A response to the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Australia

Abstract

The final report of the Australian Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse comprises 17 volumes, one of which addresses its findings in relation to schools. In this article, I raise two key questions in response to the devastating details of the allegations made by survivors of their abuse: how was any of this possible, and what really does go on in schools? In answer to these questions, I critique both the codes of ethics and conduct authored by the Victorian Institute of Teaching and draw attention to their conceptual inadequacy and terminal ambiguity. I then make a case for renewed research into sociological and historical aspects of schooling in Australia, emphasising a need to gain access to ‘private’, especially boarding, schools. In particular, I argue for a Foucauldian approach to understanding how education in catholic seminaries needs to be better understood in the context of child sexual abuse in Catholic schools.