Transnationalism in the Australian curriculum: new horizons or destinations of the past?

Educationally, it is arguable that transnationalism has been primarily framed around course delivery by educational institutions within international contexts. However, it is a more complex notion, incorporating ideas such as global citizenship and intercultural understanding. Consequently, if the Australian Curriculum is the national substantiation of Australia s educational priorities, designed to prepare young Australians for a globalised future, it should reflect such transnationalist elements. This paper contends that, despite contrary impressions, the Australian Curriculum is more of a protective reinforcement of older conceptions of a Western community than one centred on forward-looking global principles. Its codifications dominate at the cost of acknowledging other points of reference that represent a collective transnational sensibility, and thus it embodies a lost national opportunity. Recent criticisms that the Australian Curriculum fails to adequately reflect Western civilisation are ill-founded, as they ignore the strong presence of Western intellectual constructs throughout the Australian Curriculum s design and content.