The Australian Curriculum gambit: playing knowledge games with education policy

The Australian Curriculum, and therefore the Australian education system, continues to be a site of contestation and review. The Australian Curriculum has become dominated by third parties playing knowledge games with the document to win elections. This paper draws on ongoing research into political knowledge games in educational policy making in the ongoing debates about History and Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE) in the Australian Curriculum. The actions are undertaken by various politicians via an analysis of social media activity. The findings indicate that the development of curriculum, which is something that should be undertaken via a democratic process that privileges community engagement and majority influence, is at risk of being subverted by these actors through ideology-borrowing, laundering and acquisition. The paper will conclude with a discussion of what teachers and traditional advocacy groups should be concerned with in an age where curriculum is determined by social media.