Dear …everyone thinking in Australia,
[This post reproduces an email to the Australian public persons. It was the second email sent. The system is attempting to destroy the capacity for the information technology as in email workhorses to handle large and critical thinking as substantial text; fightback to the dumbing-down of the commercial world ! swearword them!]
There are ten particular courses in what I am referring as to the “reductive curriculum issue“, and they are critical history fields in our universities where, in the last 30 years, the knowledge-base has been removed from the curriculum of a university or the field has been reduced to be offered in one or two universities, and significantly the fields are essential for the disciplines of education, religion, sociology, geography, and highly significantly from the history discipline itself:
- history of education (1), as in large body of work from the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society;
- the studies-in-religion discipline itself, but especially sociology of religion (2) or “religion and society” (as the waterdown version) and the new emerging field of critical religion (3);
- Sociology (4) as a discipline still struggles as a discipline as enrolments, but the effective culture-history warfare on the sociology discipline among Australian population has had negative impact on enrollments, part of the madness that “only the business mindset and world of entrepreneurship can give you a guaranteed and well-paid job.” No capacity among political decision-makers to think out the diversity factors of the economy. By the way, the first major critic of the sociology discipline (then in its positivistic form), John Stuart Mill, as a philosopher, would find such thinking repugnant. So much for modern political utilitarian thinkers, but, in fairness, it is that that these politicians do not understand the concept of the common good in their utilitarian rhetoric;
- social geography (5), critical heritage (6, the theoretical program to “local studies”) and mapping cognition geography (7) as the new global emerging field and which is so poorly represented within Australian universities;
- Australian intellectual history (8), which is, to my knowledge, non-existent as a university course offering (of that name and in the direct content), and has only has a handful of scholars in the non-university discipline who are performing in the highest level in the global scoping, including myself;
- State critical histories (9), as in my work of Queensland history, which once were popular course offerings in the universities;
- Local Studies (10) which did once exist at several universities across the country, before the turn of the century, but now, as I believe, only one university has been keenly supporting local studies into the new century (the legacy of Geoffery Bolton; AHA paper attached).
Academic politics in narrowing outlooks of academic specialisation is to blame, but there is something deliberate in higher education policy for those who only want higher-education as a skills factory.
A moment of thought would demonstrate, in critical thinking, that such reduction is a deep concern to our presentist and collected (a true generalisation with true statistical value) cognition for the country. Sociologically, it dumb-down a population, as Frank Furedi stated in 2004 and, ironically, he helped contribute to the dumbing-down of the population in the culture-history war.
As an evidential example for the field of local studies, I attached my …(in order of cognitive depth, process of my drilling down in the thinking:
- “Whither Local History” presentation at Australian Historical Association (AHA), 50th anniversary conference last year;
- “Wither Local History in the Academy?” at the 2021 AHA (zip folder in Google Drive);
- The State of Affairs for Professional Historians in Queensland Educationalist History, published in the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) newsletter in May 2021;
- “Looking to the Future for the Past Meeting Report (BCC)”, Dr Buch’s submission to the Brisbane City Council in August 2018;
- “Education for Faith and Belief” at the 2022 AHA conference;
- “Small is Big” presentation at the 2018 AHA conference;
- “Melbourne Lived Higher Education Policy and Grand Generational Narratives” presentation at the 2021 ANZHES conference;
- “David Mowaljarli’s Vision and Australian Ethical and Educative Culture 2000-2001” at the 2022 ANZHES conference in Sydney;
- “Urban Sociology and Philosophic Thinking (BSHN-SBSF)”, Dr Buch’s submission to the Southern Brisbane Southern Forum in August 2018;
- “Philosophic Histories Meet History of Knowledge in Education” at the online 2020 ANZHES Covid mini-conference;
- “Historical Mapping of Brisbane Thinkers”, or “A prophet without honour in his hometown” presentation at the 2019 AHA conference, ….
and, 12., attached also, across fields of learning, a significant number of evidential documents that establish my large and critical case in the shared Google Drive, and because I take the silence to my critique as a belief that I am stupid, that I am the Idiot (Dostoevsky).
THESE ARE THE FACTS IN THE STATES OF AFFAIRS (a philosophical term of strong meaning) AUSTRALIAN HIGHER EDUCATION.
History will call decision-makers to account for the states of affairs in the impacts on curriculum design and delivery.
I make my comments very public because education is never to be seen as private conversations of design. Education, as the perennial theme in the states of affairs, is always public, even for the alleged category of “private education”. Even as separate sectors can, well, coexist, the coexistence depends on stopping the bullshitting (as in the criticism in the philosophy of Harry Frankfurt) in the culture-history war of “private versus public” and “public versus private”. In higher education that is plain idiocy.
The only way we effectively stop the bullshitting in the culture-history war of “private versus public” and “public versus private”, and defeat the reductive curriculum issue is a 21st century redevelopment in the curriculum design and course offerings for:
- history of education (1),
- sociology of religion (2),
- critical religion (3),
- Sociology (4),
- social geography (5),
- critical heritage (6),
- mapping cognition geography (7),
- Australian intellectual history (8),
- State critical histories (9), and,
- Local Studies (10).
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Kind regards,
Neville Buch
Historian,
Professional Historians Australia (Queensland)
Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES)
Convenor, Sociology of Education Thematic Group, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
President, Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum (SBSF).
Director, Brisbane Southside History Network (BSHN).
MPHA (Qld), Ph.D. (History) UQ., Grad. Dip. Arts (Philosophy) Melb., Grad. Dip. (Education) UQ.
Call: 0416 046 429
ABN: 86703686642
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sAe_zc1FXjVkjhsFO1Q3O7ba7jdLzUFh?usp=drive_link
Featured Images: 1). Books libraries readings literature old document history manuscripts encyclopedia, Photo 2239484 | Intellectual History © Sergii Tsoma | Dreamstime.com ; Hand writing sign, Wisdom. Word Written on quality having experience knowledge and good judgement something, Abstract, Photo 231022418 | Digital Intellectual History © Niall Wiggan | Dreamstime.com
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Neville Buch
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