Now more than ever we live in one world ...

a large suburban primary school …

We talked about it a great deal at the start [more than 10 years ago]. We wanted our students to be more open-minded and tolerant. We happen to have a very homogeneous group of students. They are almost entirely of Anglo-Saxon background with a fairly limited world view. They don't travel much and certainly not much in Asia. For big trips they go to Sydney or the Gold Coast. They had pretty stereotypical views of Asia and Asians. We wanted to open them up to other cultural experiences and to develop a more accurate and sophisticated set of ideas about our international neighbours. Just to travel off their own particular beaten track and see other things would be a wonderful thing. There are very good, very simple educational reasons for doing things like this.

Since that time, we have had lots of studies of Asia professional development. That is partly the result of being a studies of Asia network leader, but it also reflects how strongly the whole staff took it on. Reflecting on that experience, the key aspects were personal enthusiasm and building a group which enjoyed each other's company. Practical things to use in the curriculum are always welcome and so are useful resources. Conferences revitalise you, and often provide confirmation that you're heading in the right direction. You get a sense of the bigger picture too as a rule - hear new ideas, hear about new resources. I think it is very important to go as a team so that you can swap and share ideas, and it gives a different level of strength to the views you take back to school. You're not just stuck out on your own.

 

"We wanted to open our students up to other cultural experiences and to develop a more accurate and sophisticated set of ideas about our international neighbours."

 

We try to address international or global issues in all the units we teach. There are some units where it's not possible or not sensible to integrate international perspectives. You don't want to squeeze so hard that it's ridiculous. But I think you could say, reliably, that you'd find a breadth of perspectives in every student's learning.

We have been running Indonesian for 15 years now and it is well established and well received. We conducted trips there until the DFAT travel advisory warnings put an end to that. But we have a sister-school relationship with a primary school in Korea, and each year we have a group exchange each way.

We have a Studies of Asia Week. Each grade has a focus country so it is a very lively affair with quite a broad coverage. The youngest kids will do something like folk stories but we will have a number of special events, major displays and performances. We have had some Korean performers in recently. And, of course, we have our permanent Indonesian exhibition.

 

"There are very good, very simple educational reasons for doing things like this."

 

We are shifting now more to a 'sustainability' focus with international perspectives as a background. Our planner for integrated units reflects the resources we have at the school, but also the need to have a range of focal points reflecting a variety of cultural and economic issues and matters related to civics and citizenship.

The place for studies of Asia is within integrated curricula. I can't see it in primary schools as a separate subject, or at least not being taught as effectively from that standpoint. I would also say that it becomes more significant and powerful as you go up the school. The older students can really make something of it.

Other aspects of a good program that I think are crucial? The visiting program is fundamental. You can teach about something all you like but until you see, hear, smell, experience what you're learning about things won't fall into place to anything like the same degree. You can see the change in kids after they have experienced other cultures. They are so much more ready to explore ideas and chase things up.

 

"It's very important to be contemporary, and that can be a challenge."

 

It's very important to be contemporary, and that can be a challenge. There are still a lot of resources which are built on dated stereotypes. But it's not just that. The fact is that these places are changing at an extraordinary rate. I can vouch for this through my own travel experience. But even day-to-day media gives some insights into how fast things are shifting. At Level 4 [Years 5 & 6] we focus on something more like critical literacy: what a stereotype is, for example, or comparing the values that appear in texts. We find that arts and crafts can often, perhaps surprisingly, provide quality access to these sorts of issues.

The main benefits? Open-mindedness. The change can be striking. More tolerance, more interest in and acceptance of other points of view, and less inclination and haste to judge. When the kids talk, you can just hear it in what they say. The change in parents and their attitudes over the time I've been at the school is just as dramatic.

Wayang performance.