Controversial issues in the Australian educational context: dimension of politics, policy and practice

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a number of controversies related to climate change, racism and Black Lives Matter, and gender and sexual diversity have characterised public debate in Australia about politically charged content in schools. This paper explores one jurisdiction’s “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy through three broad areas of discussion. We begin by analysing the current social and political context in Australia at both a state and national level to consider how debates around controversial issues in schools have been utilised to exploit both existing and emerging cultural divisions. We then examine some of the philosophical claims central to the “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy before considering a single case of teacher deliberation in relation to the policy. The paper argues that the policy does little to support teachers in bringing up controversial issues in the classroom particularly given the ways teacher conduct in relation to controversial issues is treated in public discourse. Engaging with controversial issues as a matter of teacher conduct fails to acknowledge the epistemic, ethical, and political nature of controversial issues and teachers’ deliberation in relation to such concerns and constructs teacher conduct as a central concern.

KEYWORDS:

• controversial issues
• controversial issues in schools policy
• professional ethics, teacher conduct

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their thoughtful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The “Controversial Issues in Schools” policy from the NSW Department of Education was created in 1983 but was most recently updated in a minor way in 2021. The implementation document, “Controversial Issues in Schools – Procedures,” was created in 2007 but was most recently updated in 2017.

2. The normative case study is a specially researched type of artefact used for teacher education to address a wide range of philosophically-driven practical issues associated with seeking justice in schools (Levison & Fay, 2016; 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy Mcpherson

Amy McPherson is a senior lecturer at the Australian Catholic University. Her research focuses on the application of philosophical concepts to issues relating to the rights and wellbeing of young people and teacher professional ethics.

Daniella Forster

Daniella Forster is a teacher educator and educational ethicist. She uses normative case studies, philosophy and codes of conduct to support teacher learning and practice.

Kylie Kerr

Kylie Kerr is a lecturer at Australian Catholic University’s Faculty of Education and Arts. Kylie’s research and teaching interests include the philosophy of education, ethics, epistemology, wellbeing and the humanities curriculum.