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Curriculum head gives Christian perspectives a nod

1:00am Monday, 19th July 2010  

EXCLUSIVE David Hastie Education Writer

Professor Barry McGaw, Chairperson of the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Agency (ACARA) has stated that it is “right and appropriate” for Australian Christian faith based schools to integrate the Christian worldview throughout their teaching of the incoming national Australian Curriculum.
At the recent National Christian Schools policy forum in Canberra, Professor McGaw indicated that if religious groups were allowed to establish schools, “it is appropriate to establish a school that will give them an expression of their faith” and to “commend the faith in those schools”.
Dr Paul Bergis, the head of Innaburra Christian School, asked if ‘we have permission to teach the Christian connections to history, democracy and the reformation”. Professor McGaw responded: ‘“To have a proper understanding of history, we shouldn’t deny the faith basis of the secular event”. He then went on in like manner to hear and generally affirm other suggested Christian approaches in English, Maths and History put to him by the curriculum panel, but he stopped short of directly agreeing with a more general wording of guidelines for the teaching of human origins in the science curriculum.
Professor McGaw affirmed CSA head Stephen O’Doherty’s suggestion that the Christian worldview might be implemented in the same style as the National Curriculum’s three “cross curriculum priorities” of indigenous perspectives, sustainability and Australia’s Asian engagement.
His encouragement, however, was qualified by two cautionary questions addressed to Christian schools: “What do you do to ensure students have a broader cultural view” and “How do you handle dissent?”.
While the curriculum is still in its draft phase, such broad government support for the right to express Christian worldview in throughout the curriculum is unprecedented in Australian education.