Syllabus breeds activists

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Syllabus breeds activists
The syllabus for a Queensland school geography
course encourages political activism, aiming to
provide students with values of social justice,
economic sustainability and peace. In
Queensland, the optional geography syllabus for
Years 9 and 10 says geography promotes the four
key values of democratic process, social justice,
ecological and economic sustainability and
peace. The draft syllabus for Years 11 and 12
goes further, arguing that the promotion of
responsible social and environmental actions and
participation in the geography curriculum is a
logical outcome of many geographical
inquiries. The syllabus, in its examination of
sustainable communities, aims to teach students a
geography of concern and says that decisions
affecting the physical and social environments
are based on value positions.
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• Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop is
  concerned geography is becoming an exercise in
  political indoctrination and that the curriculum
  is championing political activism instead of
  teaching geographical facts.
• Geography should be learning about the natural
  environment and not political science by another
  name, she said.
• The draft curriculum for Year 11 and 12 students
  in South Australia aims to make students aware,
  critical and active citizens. You willdevelop
  an awareness of ecological sustainability and
  social justice issues, it says.
• The curriculum says students will use
  geographical skills to clarify their value
  positions and encourage them to make informed
  decisions to develop preferred outcomes.

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Purposes of the curriculum from 3 - 18

• Our aspiration for all children and for every
  young person is that they should be successful
  learners, confident individuals, responsible
  citizens and effective contributors to society
  and at work. By providing structure, support and
  direction to young peoples learning, the
  curriculum should enable them to develop these
  four capacities. The curriculum should complement
  the important contributions of families and
  communities. (Tables)

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School - Faculty links

• ongoing relationships between faculties and
  individual schools
• the interchange of personnel
• this would include the ability of school and
  university staff to spend extended periods of
  time in each others work environment.
• an extension of the responsibility of teacher
  educators into the teaching setting
• joint approaches to solving challenges that
  schools identify as priorities, using the
  research expertise and knowledge of university
  personnel to work in partnership with teachers as
  action researchers.

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• Examine the preparation of primary and secondary
  teaching graduates to
• teach literacy and numeracy
• teach vocational education courses
• effectively manage classrooms
• successfully use information technology
• deal with bullying and disruptive students and
  dysfunctional families
• deal with children with special needs and/or
  disabilities
• achieve accreditation
• deal with senior staff, fellow teachers, school
  boards, education authorities, parents, community
  groups and other related departments

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To enable all young people to become
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