AustLit

'In some respects, the aims of the National Curriculum Board's Shape of the Australian Curriculum : English (May 2009) could not have been more utopian: to 'help individuals participate in society', to enable 'young people to improve their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their communities and their nation', and so on. By the time we get to ACARA's The Australian Curriculum: English (2010), these values are explicitly tied to personal modes of self-governance and self-restraint (where students 'recognise and regulate their emotions', 'develop personal and social competence as they learn to manage themselves', etc.) and to the more explicit task of 'nation-building', although the links between the study of English and these various values and ideologies remain vague and gestural. Nevertheless, self-improvement, self-regulation and social cohesion are among the primary ideals of these documents, which identify literary studies in particular (now working in tandem with literacy and English language study) as a key discipline through while they might be realised.' (Author's introduction, 231)