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‘It’s the Future!’: Students as Key Stakeholders in Asia Literacy

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Asia Literacy in a Global World

Part of the book series: Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects ((EDAP,volume 45))

Abstract

Although the development of student skills and experiences of Asia are central to the implementation of Asia literacy in schools, the voice of the student is notably absent from the literature. The effort of this chapter is to foreground and valorise the voice and role of students as key stakeholders in relation to Asia literacy, using authentic data collected from three groups of students in a South Australian high school. The students participated in focus groups, responding to a range of open questions in relation to their understanding and experience of Asia literacy, in the classroom and beyond. The findings from these discussions are preseneted in two parts. To start, the broad themes which emerged from the discussions are identified and compared across the different cohorts. Next, in order to unpack them and offer more insight into the broad themes, verbatim examples of the students’ comments in relation to those themes are presented. While the students identify some issues described in the literature, new understandings of these and other issues have been raised. The chapter concludes with recommendations in relation to the development of engaging and coherent pedagogies with measurable outcomes informed by student perspectives and situated in both Australian and Asian contexts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This project was funded by the University of South Australia, Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences Divisional Research Performance Grant.

  2. 2.

    To respect the confidentiality of the students, we do not identify the specific nationality of the students and their families.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Nayia Cominos & Hannah Soong

Authors
  1. Nayia Cominos
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  2. Hannah Soong
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Correspondence to Nayia Cominos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, Australia

    Hannah Soong

  2. Teaching Innovation Unit, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Nayia Cominos

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Cominos, N., Soong, H. (2018). ‘It’s the Future!’: Students as Key Stakeholders in Asia Literacy. In: Soong, H., Cominos, N. (eds) Asia Literacy in a Global World. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 45. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1068-3_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1068-3_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1067-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1068-3

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