Exploring new discursive spaces: Multiculturalism and education for sustainable development

This paper tracks Australia's relationship to the migrant Other via an examination ofcontemporary multicultural policy. By analysing the political and social conditions thatenabled a national, and bipartisan policy of multiculturalism to emerge as formalised nationalpolicy during the late 1960s and early 1970s, this paper 're-problematises' the processes thatshaped an articulation of race, ethnicity and the migrant Other. The paper focuses particularattention on the parallel narrative at work within multiculturalism as it first grappled with,and later came to embrace an evolving social experiment framed within the discourse ofsocial justice. The paper addresses the post September 11 environment wheremulticulturalism within a traditional social justice framework fails to provide as clear a roadmap for educators. The paper argues the emerging area of Education for SustainableDevelopment provides pre-service teacher education with a productive node and freshdiscursive possibilities to regain political/pedagogical traction for a human rights agenda.