Curriculum integration in the twenty-first century: some reflections in the light of the Australian curriculum

Abstract

This paper takes up Grumet and Yates’ challenge to understand curriculum as “a projection towards a future as well as a drawing from the past” (2011, p. 245), exploring some of the enabling and constraining factors for curriculum integration in twenty-first century Australia. It takes a historical perspective, using this context to explore contemporary enabling and constraining factors for curriculum integration in Australian schools. It argues that while curriculum integration might provide a possible pathway to realising contemporary goals for Australian education, to a large extent this will rely on opportunities for the teaching profession to develop a robust sense of identity around ‘curriculum work’, reclaiming this space over that of ‘curriculum deliverer’. It argues that this in itself will require a resistance to some of the dominant ideas about curriculum, pedagogy and teachers’ work embedded in contemporary education policy and suggests some of the forms that this resistance might take.