Neoliberal influences on the implementation of intercultural curriculum initiatives: teacher interactions with the Australian Curriculum

Article


Desmarchelier, Renee. 2022. "Neoliberal influences on the implementation of intercultural curriculum initiatives: teacher interactions with the Australian Curriculum ." Intercultural Education. 33 (5), pp. 485-508. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2022.2070129
Article Title

Neoliberal influences on the implementation of intercultural curriculum initiatives: teacher interactions with the Australian Curriculum

ERA Journal ID10999
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorDesmarchelier, Renee
Journal TitleIntercultural Education
Journal Citation33 (5), pp. 485-508
Number of Pages24
Year2022
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN1467-5986
1469-8439
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2022.2070129
Web Address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14675986.2022.2070129
Abstract

Curriculum initiatives with intercultural educative aims are not uncommon in many schools around the world. This paper argues that these initiatives and their classroom implementation by teachers is strongly impacted on, and influenced by, the prevailing neoliberal context of schooling. The findings of a project working with teachers on implementing the Intercultural Understanding General Capability and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures Cross Curriculum Priority of the Australian Curriculum are used to demonstrate the specific ways in which neoliberalism shaped and defined teachers’ work. The neoliberal elements of consumption, individual responsibility, individuals being set adrift from values, surveillance and the illusion of autonomy are used to highlight teachers’ approaches to understanding and implementing the curriculum elements in their science classrooms. Teachers in the study saw the potential for enacting social justice in terms of intercultural education in their classrooms but were often hampered in their efforts by prevailing neoliberal discourses influencing their own assumptions and actions, as well as those of the schools they worked in. It is only through interrogation of how neoliberalism impacts on intercultural educative aims that openings for counter-hegemonic activities can be identified.

Keywordscurriculum; neoliberalism; Australian Curriculum; Indigenous Knowledges; intercultural education, Participatory Action Research
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020470212. Multicultural, intercultural and cross-cultural studies
Public Notes

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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Education
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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