From climate change to Indigenous identity, these themes are now embedded across every subject in Australian classrooms.
One author, Bella d'Abrera, argues this is a symptom of a larger movement across Australia, the United States, and the UK, where education is being substituted by ideology.
“The book basically traces how these crazy ideas from universities, like critical theory, gender theory, decolonisation ... the idea of climate catastrophism, have all emerged from the universities and moved into teacher training, the bureaucracies, the unions, and into classroom resources,” she said.
d'Abrera is director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation program at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and holds a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge.
One of d'Abrera’s observations is the implementation of radical gender ideology.
“It is smuggled into schools under programs called things like ’respectful relationships and consent education,' and all these very benign sounding programs, which are supposed to teach children how to be respectful and good adults,” she said.
“And it all sounds exactly what you'd want your child to be taught, but if you dig a little deeper, these programs have been completely hijacked by ideologues who use the programs to smuggle in radical gender theory and queer theory.
“So you now have very small children being told that their gender is fluid, that there’s no such thing as little boy or a little girl and that they’re being taught to doubt their own biological reality, and this is happening in schools in Australia.”
d'Abrera says the end result is children who are set up to be anxious, confused and ignorant, while basic knowledge, literacy and numeracy results fall behind.
Australia’s Cross-Curriculum Priorities
The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) embeds three “cross-curriculum“ priorities across all forms of study, these are: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia, and Sustainability.They are not separate areas of study, but are incorporated into all subjects including mathematics.
On teaching sustainability, educators are guided by the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, while Aboriginal studies looks at how Indigenous cultures have continued despite the “historic and enduring impacts of colonisation.”
In response, a spokesperson ACARA said the Australian curriculum was developed with children’s best interests in mind.
“The Australian Curriculum, agreed to by all education ministers in April 2022, supports young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens,” they told The Epoch Times.
“Developed based on evidence and research, it describes the essential knowledge, understanding and skills we want all young people to have.
“The mandatory content in the curriculum are the learning area disciplines, which are the foundation of the Australian Curriculum. They identify the essential content that teachers should teach and what we want students to learn.”
The spokesperson said the cross-curriculum priorities are only applied in learning areas where it is “meaningful and appropriate to do so.”
