The Garth Boomer award is presented to a team of educators in recognition of their contribution to school based curriculum theory and practice and is supported by the Curriculum Corporation.

The 2009 Garth Boomer award was won by Josh Levy and Melissa Ibrihim, the ruMAD team at the Education Foundation, a division of the Foundation for Young Australians.

Susan Mann, CEO, Curriculum Corporation presented Josh and Melissa with their award and had the following to say about Garth Boomer, the Garth Boomer award and Josh and Melissa's work:

We're very proud to have been involved in this award since its inception. Many of you would have known Garth and perhaps worked closely with him and would appreciate the incredible impact he's had on Australian education and, as Alan Reid said, has influenced the shaping of pedagogy in Australia and its influence remains very present and powerful in our classrooms and practice.

Garth was an incredible communicator with immense passion and energy for enthusing and inspiring others. He was one of the most admired Australian educators - still is, and was one of the few to receive an award - an Australian Medal for services to education. Garth stayed a teacher at heart, even when his talents for leading the profession were recognised as Chair of the Australian Schools Commission and also the Associate Director in his home State South Australia.

Like all reformists Garth pushed boundaries at all points and he insisted it was in the interests of students that the Australian society debated what constituted essential knowledge. He deplored the idea that what students learned at school should be some sort of Russian roulette kind of offering of content. Garth spoke about a teacher's repertoire of methods being rich, and rich is a word I think Garth used quite a lot. A classroom is rich with minds and imaginations, with talk and writing and the literature and experience brought into it. His own writing was very rich with reference and metaphor to life outside teaching. Garth was one of the first to see that Australia was ready for a National Curriculum and noted also that it needed to be rich and open to all. He believed in the power of collaboration between teachers and students and argued that what a teacher does in school should be negotiated with the learners so that it would be seen as worth the hard work of doing it. He saw that teaching young people to work creatively and critically was a key aim of education and he believed that they should share a commitment with their curriculum, with their teachers and he invited students to analyse and modify their education programs so that they could have an investment in the learning journey and also in the outcomes.

The Garth Boomer award recognises collaboration and it recognises exemplary pedagogical practice. It is appropriate that ACSA commemorates Garth's substantial contribution to educational thinking and practice. ACSA and Garth had very similar educational philosophy and Garth was involved in establishing ACSA and also its activities. This year the Garth Boomer award is presented to Josh Levy and Melissa Ibrihim for their work with the ruMad: are you making a difference? Program. A dynamic mix of education, action, advocacy and events that enable young people to lead social change and become active citizens.

The Education Foundation, a division of the Foundations for Young Australians, has run the ruMad? program since 2001. Josh, the National Manager and also Melissa, the Victorian Schools Coordinator have taken it to a new level of success and in 2009 it will reach ten thousand students and young people and seven hundred teachers and youth professionals in over three hundred schools and community groups across Australia. The legacy of Garth Boomer is very clear in this project. Collaboration is a part of the ruMad? project and Josh and Melissa facilitate collaboration between students, teachers and students, groups of teachers and between schools and communities. They create and model positive working relationships and learning environments and they have had a very lasting effect on people and the schools that they are working with. So I'd like you to join with me in congratulating two worthy recipients of the Garth Boomer Award Josh Levy and Melissa Ibrihim for their work in the r u Mad? program.