Topics: Indigenous culture in maths, national school curriculum
Mark Levy: It’s been revealed today that maths teachers are expected to incorporate Indigenous dance and storytelling in lessons as part of an emphasis on three mandatory cross-curriculum priorities. At a time when Australian children are falling behind other countries on academic markers, teachers are being forced to incorporate sustainability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and Australia’s engagement with Asia in their lesson plans, no matter what subject they are teaching. You’d think maths lessons should focus on maths, but apparently not. Now, ironically, the push to incorporate Indigenous culture throughout all aspects of the curriculum has coincided with the drop in numeracy levels for First Nations children. In 2008, the year before cross-curriculum priorities were mandated, 19.8 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and 2.5 per cent of non-Indigenous children failed to meet the minimum standard for year 7 numeracy in the NAPLAN tests. By 2022, the proportion of failing students had jumped to 27.8 per cent of Indigenous and 5 per cent of non-Indigenous students. Thought we’d have a chat about all of this with Sarah Henderson, who’s the Shadow Minister for Education, and she’s on the line right now. Sarah, good morning to you. Mark, a very good morning to you. Well, this is just disgraceful, Sarah, I mean, the curriculum is being cluttered with ideology and is clearly failing our kids on basic skills.
Senator Henderson: Well, we’ve raised serious concerns about these cross-curriculum priorities because they do embed a lot of ideology right through the national curriculum and at the moment, Mark, one in three children are failing NAPLAN. Of course, every young Australian deserves to achieve his or her best potential. That is so important for young children and students going into the workforce, but also for our nation. But at the moment, we have a curriculum which is not based on international best practice, and that, of course, is crucial to reducing the burden on teachers and providing them with the support they deserve. The curriculum is too unwieldy. It’s too overcrowded. There is a very complex matrix of different expectations on teachers, and in fact, it is so complex that the curriculum regulator, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, cannot even print this document out because it’s thousands of pages. So if ACARA can’t print the document, how can teachers and parents be expected to read it and understand it?
Mark Levy: Unbelievable. I mean, how did we get to this point, Sarah? I mean, when I grew up maths was all about learning about maths. English was learning about English. If I was learning something to do with indigenous culture that would usually be taught in history lessons or, you know, and it was made a big deal of. And I’m not sitting here suggesting that we shouldn’t be learning about that sort of thing but what’s it got to do with mathematics?
Senator Henderson: Mark, you’ve made a very good point. Learning indigenous history and culture is vital to every child’s education but when children are learning maths, they need to be taught explicitly. And of course, that’s what the evidence is. That’s how children learn, embedding them with knowledge, teaching them step by step, with clear explanations and demonstrations about what they have to learn, including, of course, the use of phonics. Though the Coalition did an enormous amount of work when it was in government, including driving the teaching of phonics into the curriculum, but over the last three years, Mark, we’ve seen further advances in the evidence, and even the Australian Education Research Organisation last year handed down a very significant report showing that a knowledge-rich curriculum is the best way to teach students. Don’t make it very clear what they need to learn. Don’t bog the curriculum down with all these different requirements, which, as I say, is making things a nightmare for teachers, and teachers, frankly, deserve so much better.
Mark Levy: So are we talking here, Sarah, a curriculum for higher school students? Or does this sort of take in kindergarten and prep and some of the younger years as well?
Senator Henderson: So the national curriculum spans foundation right through to year 10, and just to give you an example, so in year 4 maths, teachers, of course, need to teach the calculation of time, and it’s suggested to teachers that they explore First Nations Australians’ explanations of the passing of time through cultural accounts about cycling phenomena involving sun, moon and stars. Now that’s the sort of guidance teachers are being given. In year 10 maths, teachers are told that they need to apply the Pythagoras’ theorem and it’s suggested that they explore navigation, design of technologies, or the surveying by First Nations Australians, investigating geometric and spatial reasoning and how these connect with trigonometry. Now, a teacher should have the ability to teach Pythagoras’ theorem or the calculation of time in the best way that he or she knows according to the evidence-based teaching methods, which is, of course, explicit instruction. They should not be bogged down with these cross-curriculum priorities, which are making things so much more complex because, as we know, Mark, the classroom is for education, not indoctrination. And we are concerned that the cross-curriculum priorities are motivated more by ideological causes than what is in the best interests of children.
Mark Levy: Unbelievable. I’m just sitting here shaking my head, Sarah, like some of the examples you’ve just rattled off, and there’s a few more that I’ll share with the listeners later this morning as well. I mean that the irony in all of this is, and I touched on it in my introduction to you, Ms Henderson, I said ‘Indigenous students are actually suffering the most, yet we’re making this big song and dance about Indigenous culture and Aboriginal Australians.’
Senator Henderson: That’s right, you very properly pointed out, and also as reported in The Australian today, that Indigenous attainment has gone backwards since 2008. That is very concerning. But of course, we’ve seen the Albanese government, Mark, take no action on the curriculum. So they have a 10-year funding and reform agreement, which has not been concluded in New South Wales and Queensland. So 1.3 million students and more have been abandoned by the Albanese government with no additional funding. And then, of course, we’ve got this woefully inadequate 10-year reform agreement which does some things, but frankly, it is far too weak. And for instance, it doesn’t mandate explicit instruction in every classroom. Now we know this is what works. We’ve just seen further evidence today that Catholic schools in Melbourne have seen a 20 per cent, on average, increase in numeracy skills after introducing explicit instruction in their classrooms 12 months ago. So we know this works. We know that for us to be a top education nation, we must employ the best evidence-based teaching methods in every classroom. Our teachers deserve it. Our parents deserve it, and of course, our students deserve no less than the best.
Mark Levy: Couldn’t agree more and it’s not only the Indigenous culture, but we’re talking about sustainability and Australia’s engagement with Asia that are also being pushed into these lesson plans. Well, I think it’s going to open up a discussion for us this morning, Sarah, and I thank you for what you’ve had to say this morning and for making yourself available to highlight this because at the end of the day, and if I think back to my childhood, when I was growing up, and what I got taught, yes, there’s important history lessons we should all be familiar with but when it comes to mathematics, English, all of the other subjects that children are taught, it seems that the ideology is what’s causing the problem here, rather than sitting down and working out what’s going to hold these kids in the best possible state moving forward when they leave school. They’re the lessons they should be taught at school.
Senator Henderson: That’s so right and under Peter Dutton’s leadership, I can assure you the Coalition is determined to raise educational standards in our schools and it’s all part of our plan to get Australia back on track,
Mark Levy: Great stuff, good on you. Sarah, lovely to chat, we’ll catch up soon.
Senator Henderson: Thank you so much, Mark.