School Strike 4 Climate: The intersection of education for sustainable development (ESD), education for global citizenship (EGC) and the Australian Curriculum (AC)

In June 2020 yet another review of the Australian Curriculum was announced, particularly in regard to content crowding in primary years, lack of flexibility, and deep understanding of core concepts. The language of the announcement highlighted again the ‘competing-priorities’ discourse that suggests a disjuncture between a focus on fundamental knowledge and skills, such as literacy and numeracy, and providing opportunities to develop students’ broader conceptual understandings and skills inherent in the pedagogies of education for global citizenship (EGC) and education for sustainable development (ESD). By contrast, the Strike4ClimateChange rallies exemplified students’ integration of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes from a variety of disciplines and broader learning experiences embedded within the Australian Curriculum (AC) with the cross-curriculum priorities, particularly sustainability, and the general capabilities. This article will argue that the Strike4ClimateChange rallies highlight the interconnection between EGC and ESD and the AC. It will argue that the inquiry-based, pedagogical approaches of EGC and ESD are powerful integrators offering teachers the opportunity to take a cross disciplinary approach to planning, connecting multiple learning areas from the AC with real world projects and issues. It is suggested that, far from adding to a crowded curriculum, such integration frees up space and offers opportunities to develop the type of deep conceptual understanding the Curriculum review seeks.