Notions of citizenship revealed through multicultural education policies in Australia

© 2017 Dr. Jayne Elizabeth LyskBefore and after the Federation of Australia in 1901, successive national and state governments have sought to control both the demographic composition of the population and Australian national identity. Prior to the pre-Federation colonial period, the island continent now known as Australia was under the custodianship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for over 40,000 years. With the arrival of the British and the occupation of the land, great changes occurred. It is over this period that the notions of Australian citizenship have gradually been shaped and contested. Education is one of the major instruments for both communicating the values that inform citizenship, and passes on skills and knowledge and attitudes about citizenship. This study considers the historical development of citizenship models and traditions, and examines interrelated settlement and educational policies, initially from a national perspective, to a specifically Victorian state education perspective to reveal contemporary conceptualisations of citizenship and determines the role of educational policies in providing an understanding of what it means to be a citizen in a multicultural society. The study has two interrelated data sources. One data source is an historical account outlining the social and political construction of citizenship the implications for education from Federation in 1901 to 2009. The source employs policy sociology to analyse both the national and the Victorian state multicultural education policies. The second data source explores the impact of changing political ideology, changing government leadership, global influences on multicultural education policies, and the way in which citizenship is conceptualised and expressed through multicultural education policies. It is suggested that the current developments recall the historical process through which state control over the composition of the population and the conceptualisation of citizenship display significant links with an earlier era. Multicultural citizenship can be viewed as a fundamental shift from past racially exclusive settlement and citizenship policies and practices