Moral Education and Australian Values Conference

About the conference

It is often said that moral experience is a puzzle and moral education remains its stumbling interpreter. Is it really so? A Monash conference “Moral Education and Australian Values” will showcase schooling in the larger context of Australia’s multicultural society. The rationale for the conference is motivated by the major national initiative, “The National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools’ (Commonwealth of Australia 2005).

The importance of investigating the theoretical foundations for, and the practical implications of, values education was stressed at the 2005 and 2006 National Values Education Forums, sponsored by the Australian Government as part of its $29.7m commitment to its values education program. We believe that the overall educational goals and healthy growth of young Australians are inseparable from their learning to become moral people capable of leading ethical lives in the country where “we are all Australians” (Steve Bracks, The Age March 2, 2006).

Invited speakers

Terry Lovat

Professor Terence Lovat is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Arts) at The University of Newcastle, NSW, and Immediate Past President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education. He has authored, co-authored or edited five major academic texts and published numerous refereed journal articles and book chapters. He has been chief investigator of a number of projects funded by the Australian Government Values Education Program and has been a keynote speaker at the 2005 and 2006 National Forums in Values Education. Professor Lovat is a member of the International Values Education Research Consortium centred at the University of California in Berkeley, USA, and has been engaged in related research in the UK and South Africa, where he has served as a special advisor to a United Nations project aimed at education about AIDS. His public lecture is called "Synergies and Balance between Values Education and Quality Teaching".

Nel Noddings

Nel Noddings is Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University, USA. She is a past president of the Philosophy of Education Society and of the John Dewey Society. In addition to fifteen books – among them, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education – she is the author of some 200 articles and chapters on various topics ranging from the ethics of care to mathematical problem solving. Her latest book is Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Should Teach (Cambridge University Press, 2006). She is a member and a past president (2001-2005) of the National Academy of Education. Noddings holds two honorary degrees in addition to a number of awards, among them the Anne Rowe Award for contributions to the education of women (Harvard University), the Willystine Goodsell Award (AERA), a Lifetime Achievement Award from AERA (Division B), the Excellence in Education Award (Pi Lambda Theta), and the Award for Distinguished Leadership in Education, Rutgers University. She will address the conference on the topic of Critical Thinking and Critical Lessons.

Other conference speakers

Anna Clark. Anna is an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow in history education at Monash University . With Stuart Macintyre, she wrote the History Wars in 2003. Her PhD thesis, Teaching the Nation, has recently been published by Melbourne University Press.

Andrew Furco. Andrew is Director of the International Center for Research on Civic Engagement and Service-Learning at the University of California , Berkeley , USA and a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement. He received the 2006 Researcher of the Year Award from the National Society for Experiential Education. Among his books is Service-Learning: The Essence of the Pedagogy (2002).

Arran Gare. Arran is Reader in Philosophy and Cultural Inquiry and Director of the Joseph Needham Centre for Complex Processes Research, Swinburne University , Melbourne. He is the author of a number of books and the founding editor of Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy.

Neil Hawkes. Neil spent 7 years (1992-1999) as Headteacher of West Kidlington Primary and Nursery School in Oxford , UK The school has won national and international recognition for its outstanding work in the area of Values Education. Neil’s most recent book is called: How to inspire and develop values in the classroom.

Jane Kenway. Jane is Professor at Monash University and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia . Among her many books are Consuming Children, and Haunting the Knowledge Economy. Offering fresh interpretations of enduring educational issues and anticipating educational trends long before others, she is widely recognised as one of the most provocative thinkers in education.

Voula Messimeri-Kianidis. Voula was elected as Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) Chairperson in November 2005. She is the first woman to hold this position in FECCA’s 25 year history. She has been involved in the community services field for 20 years, with a particular focus on multicultural affairs and women’s issues.

Helen O’Shea. Helen is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Education, Monash. Her research focuses on the practices and identifications of musicians across cultures. Her latest article is entitled “Getting to the Heart of the Music: Idealizing Musical Community and Irish Traditional Music”.

Inna Semetsky. Inna is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Monash University . In 1999 she received the Kevelson Memorial Award from the Semiotic Society of America. Her 2006 book Deleuze, Education and Becoming is published by Sense Publishers in the “Educational Futures: Rethinking Theory and Practice” series.

Georgina Tsolidis. Georgina is Professor in the University of Ballarat and has a long-standing interest in multicultural education. Her books include Schooling, Diaspora and Gender; being feminist and being different (2001, OUP) and Youthful Imagination; schooling, subcultures and social justice (2006, Peter Lang).

Phillip Payne. Phillip is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash. He is currently studying intergenerational environmental ethics and ecopolitics.

Scott Webster. Scott is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, Monash University . His research interests focus on reflexive practice, meaning of life, and spiritual education for children. His publications are in the area of educational philosophy and theory.

The discussants include: Annabel Astbury (History Teachers' Association of Victoria), Darrell Reid (Victorian Association for Philosophy in Schools), and Vicki Molloy (R.M.I.T.).

Conference program

Friday 27 April

Saturday 28 April

Conference papers

• Anna Clark (Monash) “Teaching national narratives” (pdf 45Kb)
• Arran Gare (Swinburne) “Educating for Democracy” (pdf 59Kb)
• Neil Hawkes (Oxford , UK) Moral Education paper (pdf 419Kb)
• Keynote (prepared and presented by Inna Semetsky) (ppt 202Kb)
• Terry Lovat (University of Newcastle) “Synergies and Balance between Values Education and Quality Teaching” (pdf 67Kb)
• Helen O’Shea (Monash) “Cultural pluralism and the ethics of teaching world music in Australia” (pdf 91Kb)
• John Ozolins (ACU) “Creating public values: Schools as moral habitats” (pdf 67Kb)
• Scott Webster (Monash) “Does the Australian National Framework for Values Education stifle an Education for World Peace?” (pdf 61Kb)
• Phillip Payne (Monash) "The value of Australian values" (pdf 116Kb)