Through the eyes of others: the role of curriculum perspectives in Australian school geography

Back in the early 1990s, these were just a few of the newspaper headlines that accompanied the debate surrounding the mandating of selected curriculum perspectives in the NSW Geography Years 7-10 Syllabus. With the benefit of hindsight, the perspectives controversy can be viewed as an early skirmish in Australia's education culture wars -- the struggle to define what and how students learn. Fast-forward to the end of the first decade of the 21st Century and perspectivism has become mainstream -- having been embraced as a legitimate and pedagogically influential element of syllabus documents. This article traces the emergence of perspectivism in the Australian curriculum context, especially as it relates to the study of Geography in schools. In doing so, it aims to inform future curriculum development processes, especially those associated with the National Curriculum project.