say one thing and mean another."
Students at her school, Our Lady of Mercy College at Cronulla, already study issues to be included in the new civics and citizenship program, as part of geography, Australian history and commerce. They have also set up mock parliaments, with Kareen acting as Opposition leader.
The Federal Minister for Schools, Dr Kemp, believes few students understand such issues and wants civics and citizenship to have a greater focus. Vanessa Rees, 15, left, believes there should be more civics and citizenship education. "It's good to know how everything is run and how we organise things in our country."
Another student, Anne Barnes, 15, says it is important for Australians to be informed for future debate, "especially if it goes to referendum".
Naomi Holloway, 15, says: "When you see things like Question Time, half of them on the back bench are asleep or reading magazines and the front bench are arguing and the Speaker can barely get a word in."
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald