Abstract
The focus of this chapter is analysing the role of Asia literacy in Australian education through a discussion of ‘cosmopolitan praxis’ (van den Anker, Bridging the gaps in global ethics: grounded cosmopolitan praxis. In: Commers R, Vandekerckhove W, Verlinden A (eds) Ethics in an era of globalization. Ashgate, Bristol, pp 41–54, 2008). This is done against the background of recent calls arguing for a change in how the term ‘Asia literacy’ is conceptualised and dealt with in Australian education. In seeking to respond to this debate, a version of Fazal Rizvi’s (Aust Educ Res 35(1):17–35, 2008; Discourse 30(3):253–268, 2009) notion of cosmopolitan learning is extended so that it can provide a useful frame for rethinking the relationship between education and an increasingly interconnected world that is strewn with ambivalence (Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: ethics in a world of strangers. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2006) and what that means for teaching Asia literacy. In doing so, it attempts to address the theoretical and grounded complexities of the notions of Asia and Asia literacy in Australian education in the context of Australia as a globalising society.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Appiah, K.A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Pg. 85
References
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Appiah, K. A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Apple, M. (1996). Cultural politics and education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Asia Education Foundation. (2013). What Works 3: Achieving intercultural understanding through the teaching of Asia perspectives in the Australian schools: Four languages, four stories. Parkville: Education Services Australia.
Asia Education Foundation. (2015). Intercultural Understanding Toolkit. Melbourne: Asia Education Foundation.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Quality diversity in Australia: From the 2011 census, ABS Cat.no, 2071.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australian Curriculum. (2016). Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia. ACARA.
Beck, U. (2000). The cosmopolitan perspective: Sociology in the second age of modernity. British Journal of Sociology, 5(1), 79–107.
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity (revised ed.). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Bertram, A. (2016). Global learning in the 21st century: An introduction. In T. Barkatsas & A. Bertram (Eds.), Global learning in the 21st century. Melbourne: Sense Publishers.
Bonar, G. (2014). The missing student voice in the Asia literacy discussion. Ethos, 22(3), 24–26.
Booth, K., Dunne, T., & Cox, M. (2001). How might we live? Global ethics in a new century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cloonan, A. (2015). The feasibility of implementing cross-curricular studies of Asia. In C. Halse (Ed.), Asia literate schooling in the Asian century. New York: Routledge.
Commonwealth of Australia. (2012). Australia in the Asian Century. Canberra: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Dyer, J. (2015). Asia literacy as experiential learning. In C. Halse (Ed.), Asia literate schooling in the Asian century. New York: Routledge.
Fitzgerald, S. (1988). National educational policy and Asian studies. In E. M. McKay (Ed.), Current issues in Asia studies series: Number 3 (p. 12). Parkville: Asian Studies Association of Australia.
Fong, V. (2011). Paradise redefined: Transnational Chinese students and the quest for flexible citizenship in the developed world. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury.
Gadamer, H. G. (1996). Truth and method. (J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans.) New York: Continuum.
Halse, C. (2015). (Re)thinking Asia literacy. In C. Halse (Ed.), Asia literate schooling in the Asian century (pp. 1–10). London: Taylor and Francis.
Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture. Theory. Culture & Society, 7, 237–251.
Hannerz, U. (1996). Transnational connections. London: Routledge.
Hasan, R. (2003). Globalization, literacy and ideology. World Englishes, 22, 433–448.
Hassim, E. (2016). Next steps for Asia learning: A conceptual discourse. The Social Educator, 33(1), 14–24.
Henderson, D., Mallan, K. M., & Allan, C. (2013). Desperately seeking Asia through China: Reading ‘China’ in the Australian Curriculum: History through children’s literature. Curriculum and Teaching, 28, 17–27.
Herscovitch, B. (2012). Australia’s Asia literacy NON-problem. Centre for Independent Studies, 133, 1–16.
Horie, M. (2014). The opportunities and challenges of intercultural education for Asia literacy. Ethos, 22(3), 20–23.
Marginson, S. (Ed.). (2012). Australia must overcome superiority complex to learn from rising Asia. Future of Higher Education Conference. Sydney: University of Sydney.
OECD. (2016). Education at a glance. Paris: OECD.
Rizvi, F. (2008). Epistemic virtues and cosmopolitan learning. The Australian Educational Researcher, 35(1), 17–35.
Rizvi, F. (2009). Towards cosmopolitan learning. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30(3), 253–268.
Rizvi, F. (2015). ‘Engaging the Asian century’, Critical perspectives on communication. Cultural & Policy Studies, 31(1), 73–79.
Salter, P. (2013). The problem in policy: Representations of Asia literacy in Australian education for the Asian century. Asian Studies Review, 37(1), 3–23.
Scarino, A. (2014). Learning as reciprocal, interpretive meaning-making: A view from collaborative research into the professional learning of teachers of languages. The Modern Language Journal, 98(1), 386–401.
Schalley, A. C., Guillemin, D., & Eisenchlas, S. A. (2015). Multilingualism and assimilationism in Australia’s literacy-related educational policies. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(2), 162–177.
Soong, H. (2016). Transnational students and mobilities: Lived experiences of migration. London: Routledge.
Toe, D. (2015). Assessing Asian literacy in Australian teachers. In C. Halse (Ed.), Asia literate schooling in the Asian century. New York: Routledge.
Toohey, K. (2000). Learning English at school: Identity, social relations and classroom practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
van den Anker, C. (2008). Bridging the gaps in global ethics: Grounded cosmopolitan praxis. In R. Commers, W. Vandekerckhove, & A. Verlinden (Eds.), Ethics in an era of globalization (pp. 41–54). Bristol: Ashgate.
Wysocki, A., & Johnson-Eilola, J. (1999). Blinded by the letter. Why are we using literacy as a metaphor for everything else. In C. Hawisher & L. Selfe (Eds.), Passions, pedagogies and 21st century pedagogies. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Young, M. (2008). From constructivism to realism in the sociology of the curriculum. Review of Research in Education, 32(1), 1–28. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 81–100.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Soong, H. (2018). Asia Literacy in Australian Education and Its Nexus with Cosmopolitan Praxis. 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_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1068-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1067-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1068-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)