Learning to be tolerant: Lessons from research

The school curriculum has been an abiding interest for Phillip Hughes and he has explored its diversity in many different contexts. It was of central concern when he presided over a new education system in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) as Chair of the ACT Schools Authority (1973-1977). It was equally salient when he reported to the Queensland government in 1991 on the kind of changes that were needed to reform the management and delivery of the school curriculum in that state (Hughes, 1991). Further afield, his interests extended to the Gulf States early in the new century as new curriculum issues emerged in that part of the world (Hughes, 2001). By that time he had already made his views known about the challenges that this new century posed for societies faced with change and uncertainty (Hughes, 1994).