Abstract
In the past decade Australia and New Zealand have actively engaged in the process of mapping their national curriculum documents against international comparisons. In Australia, the federal system of distributed responsibility for schooling and curriculum administration is regulated by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in collaboration with all states and territory Ministers of Education. In New Zealand the Ministry of Education sets and regulates National Standards. Both nations embrace sets of standards for years 1–10. For geography education this means implementing modules, which are designed to enhance geographical knowledge and understanding, geographical inquiry and skills. Emphasis is placed on place and space, the environment and sustainability, building curiosity about the world and its peoples, as well as imagining futures. Both nations have traditions of embedding geography within a multi-disciplinary social sciences framework. Whilst secondary education offers geography as a separate discipline across all jurisdictions, the social sciences retain dominance in primary education. However, underpinning the similarities are historical narratives that help to explain the differences between the nations. Progress in geographical education has both time and space dimensions.
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Notes
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Authored by teachers Barlow and Newton and first published in 1971 by McGraw Hill Company (Sydney), there were two books—one on physical geography and one on economic geography. Both publications are a pre-cultural turn in geography with ample evidence of systems theories that dominated global geography at the time, especially the influence of Peter Haggett’s (1972) Geography: A modern synthesis published by Harper & Row Publishers (New York).
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The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible for the National Curriculum, including geography for schools from preparatory entry to year 12 or secondary school exit. This body was set up in response to what is known as the Hobart declaration or agreement of all states and territories ministers of education, including New Zealand as a member of its council. The body is now known as The Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA). See http://www.acara.edu.au/home_page.html.
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See Australian Geography Teachers’ Association at http://www.agta.asn.au/ and the New Zealand Geography Teachers’ Association in conjunction with the New Zealand Geographical Society at http://www.nzgs.co.nz/welcome-to-the-nzbogt.
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This section draws upon Morgan (2014).
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Torres Strait Islanders are Indigenous Australians who are from the islands of the Torres Strait, between the northernmost tip of Cape York in Queensland and the southern shores of Papua New Guinea. Torres Strait Islanders are of Melanesian origin and many live on mainland Australia. They are often described as a minority people within the Indigenous communities.
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‘A curriculum as it develops should revisit these basic ideas repeatedly, building upon them until the student has grasped the full formal apparatus that goes with them’ (Bruner 1960, p. 13).
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As the Australian Curriculum is an online publication, when changes are made, this is noted by a new version number.
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Robertson, M., Morgan, J., Kriewaldt, J. (2017). Australia and New Zealand. In: Muñiz Solari, O., Solem, M., Boehm, R. (eds) Learning Progressions in Geography Education. International Perspectives on Geographical Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44717-9_1
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