• Jenny Wilkinson, Gina Milgate
• Asia Education Foundation

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06 July 2009Across Australia, very few Year 12 subjects focus on Asia, according to this report. Where content on Asia is offered, it often has an Australian or Western focus.

The authors found that, in practice, it is schools and teachers who select the material that students will study. Teachers are not likely to select material with which they themselves are unfamiliar or may have never studied. They will tend to choose what they know about and are confident of teaching, particularly at Year 12 level, where so much rides on students’ results. What teachers know and teach about will reflect to some extent the content of their own education. If their school and tertiary studies have not included a focus on Asian studies, they may be less likely to incorporate it into their own teaching. It is thus difficult to break the cycle.

The report found that simply making content or focus on Asia available as an option in courses does not stimulate the study of Asia. Many of the subjects reviewed allow for the possibility of content or focus on Asia, but teachers and students do not often choose these options. Across Australia, there is generally a strong disposition for the inclusion of content on Europe rather than content on Asia, or, for that matter, Africa or America.

In those cases where specific content on Asia is offered as an option, and the rare cases where it is mandatory, the content often has an Australian or Western focus. This is particularly the case for any material relating to war or other conflicts, such as the Vietnam War. Where content on Asia is included, it generally covers a limited range of countries within the region; there appears to be little opportunity to study anything to do with India or Pakistan, for example. In Year 12 English, for example, where there are texts with content or focus on Asia, they are often older established texts or texts that relate to war and conflict, such as Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.

The report was written by staff of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) for the Asia Education Foundation.