Teacher bias a challenge

The national curriculum is being reviewed to strengthen how Australian schools teach about the Holocaust and antisemitism, but the head of the body conducting the review says confronting teachers’ own prejudice may prove a bigger obstacle than anything written into the content.

Stephen Gniel, CEO of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), told a Melbourne Holocaust Museum panel on July 23 that the Antisemitism Education Taskforce had asked ACARA to examine three areas.

They were strengthening understanding of the Holocaust alongside a broader understanding of Jewish history and cultures; calling out both an understanding and a rejection of antisemitism in all its forms; and building that work on a values base.

He said taskforce members had written the second element into the terms of reference themselves, insisting on both the understanding and the rejection rather than one or the other, and had specified all forms of antisemitism, including newer versions emerging through social media.

But Gniel said the curriculum alone would not solve the problem, describing instead a program of work involving teachers, principals and parents.