Truth‐telling in the Australian Curriculum

AbstractUnlike Canada and South Africa, Australia has not completed a national Truth‐telling of First Nations histories. As a consequence, the curriculum is at risk of excluding Truth‐telling, leading to indoctrination of past injustices as part of school learning. Our analysis critically examines the use of Truth‐telling language in the Australian Curriculum—Version 9. Eighteen Truth‐telling terms were identified from a chapter on Truth‐telling in the 2018 Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Using Bernstein's strong and weak classification, instances of Truth‐telling terms were identified in the curriculum. There were three instances of Truth‐telling in the mandated Content Descriptors of discipline‐based learning areas. Only one of these instances was in the primary years. Across the weak classification where teaching was optional, there were 31 instances in the Content Elaborations, one instance in the Cross‐Curriculum Priority and no instances in the General Capabilities. And 16 of the 32 instances in the Content Elaborations were in secondary History which not all students study. With only weak classification of Truth‐telling, students will continue to be indoctrinated into an unconscious learning of bias and erasure of First Nations histories. One way to limit the settler colonial violence in the Australian Curriculum is to mandate more Truth‐telling to overcome what is perpetuating a Great Australian Silence.