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National Curriculum, Postsecularism and Pedagogy: Opportunities for

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 JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION  Vol 55, No.2, September 2012/2013

NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY:

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

PAUL ROONEY
Lecturer Secondary Methods,University of Western Sydney

This article investigates the opportunities provided to Christian educators within national curriculum development, its
implementation, and pedagogical practices within a postsecular age. By highlighting opportunities created by boundary
crossing and worldview transitioning during change, it considers the proactive prospects afforded Christian educators in highly
secularised nations to influence knowledge claims and develop education policy. Opportunities arise from changing church-
state relations, the secular-religious influences in education policy, and biblically informed knowledge construction as it affects
the rules of engagement and pedagogical practices with a nation’s curriculum. Next, challenges to currently held views of
curriculum and pedagogy occur within the debates and issues arising within Australian education policy. The issues involve the
human endeavour, historical developments, essential content and the relationship between essentialism and pedagogy. Finally,
it offers a way forward through revisiting and reconceptualising Christian education for the twenty-first century.

Key Words: curriculum, postsecularism, pedagogy, culture, essentialism, Christian,

education.

INTRODUCTION Consequently, reducing the level of distinctiveness

With the emergence of heightened secularism in
‘The West’, the twentieth century developed a
political order based on a distinct boundary
between the state and its institutions and religion.
Although secularisation has received some
criticism during this period, it remained an
unproblematic precondition for democracy and
guaranteed justice (After secular law, 2011).
However the reality of equality, particularly
within education, has not been forthcoming
causing the precondition of secularisation to
become problematic. The problems of
secularism include its inability to achieve the
solutions to all of society’s ills (J. Habermas, 2008).
between secular and faith-based positions
highlights the emerging complementarity between
church and state in relation to public order,
particularly the role of educational institutions.
The problematisation of secularisation offers a
window of opportunities for Christian
educators in reorientating the relationship
between biblical principles, globalised
knowledge reconstruction, and curriculum
implementation. Such opportunities offer the
prospect for reconceptualising theoretical
frameworks and pedagogical practices to
strategically position educating a person

© 2012/2013 The Australian Christian Education Forum 29

PAUL ROONEY
Christianly within a nation’s broader education
policy; thereby ensuring the credibility of
locating personal faith, the church, and faith-
based schools as twenty-first century teaching
and learning institutions.
The purpose of this paper is to identify six
opportunities that are currently available to
Christian researchers and educators through
reconceptualising knowledge constructs used in
educational institutions, and in doing so, achieve
three objectives. First, is to outline the blurring
of traditional cultural and political boundaries
that influence church-state relations involving
worldview transitions, knowledge construction
and education policy. Second, is to sketch the
dynamic relationship between curriculum and
biblically informed knowledge. The third
objective is to investigate the rules of
engagement and their application in developing
biblically informed pedagogical approaches to
a secular curriculum. The investigation considers
the Australia Curriculum Science (ACS) content
strand – Human Endeavour. The objectives
highlight the opportunities, and their associated
challenges, currently afforded to teacher training
and teacher professional development through
identified pedagogical practices.
Blurred boundaries and church-state
relations
In the context of this discussion, blurred
boundaries occur at decisive moments when
traditional boundaries lose their transparency;
thus bringing into question theories that assume
secular centrality within liberal secular states. The
more questioning of secular centrality, the more
ambiguous, permeable and blurred boundaries
become. For example, Habermas’ (2008)
postsecularism increased the blurring of
boundaries when he posed that secular and
religious ideas coexist in order to solve social
30
problems. Further, blurred boundaries represent
the moment where current theories become
discarded leaving a vacuum in cultural
knowledge construction (Wallace, 2003). It is
the current vacuum in cultural knowledge that
generates the first opportunity for Christian
educators to bring to the foreground of
academic debate reconceptualised theories to
maintain relevance (continuity) or develop new
theories to create relevance (producing new
knowledge) within twenty-first century Australia.
Therefore, the challenge is for Christian
educators to be actively involved in public
education policy within their nation state. The
question is how does this occur within the
Australian context?
Australia’s de-secularisation
The second opportunity exists as Australia moves
further towards postsecular society through de-
secularisation. De-secularisation is a period
where both secular and religious influences are
in flux. Minkinberg (2012) describes Australia
as a parliamentary democracy that moderately
separates church and state, and reflects
deregulation of the church from public policy
as part of its nation building. Like other
democracies, Australian values are found within
modern empirical theories of liberal secularist
democracy that stem from secularising Christian
values such as participation, tolerance and
freedom (Minkenberg, 2012).
Although, European colonisation occurred with
a strong church-state relationship, Australia
moved throughout the nineteenth century
towards denominational pluralism reflecting the
American model of separation between church
and state (Minkenburg, 2012). Religious
pluralism became the feature of twentieth
century with secularism no longer acting as the
‘guarantee for state neutrality and a balance
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
between religious forces, but as a political
program equivalent to a secularist state religion’
(p. 94). Economic and cultural globalisation
accelerated the loss of state neutrality, and
weakened Australia’s national identity and the
power of state institutions by creating an
ideological vacuum. The ideological vacuum
provides the opportunity for Christians to
become part of the twenty first century cultural
identity core (Minkenberg, 2012). Therefore, de-
secularisation provides Christian educators with
an avenue to espouse the origin of national
values, promote the complementarity between
the values of the state and Christianity, and
uphold these values within the contest of
contemporary educational policy development.
National curricula, as with all government
documents, are not neutral but represent the
ideology of the paradigm currently in vogue.
Australia’s national curriculum stems from a
secularist base that underpins the political
decision-making concerning the wider goals for
society. Further, major critics of the curriculum
point to the lack of philosophical underpinning
required to build Australia’s national identity and
reinforce the power of state institutions; thus
leaving the nation with an ideological vacuum.
Postsecularism in education
Australia’s national curriculum, as with all
government documents, is not neutral but
represents the ideology of the current paradigm:
a secular base within a postsecular era. The
changing dominance of secular influences
underpins the political decision-making
concerning the wider goals for society. Further,
within the context of diminishing secular
centrality, there is a shift towards the
acknowledging of multiple worldviews due to
the absence of an articulated philosophical
underpinning that reinforces Australia’s national
identity and the power of state institutions. The
absence leaves Australia in an ideological
vacuum using only economics to justify its
policy construction. Thus, the development of
policy has become narrow in articulating
national identity and, the wider goals of society,
particularly education.
Raven (1991) and Battistich, Watson, Solomon,
Lewis & Schaps (1999) identify the wider goals
of education as ensuring that all students know
how the society works, how to actively engage
with the society, and where necessary, how to
change the society for the better. Knowing how
society works allows the Christian to understand
the pattern of the secular world. By
understanding the pattern of the world then
making wise choices concerning conforming
to the world can occur (Romans 12:2).
To actively engage the workings of society,
students require exposure to, and development
of, first-hand experiences of living in the world
and learning not to be of it (John 15:19). It
requires the development of well-informed
faith-based reasoning processes that contain a
strong understanding of the fallacy of logic in
relation to faith, clarity in the level of uncertainty
of common sense knowledge (Arendt, 2008)
as well as developing persuasive arguments
against the temptations placed before them
(Matthew 26:40-42). By undertaking these
processes, the individual can view theology as
providing praxis (common sense actions) in
dealing with social problems, and with poiesis
(creativity) providing new insight to the believer
and unbeliever. Further, such approaches dealing
with social pathologies may offer opportunities
that lead to social transformations.
Within secular reasoning, achieving the wholistic
development of citizens is to achieve economic
31
PAUL ROONEY
advancement and social transformation through
national identity and nation building. For the
Christian, wholistic development incorporates the
transforming of the mind (Romans 12:2);
engaging in actions with all your heart as working
for the Lord (Colossians 3:23), and being used
by God as a vessel for His Spirit to transform
the world. Applying the principle of Romans
12:2 to Christian education provides educators
with opportunities for reconceptualising the
Christian’s role within the wider goals of
education and whole person development.
The Language of Christian Values
Traditional Christian approaches, such as
parallelism, are ineffective against the
secularisation of Christian values and threshold
concepts when boundaries are blurred.
Parallelism relates to a dualism that involves the
preconceived position that biblical and secular
approaches to the education process have no
points of intersection. The approach induces
knowledge fragmentation and creates divisions
that cause confusion in understanding the
meaning of being human (Ceia, 2013). For
instance, when separating the physical and
mental, parallelism assists in explaining religious
transmission by means of ritual language and
to identify, through reflection, the identity of
the person articulating it (Naumescu, 2011).
However, Minkenberg (2012) identifies the use
of ritual language to describe Christian values
as becoming secularised. The problem of
secularised Christian values for current and
future generations reduces the understanding of
the importance of biblical principles in shaping
national values and national identity. For
example, the concept of a ‘calling’ implies ‘a
higher meaning for direction and purpose within
a person’s life that determines success and can
be either God or self-driven’ (Rooney, 2009).
32
Success therefore has a spiritual dimension
within the driven nature of a person to succeed
where the individual is ‘called’ through divine
inspiration towards morally responsible work.
(Hall & Chandler, 2005). Thus, traditional
language boundaries used to distinguish religious
and secular transmissions in the past are blurred
and current forms of reconceptualisation refer
to contemporary secular origins rather than the
biblical origins.
Christian education an add-on to
secular education
Traditionally curriculum construction within
secular pluralist societies entailed the
construction of Christian education programs
as add-ons to the mainstream secular
curriculum documents taught in schools
requiring little, if any, integration. Australia is
not different in this respect. Common patterns
of add-on Christian education exist within
government schools and a significant
proportion of faith-based schools. Such an
approach reflects church-state relations and
underpins the construction of distinctive special
religious education (SRE) curriculums. Further,
it reflects the traditional view of Habermas’
private lifeworld where the components
(including religion) remain distinctly separate
from a person’s public lifeworld (society).
Most learning communities view add-on
curriculums such as school-based curriculums
as having knowledge and understandings that
have a localised community context; a reflection
of the private rather than the public. This is
beginning to change as states begin to reassess
the relationship between secular and faith-based
education. Thus, the fifth opportunity involves
Christian curriculum planners to reconceptualise
the curriculum to incorporate worldviews and
whole person development.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Curriculum construction inhibits
whole person development
Parallelism is a major source of confusion when
considering whole person development. Whole
person development emphasises a correlation
between the various dimensions of being
human, the dimensions include the physical,
intellectual, sociocultural and spiritual. Further,
whole person development contends the
existence of a causal connection between the
dimensions. Habermas’ (2008) position of
coexistence allows for the convergence of ideas
concerning curriculum design and construction.
Indeed, it strengthens the Christian worldview
as offering opportunities for the integration and
complementarity of knowledge.
The problem is that teachers and learners do not
separate themselves easily but encompass both
private and public lifeworlds simultaneously.
Therefore, the traditional view of the divided
individual/organisation/system in society has
diminished within the current change. Instead,
postsecularism has encouraged the growth of
the integrated person /organisation/system
through the articulation of worldviews.
Examples of such articulation include the role
of human endeavour in the Australian
Curriculum: Science (ACS); the integrated
organisation reflecting organisational dynamism
(Pace, 2002; Senge, 2006); and the importance
of systems integration in achieving school
effectiveness through transformative learning
(Jackson, 2008).
Thus far, the position presented acknowledges
postmodernism as involving the de-secularisation
of highly secularised states, and the emergence
of postsecularism connecting the coexistence of
secular and faith-based to the mutual benefit of
society. The three opportunities identified for
Christian educators are:
(1) bringing to general academic debate relevant
reconceptualised theories supporting
cultural continuity and new cultural
knowledge creation;
(2) using the current period of flux to articulate
the biblically underpinned reconceptualisations
as solutions to fill the ideological vacuum;
and
(3) innovating and creating new representations
of language that highlight their biblical
origins, complement twenty first society as
a whole, and are distinctively Christian in
meaning.
The next section discusses the opportunities in light
of the commencement of the implementation
of the Australian curriculum and its application
within faith-based schools.
THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM
The development of the Australian Curriculum
(AC) stems from the work of many policy
decision-makers for more than two decades.
Constitutionally, education policy has been the
province of individual States. Consequently, the
imperative of traditional curriculum design has
been for the benefit of State economic and
social development. However, since 1988,
successive national and state governments have
been working towards unifying education
policy. The declarations from Hobart, Adelaide
and Melbourne (MCEEDYA, 1989;
MCEETYA, 1999, 2008) reflect the
developmental process of the national
curriculum. Thus, blurred boundaries and
economic policy have placed education as one
of the key arms to Australian nation building
and achieving national convergence.
Australia’s Curriculum (AC) development
incorporates the neoliberal orientation toward
national and global convergence. Nationally, it
draws individual state curriculums under one
33
PAUL ROONEY
umbrella. Internationally, it sought advice for
knowledge construction and curriculum design
from other nations. For example, the educational
thought and practice of Finland, Ontario and
Singapore have influenced the AC: Science
(National Curriculum Board, 2008). Other
convergence examples of globalised blurred
educational boundaries include Ontario, Canada’s
national testing platform originating from
England and Australia (Jaakko & Vargj, 2008)
and Singapore’s gifted and talented program
originating from Israel (Kenway, 2011). The result
is similar educational outcomes between nation-
states allowing comparison and competition
based on performance (Elliot, 2001).
CURRICULUM AND BIBLICALLY-
INFORMED KNOWLEDGE
In broad terms, a curriculum sets out the
framework for teaching (pedagogy) and
learning so students can acquire knowledge
(Young, 2009). Further, it may contain
embedded knowledge expressing national
identity, assisting future-focussed nation
building, and supporting cultural continuity.
Embedded knowledge encourages the
development of a content-based curriculum
instructing teachers on what knowledge students
need to know and learn (National Curriculum
Board, 2008). The teacher then becomes a
pedagogical expert who determines the type
of approaches and practices so that students
acquire such knowledge (Marzano, 2007).
The curriculum may also contain embedded
practices involving skills acquisition that express
individual and national identity within a global
performance culture. The requirement for
embedded practices encourages the
development of a process-based curriculum
that instructs teachers on how to teach and how
students should learn. The teacher then
34
becomes the knowledge expert by determining
what content to teach in order to apply the
prescribed pedagogy.
Anchoring biblical knowledge
Regardless of the curriculum design, Christian
teachers must have a good understanding of
multiple knowledge constructs and pedagogical
practices in order to be effective within the
classroom. For example, in secondary and higher
education the teacher is viewed as an expert in
the subject matter of their discipline(s) and of
their faith. Whilst in early childhood and middle
school, teachers consider subject matter from a
range of disciplines, including their faith, and are
seen as experts in pedagogical practice. Christian
teachers require biblically-informed knowledge
to navigate the current period of change. Such
knowledge is essential in order to apply biblically-
informed principles within their pedagogical
practices. Thus biblical knowledge acting as
anchors within a changing paradigm becomes
essential for future-focussed Christian education.
Biblical knowledge anchors are one criterion
for the integration of faith and learning within
curriculum design (Rooney, 2009). It reflects a
God driven motivation to understand what it
means to be human under Christ’s authority. In
addition, biblically-informed principles aligned
to education policy define, in a Christian way,
the role and actions of the individual as well as
the individual in community. Alignment reflects
the complementarity of knowledge and
practice within Christian culture and therefore
Christian living within a secular culture.
However, the extent to which alignment can
be achieved in this present paradigm is the issue.
The Christian educator’s challenge is to use the
convergence/divergence framework to
determine the extent of alignment between
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
knowledge and practice within a changing culture.
Once the extent has been identified, educators
need to ascertain the degree of complementary/
distinctiveness possible between Christian living
and postsecular culture. This resolves the concern
raised by Litfin (2004) who acknowledges the
answer lies in the proportion that faith and
learning can be integrated.
Postsecular knowledge construction
Postsecular knowledge reconstruction arises
from the notion that religious and secular ideas
can coexist in order to solve some of society’s
ills; particularly those remaining unsolved by
secular ideas (J. Habermas, 2008). Such a
notion contrasts with current ideology and
practice in well-established western democracies,
driven by secular politics that involve
privatising religion and giving little worth to
applying biblical understanding within public
discourse (Hartley, 2009). Nonetheless,
postsecularism may be blurring the boundaries
sufficiently for Christian educators to approach
current education policy in a more meaningful
way through reconceptualisation.
Blurred boundaries make unclear the divide
between the private and public spheres of social
interaction within our lifeworld. Habermas
(2008) identified a person’s lifeworld as
containing their culture, society and the
psychological person. Outhwaite (1994) noted
that since the 1960s, Habermas held the position
that religion should be relegated to the private
sphere giving religious ideas little place in public
policy. However, this century Habermas’ view
has been reoriented towards postsecularism
allowing the opportunity for rational religious
ideas to enter public policy debate (J. Habermas,
2008). Further, Habermas adds to Audi and
Wolterstorff ’s (1997) theologically oriented
position that religious considerations are not only
appropriate but essential to maintain the vitality
of pluralist democracies. If widely endorsed,
Christians would have slightly more freedom
to live in the world and still not be of it.
Such a move creates challenges and tensions for
Christians who reconsider the pattern of
separation/ integration in their personal and
public lifeworlds concerning their faith in action.
Cooling (2007) recognises the tension arising
from clashes between the passionate religious
commitment and passionate atheistic
commitment to public truths. He identifies
public truths as secured such as ‘Jesus lived’ (p.
29) or controversial such as ‘Jesus is the Son of
God’ (p. 29). Thus advising Christians in the
public sphere to (1) listen carefully to a person’s
understanding of public truths, (2) acknowledge
ethical constraints in acknowledging public
truths and (3) articulate the place of public truths
in culturally diverse settings. Such advice applies
to Christian educators in relation to the
development of education policy, curriculum
construction and biblically infor med
pedagogical practices.
Within liberal secular states, knowledge and
public truth claims for Christian educators are
laden with meaning. The challenge lies in
incorporating biblically-informed meanings
within educational discourse that provide
research opportunities to identify those authentic
public truths that have the greatest potential to
influence contemporary educational discourse.
Secular–Religious continuum
All nations sit at some point along the secular-
religious continuum. For example, Australia’s
position stands as representing multi-ideological
and as a highly secularised liberal state with faith
and church decidedly minimalised in public
education policy discourse concerning
35
PAUL ROONEY
curriculum development. Phillips (1996)
identifies Australian religious life as participating
‘in the reproduction of traditional conceptions
of national identity’ (p. 117). Traditional
conceptions, as viewed by Scott and
Broughton, in relation to education, represented
an integrated faith and learning worldview
supporting national identity formation (Border,
1967). With the rise of secularism, the public
place of the church has diminished even though
the three arms of the church: educational,
cultural and service remain as pathways for
community service, responsibility and care along
with community ideals (Holden, 2002).
Currently, postsecularism offers opportunities
for the strengthening of these arms.
In contrast, Finland’s evolving liberal secular
state, with diminishing church-state relations,
proposes a weakening of the arms of the
church. The church should expect diminished
roles within postsecularism whilst the state
becomes more prominent. Nationally, Finland
recognises Christian values through the Finnish
Freedom of Religion Act (1998) and their
reformed Constitution (2000) reflecting the
current favourable position of religious thinking
in public education policy. Yet, Jankko’s (2009)
analysis highlights knowledge construction as a
contentious issue since instruction as essential
knowledge within the national curriculum
between 1994 and 2004 becomes ‘non-
confessional and politically neutral’ (Jankko,
2009, p. 38). Essential knowledge as a contentious
issue occurs across the continuum in various
forms. One persuasive argument advanced by
Christians is that all curricula have either an
explicit or an implicit form of confessional claim
with political neutrality impossibility as all
political decision-making is agenda driven. This
position is argued in detail by others (Audi &
Wolterstorff, 1997; Trigg, 2011).
36
The investigation thus far, suggests any
convergence/divergence movement along the
secular-religious continuum is characterised by
debates and issues that should prompt Christians
to work through their understanding of the
relationship between Christ and culture within
societal change along the lines suggested by
Carson (2008). Christian educators in highly
secularised states have the scope to take a more
proactive approach by opening up
opportunities to make contributory claims in
education policy. In comparison, more highly
religious nations need to acquire skills in
strengthening defensive claims to maintain their
influence in education policy.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
AND PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE
The purpose of this section is to consider the
rules of engagement and their relation to
biblically-informed pedagogy and what the
Australian Curriculum (AC) understands by
‘human endeavour’. Next, it discusses the AC’s
guiding principles of historical development
and essential content and the emerging issue of
essentialism in pedagogy. Finally, it suggests
three possible ways forward in dealing with
coexistence in a proactive manner rather than
from a defence position.
Rules of engagement
Within the debates and issues posed during
change, Australia’s emerging international
framework and national curriculum pose the
challenge of rethinking the rules of
engagement and pedagogical practices
undertaken by Christian educators. Darby
(2010) identifies the routines within an
academic discipline as the rules of engagement.
Rules establish ‘what counts as knowledge and.
. .how such knowledge becomes known’ (p.
1). Understanding the underlying epistemology
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
allows the rules of engagement to confront
the truth claims within the academic discipline
as to what counts as knowledge.
Truth claims have been in contention between
secular and religious thinking for millennia. In
order to debate the issues within a postsecular
climate, Christians must take up the omniscience
of God as an axiom (see Luna’s (2012) response
to Grimm’s denial of this axiom). Establishing
the source of knowledge, then, the Christian
educator introduces biblically informed
knowledge anchors within curriculum
development and pedagogical practices.
Through the source, truth claims are developed
in order to complement or distinguish
secularism and Christianity in determining what
counts as knowledge.
Within postsecularism, the ability to propose
coexisting Christian truth claims within the public
sphere increases. Based on this position, I argue
the issue lies in the answer to the following:
• How such knowledge becomes known
within national curricula that is content-
based rather than process based?
• To what extent particular pedagogical
practices underpin the disciplines taught?
• What messages lie within the pedagogical
practices prevalent within Christian
schools?
• What occurs in Christian schools with
multiple curricula such as the International
Baccalaureate or Regio Emilia along with
the AC?
• How much multiple messaging exists
within the AC?
These questions become part of the
international debate concerning biblical
pedagogical practices within liberal secular states.
It is possible to suggest that the more a nation
is multi-ideological in nature the more likely
those national curricula are transmitters of
multiple messages.
Knauth (2008) identifies the importance of
rethinking Protestant biblically-informed
pedagogy as central to the debate in Germany
and Walford (2002) identifies the importance
of religious faith as an integral part of ‘the
whole of life’ (p. 404) curriculum construction
in England and the Netherlands. This issue
of integrating faith and learning within
pedagogical practice is foundational to the
rules of engagement achieved through
pedagogical practice.
Rethinking biblically-informed
pedagogy
The rules of engagement order the behaviour
of the curriculum, teachers and students (Darby,
2010) and contain three dimensions: (1) A
surface structural dimension incorporating the
concrete operational acts of teaching and
learning; (2) A deep structural dimension
comprising a set of assumptions about how
best to impart knowledge and know how; (3)
A hidden structural dimension integrating morals
using a set of beliefs, professional attitudes,
values and dispositions (Shulman, 2005).
Darby (2010) derives the rules of engagement
from Shulman’s signature pedagogies in relation
to teacher education. Shulman (2005) defines
signature pedagogies as those teaching and
learning practices within a set context that
become routine in the transmission of
knowledge, skills and practices and framed
within the concept of pedagogical content
knowledge. For example, he identifies the unique
practical experience component within pre-
ser vice teacher training as a signature
37
PAUL ROONEY
pedagogical practice and distinct from those
practices within medical or legal internships and
in training clergy.
I assert that most traditional teacher practitioners
focus on the surface structure; doing what is
necessary within the classroom and call this
pedagogical practice ‘doing teaching’. It is the
mechanistic, industrial production of education
producing adults with particular knowledge to
continue the preservation of society in its current
form. It expects teachers are ‘doing teaching’
and students to reciprocate by ‘doing learning’
in a mechanical fashion with the appropriate
actions and responses with the reverberation
of knowledge in the form given.
Within the AC, teachers are required to focus
further on deeper knowledge structures and by
doing so make explicit any assumptions about
pedagogical practices within a field of study. I
have called this pedagogical practice ‘being a
teacher’ as it involves an intrinsic passion driven
by a calling to want to make a difference. In
addition, it envisages the positive as teachers
equip and empower students to develop into
articulated adult citizens so that they identify
those aspects of our culture needing to change
and are prepared to be transformational in their
actions (Rooney, 2009).
More importantly, ‘being a teacher’
encompasses their passionate commitment to
Christ by recognising the importance of
distinguishing between secure and controversial
public truths (Cooling, 2007). The students
respond by ‘being a learner’ to such
transformative professional practice. Being a
learner requires empowering and equipping
students to be the members of a learning
community with the skills to distinguish between
secured and controversial skills in order to
38
successfully undertake global interactions that
are transformative.
However, ‘being a Christian teacher’ requires
more. It involves the deeper structures required
by the AC along with Shulman’s (2005) implicit
third dimension in order to integrate faith,
pedagogy and professional practice. Shulman
requires practitioners to evaluate current
pedagogical practices to determine (1) what
they impart and (2) what they do not impart.
Within the teaching profession the types of
questions include, but are not limited to what
is the teacher’s worldview position concerning
the pedagogical content? Do the signature
pedagogies of a particular subject area give
multi-worldview signals to the teacher? Do
signature pedagogies give multi-world signals
to students? How does a Christian teacher
apply biblical principles within such pedagogies
within the AC?
Smith (2001) offers three pedagogical
approaches to support Christian teachers to
attain the implicit third dimension. They are:
narrative patterns rather than discreet pieces
of information (p. 35); metaphor as the
intersection of biblical and educational
language (p. 36); canonical criticism, particularly
using biblical wisdom literature to support
Christian cultural continuity (p.39). These
require further investigation as to their value
in supporting deeper understanding in
postsecular curriculum development.
Rethinking the Australian Curriculum
The Shape of the Australian Curriculum v2.0
(ACARA, 2010) states the first intended
outcome of the AC requires a solid foundation
in values achieved through supporting ‘students
to relate well to others and foster an
understanding of Australian society, citizenship
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
and national values including through the study
of civics and citizenship’ (p16). The second
requires students to ‘understand the spiritual,
moral and aesthetic dimensions of life’ (p. 16)
as part of the process to achieve deep
understanding. Habermas refers to ‘political
integration via citizenship’ (1990, p. 8) as one
mechanism affecting social integration. This
exemplifies Groome’s (1998) theory into action
(praxis); a shared praxis within the national
cultural community that we are a part of
(Carson, 2008).
When teaching moral development and ethics
to senior school students, and supporting the
importance of values, Thomas Smith (2008)
notes that Christian educators can assist students
to articulate their faith position within the
framework of secure and controversial public
truths. His work sharpens one edge of a two-
edged sword by placing God’s Word as central
to understanding knowledge and its values. The
other edge intensifies current secular national
values that often marginalise the centrality of
Christ. The edges involve individual
development as a citizen and reflect the essence
of the human endeavour; one edge with Christ
the other without Christ. Teaching both edges
of the sword is the teacher’s challenge in dealing
with alternative views of the human endeavour
within the Australian Curriculum: Science.
Human endeavour
Within the AC: Science (ACARA, 2010), science
is viewed as a natural part of the human
endeavour - the fourth content strand. Science is
‘influencing society through the posing and
responding to social and ethical issues and science
research is influenced by societal challenges or
social priorities’ (p.6). In addition, the
interdependent union of science, mathematics
and technology informs ‘the scientific endeavour’
(p. 11). For these reasons, the shifting sands of
societal change allow science to maintain the
momentum of its position as a problem solver
within the postsecular reality that it cannot solve
all social ills.
The human endeavour content strand is a re-
conceptualization of science for students ‘in
making decisions about science and its
practices, moral, ethical and social implications
must be taken into account’ (p.6). This position
is no different to past debates and issues
concerning the knowledge content of science
and Christianity. Articulating the process of
science research as part of the human
endeavour poses the question to what extent
are teachers prepared to debate the ontological
issue of theological and scientific knowledge
construction within their pedagogical practice?
Reconceptualising science supports the claim
of this paper that national curriculum
development can open up opportunities to
participate in the debates and issues of the
public sphere. By considering both secular and
biblical ideas to solving social pathologies,
biblical knowledge anchors are one possible
key for unlocking deep knowledge and deep
understanding concerning secular and
biblically-infor med curriculum content.
Christian educators who understand the
complementarity/distinctiveness framework
can make more explicit the epistemic
controversies that currently persist. To do so,
Christian philosophers need to assist teachers
in gaining deeper understanding concerning
the framework; pre-service educators need to
become more aware of the impacts on
pedagogical practices; leaders need to give
higher priority for integration of faith and
learning. Thus, the human endeavour becomes
an understanding of what it means to be in
39
PAUL ROONEY
the world (knowledge complementarity) but
not being of the world (knowledge
distinctiveness) whilst offering one of the
greatest challenges in entering the debates and
issues of the twenty-first century.
Biblically, the Christian’s human endeavour is
to reflect Christ in all aspects of life. It entails
influencing the person through the Word and
Spirit of God in order to be in relationship
with God. By being in such a relationship, you
contribute to change society through Christian
service. The contributions made are the result
of a transformed mind (Romans 12:2; 2
Corintians 3:18) instigating transformed actions
(Philippians 2:13). However, transformations
occur within the worldview context of the
biblical writer and the contemporary reader.
Both reader and writer require an understanding
of biblical-informed pedagog y and its
associated biblical anchoring. Therefore,
Christian educators have the scope to explain
the alternate conceptions of what it means to
be human through transcendent and non-
transcendent worldview explanations.
Australian Curriculum: the guiding
principles
The Australian Curriculum contains seven
guiding principles for the administration of
curriculum development through the Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority (ACARA) established in 2008. They
are the historical developments shaping culture
and society; all students can learn and all matter;
standardized content directed teaching and
learning; feasibility in relation to time, resources,
accessibility and of language; essential content
and achievement standards; flexibility to
accommodate contextualized pedagogical
autonomy; strong research based evidence
reflecting best practice.
40
Each principle has implications for Christian
educators and schooling in general. For the
purposes of this paper, I am focussing on
historical developments and essential content as
examples of the importance of biblical
anchoring. However, the remaining guiding
principles become thematic through the
discussion, in particular contextual pedagogical
practices.
Historical developments
Within a culturally diverse Australia, the concept
of a national common history is not easy to
comprehend. Yet a substantial component of
Australian history intertwines with church history
in particular with the growth of church based
schooling across the states. Such development
has been a part of the mission of the Church
within a western culture based on Christian
principles and classical antiquity. However, the
importance of biblical truth and the Christian’s
commitment to truth should be emphasised.
The presentation of church history throughout
this development creates a strong
complementarity for study by Christian schools
offering the Christian perspective in analysing
historical events. It becomes the imperative of
Christian historians to verbalise whose history
is represented and from what perspective. From
this position, Christian educators can encourage
the discourse required to develop higher order
thinking skills requiring ‘the capacity to take
knowledge, skills, concepts, facts learned in one
context, and use that knowledge in a new
context, in a place where you haven’t been
forewarned to make use of that knowledge’
(Gardner, 2006, p. 134).
Using Gardner’s framework, Arthur, Gearon
and Sears (2010) identify the prominence of
faith’s deeply understood ancient principles and
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
how these work out in contemporary life. Their
focus is on arguing the role of Christianity in
developing democracy through citizenship
education. However, I contend the principle
applies to all forms of learning and teaching. It
develops a new range of essential biblical
knowledge for a contemporary time thus
increasing the weight for biblical anchoring and
preparing Christians to be aware of what it
means to be in the world but not of it.
Groome’s ‘Church is an agency of socialization
and a recipient of it from its historical context
in the world’ (Groome, 1998, p. 99). His
thinking stems from Huebner, Pinar, and Hillis
(1999) who view education as the futuring of
a person and therefore the futuring of a society.
This position sits neatly with the importance
of historical development to assist students ‘in
their future lives’ (National Cur riculum
Development Paper, 2008, p. 2). However, a
common history of development requires
understanding the contemporary re-emergence
of public Christianity.
Edlin (2009) considers the various roles of
Christian scholars in secular and Christian
institutions within postmodernism and blames
Christians for denying a place for our faith
within learning institutions. This supports the
call for Christian educators to revisit and
reconceptualise Christian truths for a
postmodern world. Further, Edlin calls for
Christian scholars to fear not and find the way
into into contemporary intellectual discourse,
articulate their faith assumptions, and allow the
academy to profit from a hope-based
Christian worldview. In support, Groome
(1998) urges Christians against taking the
private pathway … ‘as God calls them to
incarnate their relationship with God in a
communal way of life patterned on the life
of Jesus, whose historical commitments were
profoundly social’ (p. 12). Thus, fullness for
Christian educators involves living God’s values
in the public realm, influencing others and
effecting history and invigorate learning.
Essential content
Within the AC, essential content and
achievement standards connect to invigorate
improved learning in selected subjects (National
Curriculum Development Paper, 2008, p. 3). Within
Christian education, Thomas Smith (2008)
begins to tackle the importance of explicit
teaching of ethics and mature Christian thinking
drawing on Habermas’ (1990) incorporation
of Kohlberg’s moral development stages.
Deep knowledge leads to a deeper
understanding and allows Christian educators
to explicate values, morals and Christian
citizenship to be in the world (national/global
citizenship) but not of the world (Kingdom
of God citizenship). This becomes an essential
part of Christian education.
Essentialism is founded on the premise that
certain skills and ideas important of cultural
understanding require specific pedagogical
practices that have been tested over time
(Dorothy Smith, 2011). Although Sayer (1997)
criticises essentialism for encouraging proactive
non-relativist thinking; from an assets-based
approach, it identifies assets that have future
value and benefit cultural continuity. Cultural
assets are those objects, traditions and practices
assisting in the continued socio-historical
development of the community and add to
the shared human experience through
transmitting beliefs, attitudes and values that
create a cultural totality (Rooney, 2012).
Essential content within the AC represents
knowledge deemed to be of value for future
41
PAUL ROONEY
generations and is therefore a cultural asset as
determined by curriculum designers. It
complements the knowledge for Christian
survival within the Australian post-secular setting,
and reflects the success of basic education within
the Finnish curriculum. Each nation takes up
the position of essential content for the
common good whilst emphasising the
importance of differentiated learning. Thus,
essential content can have multiple meanings and
will be a stimulus for future debate within
educational circles. In particular, Christian
educators should concentrate on this aspect
from the perspective of opportunity.
Opportunities arise from the ability to analyse
essential content within the framework of
Christian human endeavour. To have the
complete picture requires a transcendent
thinking people considering the complex
through the Kingdom of God principles of
Scripture as applied in the contemporary
context. The deep understanding of essential
content opens up the opportunity for clashes
of worldviews within the classroom. Using
open questioning allows intellectual challenges
to the cognitive configurations of the world.
Such configurations are the essence of a
curriculum’s course knowledge.
Essentialism and pedagogy
Biblical anchoring allows the consideration of
a range of pedagogical approaches. From a
political perspective, Freire (1992, 1998, 2000)
constructs three types of pedagogy exhibiting
biblical anchoring. First, pedagogy of hope outlines
the concept of hope as an ontological need in
gaining biblical wisdom and maturity
(Colossians 1:9 NIV) as part of the Christian
human endeavour. Then, pedagogy of freedom
equips Christian teachers and students to
undertake their roles as active citizens through
42
service. Finally, problem-solving pedagogy allows the
empowerment of students to think critically
about their existence in the world and to view
it as a reality in progress.
Although Freire has gone to significant lengths
to separate himself from Marxism, some
Christians reject his pedagogical Marxist
orientation (Aronowitz, 1993). Alternately, non-
Christians reject his fundamentalist Christian
beliefs as his thoughts evolve towards a more
explicit faith-based passion for a just and
humane society (Cavalier, 2002) whilst still
receiving significant support for its inspiration
that education is a force for change. However,
Freire’s own development exemplifies the
transition towards a postsecular coexistence
where political education theorists may offer
some insights into pedagogies that support
service through community participation as a
component of Christian human endeavour.
Pleins’ (2001) use of Job as a pedagogical
example of dialogue in Questioning Prevailing
Wisdom is an example of combining hope with
human endeavour. The importance of
dialogue as a higher order literacy skill is
emphasised among Job and his friends from
Chapters 3-20. Dialogue leads to a deeper
understanding of faith in human involvements.
However, even more significant is the dialogue
with God. The essence of Pleins’ discussion is
to use dialoguing as a powerful tool for re-
evaluating accepted wisdom. Therefore, the
example of Job provides biblical anchoring
and higher order thinking through dialoguing
allowing the mind’s transformation in spiritual
and intellectual matters. At the same time, it
provides a mechanism to untangle the multiple
messages within a multi-ideological society to
ascertain the Christian principles by which all
things are tested and measured.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM, POSTSECULARISM AND PEDAGOGY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
The way forward
The challenge within this type of pedagogical
enlightenment lies with educators to instruct
teachers in identifying:
1. Biblical-informed signature pedagogies for the
21st century to develop the routines of
the Christian teacher in communicating
the truths of our faith. This is a significant
challenge within Australia as most
Christian teachers are educated within
secular institutions.
2. Signature pedagogies within the various
courses of study in the AC, then aligning
these where possible with biblically-
informed signature pedagogies. This
enables the teacher to see the extent of
convergence or divergences that exists
and highlights the potential debates and
issues likely to occur within teaching and
learning.
3. Complementary and distinctive pedagogical
practices existing between biblical and
secular as the final step. To achieve this
goal there needs to have developed a
collaborative approach to pedagogy
within and across Christian educational
institutions. It requires a comprehensive
understanding of the application to
pedagogy from the previous two points
and a strong desire to integrate faith and
learning.
The reality of national collaboration requires
Christian educators to undertake the challenge
of integrating faith and learning within and
across denominations. Blurred boundaries and
worldview transitions allow schools and
systems their unique denominational and
location settings whilst reinvigorating teaching
Christ within neoliberal secular states. It is a
window of opportunity of unknown duration.
Paul Rooney may be contacted at
<p.rooney@uws.edu.au>
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