ABSTRACT
In Australia, the official curriculum is represented nationally in the compulsory years of schooling by the Australian Curriculum, and in the senior secondary years in the states and territories by separate certificates. This chapter explores some of the insights that the case study has generated in relation to our national curriculum, called the Australian Curriculum. These insights confirm aspects of the Australian Curriculum, but also suggest a number of changes or modifications that could be made to better address the challenges of the future. A key blockage to keeping the four elements of the curriculum in productive tension is the singular dominance of the disciplines in the public debate and in the Australian Curriculum. Another blockage involves the disputes about how educational disadvantage is best addressed in the official curriculum. In summary, from the perspective of the case study, these four broad curriculum components—disciplinary learning, interdisciplinary learning, general capabilities, and meta-learning—are the key elements of a contemporary curriculum.
