Towards a Footscray Curriculum

The knowledge of a community often goes
unrecognized.
It is however constantly being created and employed
by businesses, educational institutions, community
organisations and also by each individual member of
that same community. It is commonly understood
that each community has specialized knowledge
and when we need to access that knowledge we go
to that community. However, there are few sites
of off icial recording of knowledge – museums
and historical societies do this with a particular
focus. Our educational institutions do this
through Curriculum Documents. These latter
are organized in Australia by State and also by
national organisations. Our schools and their
locality are measured against these curricula. The
results of which are then use to name and describe
communities. We sought to f ind the knowledge
that comes from the community. This document is
a record of the knowledge that is circulating now
in 2017 in Footscray, Victoria. We decided to use
the term curriculum as ‘curriculum documents’,
as used by educational institutions, ref lect a full
body of knowledge. The authors recognize that
this is not complete - the task of accessing all the
knowledge of every individual and every place
in Footscray is larger than our capabilities. The
authors also recognize that this current knowledge is
in a constant state of creation and recreation- it is a
moving dynamic part of Footscray and changes with
every move in the area. This document does bring
to the surface a vast array of specialized and expert
knowledge that comes from Footscray. Its breadth
and depth inspires the ongoing work of recording
local knowledge.
The knowledge that has been recorded here was
not found or observed by the writers. We used
three distinct approaches to assembling ‘Towards
a Footscray Curriculum’. Firstly, community
organisations were approached to participate in
interviews about the knowledge they recognize as
important knowledge in Footscray. These interviews
were extended to public walk-in interviewslocated
in public spaces such as the library. The
second approach was through a public event – the
Footscray Pop Up School. This was held in Maddern
Square in 2016. Community groups and individuals
shared their knowledge through both performance
and exhibition and passersby were invited to share
their knowledge in interviews. Finally, public
documents from Footscray have been examined for
the knowledge they represent.
The ‘Towards a Footscray Curriculum’ booklet
contains a brief description of each area of
knowledge illustrated by photographs from
Footscray.
Towards a Footscray Curriculum will be of interest
to those who wish to know Footscray and to local
schools and community organisations.
This booklet was created by a team of educational
researchers from the Public Pedagogies Institute.