The antecedents of the New South Wales Curriculum Review : an introduction to the New South Wales curriculum style

In May 2018, the NSW Premier, the Minister for Education, Rob Stokes, announced a review of the NSW curriculum. The Minister hailed it as “the first comprehensive shakeup of the Kindergarten to Year 12 curriculum since 1989”. How did reformers in that era grapple with the issues today confronting the NSW Curriculum Review? Using the issues prominent in the Terms of Reference of the Review as a lens, this paper examines key reforms from that period such as the raising of the NSW school-leaving age in 2010. It is informed by historical and policy analyses and interviews with key actors. It determines that reform has been shaped by NSW’s own distinctive curriculum style. This style has three principal characteristics: an emphasis on the centrality of academic knowledge; an insistence on rigour and competitive assessment; and a preference at the secondary level for conventional subject matter disciplines rather than an integrated or “interdisciplinary” curriculum