Teachers buck at US input on maths curriculum

Australia’s biggest teaching union has condemned a huge contract awarded to a US consultant to modernise maths study.

NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron.

The head of Australia’s biggest teaching union has condemned a six-figure contract awarded to a US consultant to modernise Australia’s mathematics curriculum, claiming the move lacks transparency and could erode ­educational standards.

NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron said the Australian Curriculum ­Assessment and Reporting Authority’s appointment of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, headed by education futurist Charles Fadel — frequently described as a pioneer of the 21st century skills movement — would not be welcomed by the profession.

“America would be the last place you would go for curriculum advice,” Mr Mulheron said yesterday.

“The teaching profession has been locked out and there’s a lack of trust. Teachers simply won’t trust ACARA with this. It’s too important.

“ACARA is far too close to these big private corporations.”

The $215,000 contract, revealed in TheWeekend Australian, is understood to be part of an internal ACARA review geared towards presenting the next iteration of the national curriculum to the COAG education council for consideration by 2020.

A focus on promoting 21st century skills — referred to as general capabilities in the curriculum but also known as “soft skills” and “generic competencies” — has ­attracted criticism from former ACARA chairman Steven Schwartz and former curriculum director Fiona Mueller, who said the review potentially represented a “radical shift in teaching and learning”.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes, who has announced a review of his state’s school curriculum, also questioned ACARA’s move to look offshore for curriculum advice.

“We have a brains trust of thousands of teachers … so there’s no need to engage an overseas corporation at taxpayer expense to develop our local curriculum,” he said.

ACARA chief Robert Randall alluded to the project at a recent University of NSW event but this week denied that ACARA’s ­annual monitoring or research into developments in curriculum design could be “characterised as a review or a wholesale redesign of the curriculum”.

“This work may inform future advice to education ministers on the potential scope for refinements of the Australian curriculum,” he said yesterday.

Education Minister Dan Tehan moved to temper criticism of the arrangement.

“ACARA is not outsourcing a new maths curriculum to an overseas corporation,” Mr Tehan said.

“There is no review of the Australian curriculum or the mathematics curriculum under way.”

ACARA has been coy about the CCR maths project, initially claiming to be “working with” the group to “develop an exemplar world-class mathematics curriculum”.

Further details are available on CCR’s website, including a comment from Mr Randall: “This joint project with the CCR will be used to inform any future refinement of the existing Australian curriculum in mathematics and to help guide improvements to ACARA’s overall curriculum design and development process”.