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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n A fresh cultural conflict is looming over the way Australia\u2019s schoolchildren are taught, one of the nation\u2019s leading teacher educators has warned, just as the sector recovers from the decades-long \u201creading wars\u201d.<\/p>\n La Trobe University Professor Joanna Barbousas says a fresh clash is emerging as resistance grows among teachers and academics to the \u201cevidence-based\u201d teaching methods<\/a> that governments are increasingly mandating for the nation\u2019s classrooms.<\/p>\n Barbousas, the dean of La Trobe\u2019s School of Education, which has more than 3000 students enrolled, says she believes that decades of conflict in the teaching profession and academia over literacy teaching are over, but that fresh trouble is brewing over the science of learning across all subjects.<\/p>\n Responding to the growing controversy, Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll told The Age this week that the state government remained firmly committed to its evidence-based \u201ceducation revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n Related Article Carroll will speak at Wednesday\u2019s The Age School Summit<\/a> in Melbourne, along with a key figure in the rise of evidence-based learning in recent years, Australian Education Research Organisation chief executive Jenny Donovan.<\/p>\n Advocates of phonics, an explicit learning approach to teaching children how to read<\/a>, battled for decades against those espousing the alternative whole language approach, in what became known as the \u201creading wars\u201d.<\/p>\n But with governments increasingly drawn to the evidence-based explicit teaching models \u2013 with the introduction of mandatory phonics in Victorian government schools a leading example \u2013 many in the evidence-based camp believe the science is settled and the reading wars are over.<\/p>\n But as The Age recently reported<\/a>, a backlash against the evidence-led agenda is mobilising among teachers and academics, and Barbousas said she feared a broader clash was coming, fought not just over reading but the science of teaching across all subjects.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cTransformation is uncomfortable,\u201d the La Trobe academic said. \u201cThe friction we are experiencing is the friction of genuine change.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of concerns me is that the reading wars are now behind us, hard-won on the back of decades of evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I just hope we\u2019re not going to get into the learning wars because the people who will really be troubled will be young children.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Hattam, an emeritus professor of educational justice at Adelaide University, is among those with a different view on what he describes as the \u201cso-called\u201d evidence-based agenda.<\/p>\n The veteran educator has long battled against explicit learning and has dubbed the approach \u201cone-size-fits-all nonsense\u201d and based on \u201cevidence that\u2019s wobbly at best\u201d.<\/p>\n Hattam is highly critical of governments imposing explicit learning on their schools.<\/p>\n \u201cThe continued forcing of this narrow version of the world onto teachers is dumbing down the nation, the evidence is mounting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hattam said he also expected the dispute between the opposing views to grow sharper as opposition to the evidence-led agenda became more networked and organised.<\/p>\n \u201cThe criticisms are getting more extensive, for all sorts of reasons,\u201d Hattam said.<\/p>\n Carroll told The Age he was aware of opposing views in the sector, but that he was determined to push ahead with teaching reforms.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the education revolution we had to have and this is the voice of reason, backed by science and evidence,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the landmark reports, both here and overseas, have shown that explicit instruction hurts no one, and lifts everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make the precious use of every minute we have of students with us from kindergarten to year 12. That means giving them the best teaching that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n The Age Schools Summit 2026<\/a> is at Crown Conference Centre on June 10.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Joanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b35a185cee070fd2e10d13132ff04cd295b645db.jpeg\")
Joanna Barbousas, dean of the School of Education at La Trobe, is committed to evidence-based teaching.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"Port](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9d3a749aa8c83aa1a6cb9ba6dae896582c080361.jpeg\")
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Education Minister Ben Carroll.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n