The nineteen eightees: Prelude to curricular reform

Abstract

In the late 1980s and early 1990s utilitarian/ functional/ instrumentalist purposes reshaped the curriculum of Australian schools, leaving only remnants of earlier curricular traditions maintaining tenuous footholds. The principles of economic rationalism (classical liberal economic theory) favoured a reduction in state intervention, the lowering of tariffs, and freer access to the Australia economy for overseas financial and industrial institutions. An age of globalisation had arrived. A major reconstruction of the administration of education, both system-wide and in individual schools, started. Departments of Education were reduced in size and powers; in some cases they were abolished. Ministries of Education took over some or all of their functions. Broad educational policy, including curriculum policy, was shaped by 'outside' consultants or the unofficial advisers of politicians.