Inquiry into Civics Education, Engagement and Participation in Australia

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters adopted an inquiry into civics education, engagement, and participation in Australia on 27 March 2024, following a referral from the Special Minister of State, Senator the Hon Don Farrell. https://www.aph.gov.au/CivicsEducation

The Rule of Law Education Centre made a Submission and was asked to speak at the Public Hearing. The transcript can be found here.

Introduction by the Rule of Law Education Centre

In our Introduction we said.

This Review is an exciting opportunity to take Australia on a positive path. To learn from the many approaches that have been tried in previous Government initiatives and to hear from organisations like ours.

The Rule of Law Education Centre (RoLEC) is a not for profit, non-partisan organisation representing over 2,600 members with a mailing list of almost 5000 Australians, of which more than 70% are teachers. We are unique as we represent teachers of all disciplines around Australia, and we are outside of politics. We champion the legacy of the Magna Carta, the rule of law and democracy in schools.

We want citizens and those in power, to trust and be willing to follow the law. And also, where necessary, to hold those in power to account when they do not act according to the law. As the United Nations of office on drugs and crimes said ”it is an environment where the population abide by the law because it believes that it provides a fair and just response to the needs of individuals and society as a whole.”

Our approach to Civics and citizenship education is a continuum, starting with explicit teaching on the value of government and laws and history, then we have an exploration of ideas and then we offer situational learning.

Last year our website had over 2 million views and we provided resources and commentary on contemporary issues from a rule of law perspective for Australian teachers and students in both primary and high school.

Our most popular resources encourage students to understand different perspectives on current issues. In response to member requests, we created a handout that outlined the legal implications of both sides of the Voice to Parliament which was downloaded over 55,000 times, and at Vic and Qld teacher conferences every printed copy we had was taken before morning tea.

Other resources look at the Magna Carta, key Australian legal historic events or even recent criminal cases or legislation and encourage students to respectfully debate the rule of law and democratic perspectives such as equality, fairness and justice.

We run situated learning experiences to the NSW Courts. Since Covid, we will have taken 8,600 legal studies students to the Downing Centre Courts. In our experience, students and teachers are unfamiliar in a court environment and come with little understanding of the judiciary, courts and the law. 95% students who attend our LDO say that the excursion has given them a greater understanding that the courts can be trusted to deliver just outcomes.

We believe that education of Australians is critical to develop trust and maintain the rule of law and democracy. Our concern is that when we look our National and State Curriculums, these education programs look more like a lesson for an authoritarian regime than a democratic society. A democracy is “a society in which the citizens are sovereign and control the government.”

Democracy and the rule of law are intertwined in Australia where the ROL is the “concept that both the government and citizens know the law and obey it.” At the core of both these concepts is equality of all and the need to ensure those in power are accountable to the people.

We want students to confidently participate in the democratic process because they value their role in democracy and rule of law. This is more than turning up to vote and being good obedient citizens. It is about support and commitment to our core democratic principles such as equality, freedom of speech, respectful debate and grappling with social policy decisions.

The current approach by the Government to develop informed and active citizens is not working. This has been clearly stated in many submissions and government reports.

As outlined in our submission, we recommend that formalised civics education reflect our commitment to parliamentary democracy. Firstly, we need to prioritise Civics and Citizenship content in the Curriculum and ensure this commitment is reflected in the agreed minimum content. Secondly and most importantly we need to empower our teachers to be confident in teaching civics and citizenship and to model our Australian democratic beliefs in the classroom.

Key Recommendations

1. Teacher Training

The key indicator of successful Civics and Citizenship Education programs is not the quality of materials or a new online website but teacher confidence and knowledge of the subject matter. As highlighted in many submissions to the Inquiry, teacher education must be a priority.

We would recommend that all teachers are required to complete dedicated units in CCE as part of their teacher training program.This will equip all teachers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to teach and model democratic principles.

Consistency of teacher training will improve consistency of civics education across Australia.

2. Civics and Citizenship Education in the Curriculum needs to be a Priority and assessed against agreed minimum content

Although each of our State Curriculums state in their aims, that informed and active citizens is a priority, the actual content and outcomes do not reflect this priority.

We recommend that the State curriculum be reviewed against a nationally agreed benchmark to ensure sufficient content in included. For example, in 2012, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) on behalf of all the States and Territories released the Statement of Learning for Civics and Citizenship that outlined the aspects of CCE that are considered essential and common.  

Each State and Territory Curriculum should be objectively assessed against this minimum agreed content, or another more recent best practice benchmark, to ensure minimum content is included.

All Curriculums state that CCE is a priority but this review would, even for those States such as NSW, where CCE is embedded within History (or HSIE), give an indicator of the scope and reality of CCE and inconsistency between the states and territories.