Education and Social Cohesion

This event is held in the theatrette on the ground floor of the Brisbane Square Library. Please bring a gold coin donation to support the meetup running fee.
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We often think of national security in terms of defence and borders. But a nation’s real stability depends on social cohesion or its ability to live with difference, debate respectfully and trust shared institutions. This lecture argues that education is central to that cohesion. When education is reduced to skills training alone, we weaken citizens’ capacity to understand history, recognise misinformation and participate in democratic life. In a multicultural, technologically saturated society, broad education is not a luxury but a safeguard. Education strengthens social trust, democratic resilience and the deeper foundations of a stable, cohesive society.

Bio: Associate Professor Naomi Barnes is a researcher interested in how political actors perform and respond to crises. With a specific focus on moral panics, she has focused on education politics in Australia, the US and the UK. Naomi is regularly asked to comment on how Australian teachers should respond to perceived threats to Australian nationalism, identity, and democracy. Naomi is the co-course co-ordinator of a future-focused Humanities and Social Sciences Curriculum Project at QUT and lectures future teachers in Modern History and Civics and Citizenship. She has worked for Education Queensland as a Senior Writer and has worked as a Secondary Humanities and Social Science teacher in the government, Catholic and Independent schooling sectors.