The Humanities in Australia : Past, present and future

In the history of Western education, the liberal-humanist tradition – in its diverse forms – has probably exercised the most pervasive theoretical influence (Crittenden, 1988, p 5).
Beginning in the late 1960s to early 1970s the nature and place of the humanities, best illustrated by how literature and history are conceptualised and taught in Australian schools, have been radically re-defined. Reflecting changes at the university level the liberal-humanist approach, represented by a liberal education embodied in Matthew Arnold’s phrase “the best that’s been thought and said” (Arnold, 1969, p 6), has been incrementally replaced by a range of cultural-left ‘theories’ ranging from Neo-Marxist and postmodern and deconstructionist to feminist, post-colonial and gender and sexuality theories.

As a result humanities subjects are no longer considered inherently worthwhile or taught for their own sake as essential elements of what it means to be educated. Subjects
like literature and history are deconstructed as socio-cultural constructs that reflect the supposed hegemony of various dominant elites that marginalise and oppress the
disadvantaged and reinforce the status quo.

Illustrated by a number of submissions to the 2014 review of the Australian National Curriculum there is a call to reassert the importance of the humanities within the context of a liberal view of education. A view of education that is not immediately utilitarian or defined by the cultural-left but one that addresses what it means to be educated in its
broadest sense. Responses critical of the Australian National Curriculum also argue that there should be a greater focus on teaching literature and history within the Western
tradition associated with a liberal education.

Critical, in this regard, is education inculcating what Cardinal Newman describes as a particular habit of mind involving “freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and
wisdom; or what in a previous discourse I have ventured to call a philosophical habit” (Newman, 1852, p 127). In response to defining education in terms of 21st century learning, represented by the new digital technologies and the changing nature of employment and work, an argument is also put that the knowledge, dispositions and skills associated with a liberal education are increasingly necessary and relevant. So-called transferable competencies and generic skills, on the whole, are context specific and are best acquired in the context of the established disciplines.

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