Globalisation and National Curriculum Reform in Australia: The Push for Asia Literacy

This chapter examines the policy context for the push for a national curriculum and the inclusion of Asia literacy for schooling in Australia in the light of current links between globalisation, education and policy analysis and the notion of the learning/knowledge society of the twenty-first century. It is anticipated that discussion of the Australian context will be insightful for those other nations concerned with positioning Asia in school curricula, including for example, New Zealand, Canada, USA and UK. In doing so, the chapter considers the challenges to the implementation of Asia literacy in Australia with specific reference to current and future teachers for, as with many nations, the teaching profession in Australia is on the cusp of generational change as large numbers of teachers aged in their mid to late fifties embark on retirement (Teaching Australia, 2007). Of particular concern in relation to these demographic shifts, is meeting the demand for large numbers of replacement teachers and preparing future teachers (Skilbeck M, Connell H (2004) Teachers for the future – The changing nature of society and related issues for the teaching workforce, A report to teacher quality and educational leadership taskforce for MCEETYA. AGPS, Canberra, 2004; McKenzie P, Research Developments 27(2):1–5, 2012) with Asia-related knowledge. The chapter is structured as follows. First, it details the complex environment for education policy making in Australia. Specific reference is made to the ways in which the idiosyncrasies of a federal system of education have been navigated by national governments in Australia as they responded to globalisation from the early 1980s to 2013. Discussion centres on how high level and centralised policy making finally secured agreement for a national curriculum and a focus on teacher professional standards. The second part of the chapter explores the push for Asia literacy and its inclusion in the first national curriculum to be implemented in Australia. Specific reference is made to the challenge of preparing teachers with Asia-related knowledge, understanding and skills in response to the requirements of recently released teacher professional standards. Finally, the chapter posits whether this particular approach to policy making in response to globalisation has concluded with the election of a new national government in Australia.