Cross- Curriculum Priorities in the
Australian Curriculum

“Technology is making us the most communicative people ever, and the most efficient, but I think it’s severely impacting our interiority. … The problem is the lack of time to cultivate an inner life.”

• Global integration and international mobility
• Growth of Asian nations and their influence
• Complex environmental, social and economic pressures extending beyond national borders
• Schooling contributes to a socially cohesive society that respects and appreciates cultural, social and religious diversity
• All young Australians become active and informed citizens

The Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face. It must enable young Australians to:
• engage effectively with and prosper in a globalised world
• be better equipped to make sense of the world in which they live
• make an important contribution to building the social, intellectual and creative capital of our nation.

“From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment ... having its own unique characteristics.”
The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School ,1988, n.25

Imbued with a Catholic worldview throughout its curriculum:
• Catholic Christian story and tradition
• Love for wisdom and passion for truth
• Faith, culture and life
`The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools, 2006

Foundational values include:
• Our Catholic Christian tradition - we are a pilgrim people, journeying together, our story is never fully written, so our plans are never fully realised; we are constantly drawing upon our tradition and being called into new ways of growing and renewing ourselves as church
• Search for truth - Critical judgement in different areas of learning is underpinned by a search for truth
• Stewardship education should view individuals as moral beings, accountable for their decisions and responsible for their actions, with an ability to seek what is true and to do what is right.
Strategic Renewal Framework, 2012 - 2016

Catholic Education:
Reading the Signs of the Times
Critical interpretation of culture:
• Not enough to hand on Catholic cultural meanings
• Critical appraisal of cultural meanings is part of becoming wise; a prerequisite for making judgements and considering possible social action
• Young people may feel that Catholicism has little relevance to life and quietly ignore it unless they sense that something serious is being said about issues in personal, social and political life
(Graham Rossiter)
• The religious wisdom of Christianity needs to be effectively drawn into the educational context. Students need to engage in a process of reflection about the world in which they live and how it operates in the light of Catholic teachings about social justice and mission (Therese D’Orsa)

Catholic Education:
Reading the Signs of the Times
Cultural Agency:
• Critical interpretation is a starting point for cultural agency
• Encourage and skill young people to go beyond being passive consumers of culture and to become active constructors of culture
“Develop your culture with wisdom … faith will ask culture what values it promotes, what destiny it offers to life, what place it makes for the poor and the disinherited, how it conceives of sharing, forgiveness and love.” (Pope John Paul II,
1984)

Catholic Education:
Speak out and use my voice
… with a particular accent

Catholic Education: an accent that
‘starts afresh from Christ’
• Jesus was very much alive to his own culture and sought to transform and renew his society and culture.
• “At the heart of the Catholic curriculum lies not a set of values but the message, witness, mission and person of Jesus and what he calls people to be and do. … At the heart is societal and cultural transformation.” (Dr Therese D’ Orsa)
• The Gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ requires all those who believe in it to work towards a radical transformation of the world.

• a collection of teachings on key themes that has evolved in response to the challenges of the day
• grounded in the values and principles of Judeo-Christian religious experience, which are reflected in the Christian scriptures and the Church's lived tradition
• evolved as each generation has attempted to live in society with reflective fidelity to those values and that religious vision; a living tradition of thought and action
• calls all members of the Church to work to eliminate the occurrence and effect of poverty, to speak out against injustice and to shape a more just society and more sustainable and peaceful world
“Challenged by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Catholic school seeks to be faithful to a biblical understanding of justice and the rich tradition of Church social teaching.”
(Justice Education Policy, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Catholic Education Council, July 2012)

Catholic Social Teaching
Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labour), Pope Leo XIII, 1891
Quadragesimo Anno (After Forty Years), Pope Pius XI, 1931
Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher), Pope John XXIII, 1961
Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), Pope John XXIII, 1963
Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World), Vatican Council II, 1965
Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples), Pope Paul
VI, 1967
Octogesima Adveniens (A Call to Action), Pope Paul VI, 1971
Justicia in Mundo (Justice in the World), Synod of Bishops, 1971
Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), Pope John Paul II, 1981
Solicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern), Pope John Paul II, 1987
Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year), Pope John Paul II, 1991
Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), Pope Benedict XVI, 2005
Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI, 2009

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Three major themes run through Scripture and Catholic social teaching.
A core theme is that each human person is made in the image and likeness of God and thus has an inalienable human dignity and worth . Derived from this core theme are two further themes. These are the rights and duties that are proper to human persons and the freedom and responsibility that underpin these rights and duties . In more recent times there is growing awareness of the application of these three themes to both human persons and the whole of God’s creation.”
(Guidelines for the religious life of the school, 2008, p.38)

A way of reading and responding to the signs of the times:
“There are three stages which should normally be followed in the reduction of social principles into practice. First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these
principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: look, judge, act. It is important for our young people to grasp this method and to practise it. Knowledge acquired in this way does not remain merely abstract, but is seen as something that must be translated into action.”
(Blessed Pope John XXIII, Mother and Teacher, 1961, nn.236, 237)

“Admitting out racism problem is the first step
to a solution”
1. SEE
• What is happening that concerns you?
• What are the people in this situation doing, feeling and saying?
• What is happening to them? How do you/they respond?
2. JUDGE
• What does Catholic social teaching say about this situation?
• What key principles from Catholic social teaching apply to this situation?
3. ACT
• What plan or action could be carried out to transform the social structures contributing to this situation?

“Facebook urged to dump racial hate page”
1. SEE
• What is happening that concerns you?
• What are the people in this situation doing, feeling and saying?
• What is happening to them? How do you/they respond?
2. JUDGE
• What does Catholic social teaching say about this situation?
• What key principles from Catholic social teaching apply to this situation?
3. ACT
• What plan or action could be carried out to transform the social structures contributing to this situation?

“Climate change may create new wave of
asylum seekers”
1. SEE
• What is happening that concerns you?
• What are the people in this situation doing, feeling and saying?
• What is happening to them? How do you/they respond?
2. JUDGE
• What does Catholic social teaching say about this situation?
• What key principles from Catholic social teaching apply to this situation?
3. ACT
• What plan or action could be carried out to transform the social structures contributing to this situation?

Accenting the Cross Curriculum Priorities highlight emphasise stress give weight to draw attention to … the principles of Catholic social teaching