It shouldn’t surprise that at a recent conference organised by the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE) teachers were told to say ‘yes’ to the Indigenous Voice and to teach Woke identity politics and neo-Marxist-inspired critical theory in the classroom.

The first keynote speaker was Thomas Mayo, an Indigenous activist, trade union official, and author. The conference guide tells teachers Mayo played ‘a key role in building the people’s movement for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice’.

Teachers are told Mayo’s talks ‘to the power educators have to help find the heart of the nation, issuing a call to teachers to join the movement’. VATE also tells teachers, ‘The campaign for a constitutionally enshrined Voice is the most important campaign of our lifetimes. It’s time again!’

The second keynote speaker Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad, described as the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and author of The Tribe, appears to be chosen by VATE for his willingness to promote cultural-left, Woke ideology, including Critical Race Theory.

Ahmad’s work is described as analysing ‘the political and cultural importance of reading, writing and critical thinking as tools for social change’ and empowering ‘low socio-economic and culturally and linguistically diverse students to find their voices and speak truth to power’.

Teachers are told the keynote speech will ‘include analysis and practical application of important modern-day concepts and ideas for the post #MeToo and Black Lives Matter eras, including intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, and representational politics’.

James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose define Critical Race Theory as the belief ‘race is a social construct that was created to maintain white privilege and white supremacy’. Students are taught there is nothing beneficial about Western societies like Australia as they are structurally classist and racist.

A recent American academic paper describes intersectionality as ‘overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination and/or discrimination’ including ‘gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental illness and physical illness, etc’.

In addition to the two keynote speakers, the conference also included presentations promoting woke ideology. One titled ‘First Nation’s protest music’ and another ‘The Australian English classroom as a site for truth-telling through First Nations lyrics and music performance’ illustrate VATE’s commitment to championing the Voice.

In the conference manifesto teachers are told, drawing on the inspiration of the Whitlam government’s cultural-left agenda in areas like the environment, gender equality and multiculturalism, to ‘fight together’ and to ‘imagine a new world’.

A new world utopia where teachers empower ‘young people’s voices’ regarding climate change and the Uluru Statement from the Heart and where student well-being and growth trumps ‘an increasingly mandated and regimented curriculum and assessment environment’.

Gone are the days when English teachers were expected to teach students how to read and write, to weigh arguments rationally, to think logically, and to introduce them to Western culture’s most enjoyable and enduring literature.

As detailed by Mark Lopez in his account of the literary texts taught at the Year 12 level, as a result of neo-Marxist-inspired critical theory, identity politics, and post-colonial theory, students are fed a steady diet of Woke texts guaranteed to turn them into cultural warriors of the left.

In his book School Sucks: A Report on the State of Education in the Politically Correct Era Lopez writes, ‘When looking at the Year 12 text list any year, it is evident that the texts chosen for study, with few exceptions, are overwhelmingly politically correct and left-wing.’

Based on the writings of the Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire VATE and the national association for English teachers, the AATE, champion a neo-Marxist-inspired critical literacy approach to teaching the subject.

Critical literacy involves using English teaching to empower and liberate students to enable them to overthrow Australia’s sexist, homophobic, patriarchal society riven with structural classism and racism.

VATE and the AATE have long argued against teaching standard English, learning to read with phonics, using standardised tests like NAPLAN, and having competitive, high-stakes examinations where some students fail.

After the re-election of the Howard government in 2004 the AATE journal argued teachers had failed to teach critical literacy and, as a result, that they must redouble their efforts as too many young people voted the wrong way.

No wonder over the last 20 to 30 years Australian students’ results have flatlined in the NAPLAN tests and students are ranked 21st in the Progress in International Reading Study.

To argue English teaching has long since abandoned a liberal view of education, one based on Matthew Arnold’s expression ‘the best that has been thought and said’ is not the fault of teachers. Rather bodies like VATE and like-minded academics are to blame.

Dr Kevin Donnelly taught English for 18 years and his latest book is The Dictionary Of Woke.