Media Release | February 25, 2025

Re: From Classroom to Community: Civics education and political participation in Australia

The Social and Citizenship Education Association of Australia (SCEAA) welcomes and supports recommendations for strengthening and renewing civics and citizenship education (CCE) for all Australian students. After limited national emphasis on CCE in Australia for more than two decades, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters report From Classroom to Community: Civics education and political participation in Australia highlighted and recommended strengthening and renewing CCE for all Australian students.

SCEAA was invited to actively participate in the inquiry and urged the Committee to take action to rebuild CCE in schools and communities. We emphasised the importance of young people from the early years of schooling through to senior secondary years being actively engaged in participatory democracy and experience diverse opportunities to become critically informed citizens. The Joint Committee report recognised these times of ‘rising disengagement, distrust, and misinformation and disinformation in a complex online information environment’.  The report noted that professional associations including SCEAA play an important role in working with schools and communities in CCE, particularly in achieving these key recommendations:

• Advising on the development of nationally aligned and mandated civics and citizenship content in the Australian Curriculum and better support for pre-service and in-service teachers through high-quality professional development in the humanities and social sciences learning area.
• Creating meaningful opportunities for diverse young people to be empowered and have their say on formal policies and processes, as well as understanding their rights and responsibilities.
• Ensuring that young people have access to effective electoral education in diverse ways.
• Bringing contemporary issues into the classroom in engaging ways that are relevant to students’ lives.
• Prioritising media and digital literacy in the Australian Curriculum and its connections with CCE.

• Developing and disseminating practical, high-quality and nationally aligned teacher professional development resources for teaching civics and citizenship to all Australian students.
• Working more closely with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) grassroots community organisations to develop and deliver civics education programs in community centres across Australia.

 
SCEAA advocates for whole-school approaches to CCE that include classroom-based learning, student democratic participation in school processes, and engagement with their local communities.
 
SCEAA looks forward to participating in the national action that will arise from this report.
 
Key contacts
 
Dr Jia Ying Neoh (President)
[email protected]

Adjunct Associate Professor Libby Tudball (Treasurer)
[email protected]

Download a copy of this media release below.

We are delighted to welcome Bernard Brown, Caroline Ferguson, Bryan Smith, and Jia Ying Neoh to the 2025 Social Educator Editorial Team.

The Social Educator, the official journal of SCEAA, serves as a dynamic forum for sharing innovative practices, exploring new teaching methodologies, and presenting scholarly research in social and citizenship education. This peer-reviewed journal provides a collaborative space for practitioners, researchers, and anyone engaged in social and citizenship education to share ideas, research, and practices.

We welcome article submissions throughout the year – all of which undergo a peer review process.

We are inviting SCEAA and community members from diverse contexts to join our team as Advisory Editors. Your expertise will help enrich the journal and contribute to its ongoing excellence. Please send us an email at [email protected] to express your interest.

We are also now accepting papers for the first 2025 issue of The Social Educator.
Theme: International perspectives on citizenship education
Sub-questions:

• What are the pressing issues for citizenship education in national contexts?
• How is the future of citizenship education conceptualised in the context of global volatility, shifting geo-political dynamics? (eg. post-covid complications/inequality/conflict/rise of right-wing politics/democratic and ecological backsliding)
• What does education for belonging and inclusion mean in contemporary times and what role does citizenship (education) need to play in this work?
• What are the current critical policy trends or concerns impacting civics and citizenship education?​

Save the date! Join SCEAA in Townsville, QLD on June 27 and 28, 2025.

​Theme: Place, Democratic Participation, and the Futures of Citizenship Education
Dates: June 27 and 28, 2025
Venue: James Cook University,  Bebegu Yumba (Townsville) Campus, Queensland
​Featuring a keynote from Professor Stewart Riddle, University of Southern Queensland.

The conference’s primary focus will be on three distinct sub-themes:

1. The role of place and local contexts for fostering citizenship and democratic practice, with a focus on various perspectives;
2. Engaging young people democratically and actively as citizens across contexts;
3. The future(s) of democratic and citizenship education in regional and urban contexts.

Head to the webpage for more information and to keep up to date:

Thank you to all our members who attended our Annual General Meeting. We're excited to announce our Committee for the next 12 months:

Executive

• President: Dr. Neoh Jia Ying (NSW)
• Vice President: Dr. Caroline Ferguson (Hong Kong)
• Treasurer: Associate Professor Libby Tudball (VIC)
• Secretary: Dr. Deborah Green (SA)
• Journal editors: Dr. Bryan Smith, Dr. Neoh Jia Ying, Dr. Bernard Brown & Dr. Caroline Ferguson

General committee

• Dr. Keith Heggart (NSW)
• Dr. Bernard Brown (ACT)
• Robyn Coase (QLD)
• Philippa Marsh (SA)
• Marc Pruyn (VIC)
• Grace Emanuele (SA)
• Mitchell Sprague (VIC)

If you are interested in getting involved in either the general Committee or as part of The Social Educator, please reach out to [email protected] - we are welcoming new members to both!