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Education policy fosters global citizenship
An RMIT University team is behind a ground-breaking multicultural education
policy for Victorian government schools, to be launched today by Education
Minister Bronwyn Pike.
Education for Global and Multicultural Citizenship in the 21st Century, which will be
launched at 12pm today in the Queen’s Hall at Parliament House, marks the first
time in Australia that an inward-focused multicultural education policy has been
merged with an international outlook.
Professor Desmond Cahill, who led the team of researchers behind the policy, said
it built on Victoria’s multicultural and interfaith diversity and on Australia’s place in a
globalising world.
“This new policy is a breakthrough because it embeds cultural diversity and social
cohesion as central to learning and teaching,” Professor Cahill said.
“By combining the local with the global, this new approach aspires to make all
Victorian school students informed and thoughtful global citizens of the future.”
Professor Cahill said schools in recent years had been overwhelmed by policy
documents which, while good in themselves, were too numerous to be
implemented individually.
“The idea of ‘global and multicultural citizenship’ is an all-encompassing concept
that will take in most of the areas covered by previous policies,” he said.
The team of RMIT researchers, which included Dr Helen Smith, Dr Peter Burrows,
Dr Les Morgan and Dr Siew Fang Law, built the policy on a national and
international literature review, as well consultations with schools and senior officials
from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
The policy takes into account new technologies, has a firm ethical base and spells
out the financial benefits that a globally-attuned workforce will bring to Victoria.
“Victoria has always been at the forefront of immigrant and intercultural education,
and this new policy document will ensure the state’s leadership in the field,”
Professor Cahill, the Professor of Intercultural Studies at RMIT, said.
“RMIT has been at the forefront of this educational area for over three decades,
with its many educational specialists working closely with government departments
in research evaluation and policy formation.”
For interviews: Professor Des Cahill, (03) 9925 4981 or 0439 996 761.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Media and Communications,
Gosia Kaszubska, (03) 9925 3176 or 0417 510 735.
20 March, 2009
NEWS 
