What is Education for? Situating History, Cultural Understandings and Studies of Society and Environment against Neo-Conservative Critiques of Curriculum Reform

This paper explores some of debates about the nature and purpose of education in the social sciences in the Australian curriculum. It examines recent attempts in studies of society and environment and history curriculum to prepare students for global citizenship and responds to neo-conservative critiques that our "politically correct" curricula does not impart the "truth" about our "European" heritage. This paper argues that while the neo-conservative discourse makes claim to traditional views of knowledge and rationality, its discursive field does not address the broader questions of what sort of education our students require for the twenty-first century

Meeting the National Interest through Asia Literacy - An Overview of the Major Stages and Debates

This paper traces the evolution of ideas on the question of how Australians might become Asia-literate. It examines the main phases in those government and non-government reports on Asian languages and studies that called for a national strategy for Asia literacy. As well, it explores the major debates about the place of the study of Asia and its languages in Australian education. It contends that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) commission and acceptance in 1994 of Asian Languages and Australia's Economic Future, known as the Rudd Report (Rudd 1994), was the culmination of more than three decades of debate and lobbying. Also, it argues that the Rudd Report's ambitious long term plan, aimed at producing an Asia-literate generation to boost Australia's international and regional economic performance, was unprecedented. First, an overview of the significance of the Rudd Report is established. Second, the main stages in those reports and documents that advocated the study of Asia and its languages are identified. Third, the core debates surrounding such phases are traversed in order to establish the contested nature of the context for the study of Asian languages and cultures in Australia, prior to the 1992 COAG brief which commissioned the Rudd Report

Pursuing an Export Culture Through the Teaching of Asian Languages in Australian Schools - the Gap between Theory, Practice and Policy Prescription

In February 1994, the Coalition of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed a report it commissioned in December 1992 on a policy prescription for the study of Asian Languages and Cultures in Australian schools. The acceptance of this report, Asian Languages and Australia's Economic Future (1994), referred to as the Rudd Report after the Chair of the Working Group, was significant. It offered a 15-year plan that aimed to produce an Asia-literate generation fluent and familiar with "export" Asian languages and cultures. In particular, students would have the opportunity to commence the study of one of four priority "export" Asian languages, namely, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, and Chinese, in primary school. However, the Rudd Report’s emphasis on prioritising Asian languages for utilitarian reasons was opposed by those who advocated the study of European languages. This paper examines some of the assumptions about second language acquisition that the Rudd Report made and argues that greater emphasis should have been placed on addressing those theoretical and pedagogical issues significant to LOTE teaching in Australia

Reconceptualising Our Cultural Maps: Teaching for Cross-Cultural Understanding through the Studies of Asia

This paper explores some of the assumptions and arguments about teaching for cross-cultural understanding through the Studies of Asia. First, it examines what cross-cultural understanding might mean and why it is significant. Second, it reviews some of the past discussion and debate about how it can be achieved. Third, it argues that global and regional realities indicate that Australian students require cross-cultural understanding through the Studies of Asia if they are to be effective citizens in the region

A Strategy Cut-short: The NALSAS Strategy for Asian Languages in Australia

This paper examines the first national attempt to establish the study of Asian languages and cultures in the Australian education system. The National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools (NALSAS) Strategy was based on the recommendations of a report commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in December 1992, Asian Languages and Australia's Economic Future (1994). The Report detailed a strategic framework for the implementation of an Asian languages and cultures program in Australian schools. This paper proposes that the Report was unprecedented in the history of policy efforts to teach Asian languages in Australia. It then analyses the Report’s focus on language study, its reception and implementation during its first quadrennium. It argues that despite some shortcomings, the Report’s implementation from 1995-1998 was significant in establishing formative foundations for Asian language study in Australia. This paper proposes that although progress towards targets was made during the second quadrennium, the Howard government’s decision to cut the Commonwealth’s funding commitment for this long term Strategy in 2002 was inappropriate at a time when Australia’s engagement with the nations of Asia was increasingly significant

Shaping Australia's Future

This article provides an overview of the development of the first national policy for the study of Asian langauges and cultures in the Australian education system throught the NALSAS strategy and the establishment and achievements of the Asia Education Foundation (AEF)

HASS on the Hill

Deborah Henderson attended the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) on the Hill event as one of two NTEU Representatives. The NTEU has consistently supported the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) as a peak body representing this sector, and the participation of the National Policy and Research Unit Coordinator, Andrew Nette, in a panel on the Briefing Day provided more of a public face to this support. Deborah’s report provides an overview of this recent event and commences with an account of how CHASS was formed and why this lobby group is so significant for the state of the Australian humanities. For as one prominent Australian academic, Simon During (2005), noted there has been much concern that the humanities are able to defend themselves against government policies that prioritise science and technology

A way forward to managing the transition to professional practice for beginning teachers

The high attrition rate of beginning teachers in Australia and overseas is well-documented. This trend is easily understood as many beginning teachers enter the profession with little support or mentoring (Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), 2002; Herrington & Herrington, 2004; Ramsey, 2000). Continual calls for more comprehensive approaches to teacher induction in which universities and employing bodies share the responsibilities of the transition to professional practice (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, 2007) have, to date, largely been ignored. This paper reports on a trial project conducted at a university in south-east Queensland, Australia that addresses these shortfalls. The aim of the project is to facilitate and support the development of high quality teachers and teaching through an extended model of teacher preparation. The model comprises a 1+2 program of formal teacher preparation: a one-year teacher education course (the Graduate Diploma in Education), followed by a comprehensive two year program of workplace induction and ongoing professional learning tailored to meet graduate and employer needs. This paper reports on graduating students’ perceptions of their preparedness to teach as they transition from the Graduate Diploma in Education program to professional practice. The study concludes that innovative programs, including university-linked, ongoing professional learning support for teacher education graduates, may provide the way forward for enhancing the transition to practice for beginning teachers

Paradox and promise in joint school/university arts research

Collaborative university and school research projects are inevitably labour intensive endeavours that require the careful negotiation of trust and the joint development of critique of current practice. While this raises tension it also builds generative communities of inquiry that can enhance both theory and practice. This paper reports on an Arts project undertaken in primary classrooms between university staff and generalist teacher co-researchers focusing on children’s idea development in dance, drama, music and art. This two year project is briefly outlined and some issues that arise in school research are explored. Project collaborators need to exercise caution in their examination of practice and strive to resist premature closure. All parties need to hold the tension of apparent contradictions, being both interested (in effective Arts pedagogy) and disinterested (in order to heighten perception) so that they might ‘surprise themselves in a landscape of practice with which many are very familiar indeed’ (McWilliam 2004:14). These issues and paradoxes in collaborative research are considered alongside some particular processes that build school and university partnerships

Exploring children's development of ideas in music and dance

Eisner maintains that the Arts education community needs ‘empirically grounded examples of artistic thinking related to the nature of the tasks students engage in, the material with which they work, the context’s norms and the cues the teacher provides to advance their students’ thinking’ (2000:217). This paper reflects on preliminary results of a collaborative research project between teachers and university researchers that is investigating how children develop and refine arts-making ideas and related skills in Dance and Music in a small sample of schools in New Zealand. Factors such as the place of repetition in the development of ideas, the relevance of offers, the place of verbal and non-verbal communication in arts idea generation, and group work as an accepted ritual of practice, are explored and discussed