ABSTRACT
The imperative of articulating Asia in education has been on educational and political agendas in Australia over the last four decades, and was elevated under successive language policies since the 1990s due to the rise of Asia, growing Asian communities and the intellectual value associated with languages and cultures. In 2012, the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper was published to iterate the significance of developing Asia-literate generations for engagement with Asia. Here, the notion of Asia literacy relates to ‘Asia-related knowledge’ and ‘Asia-relevant capabilities’ for positive engagement with the Asian region. Yet, little is known in terms of how the vested interests in Asia literacy transform in Australian universities, and what their pedagogical implications are for undergraduate curricula. The centrality of this chapter is to redefine the role of Asia literacy in Australian undergraduate curricula in response to the political, economic and sociocultural contexts in the ‘Asian Century’, and importantly, for a better alignment with the increased focus on Asia in Australian universities’ strategic plans. Informed by the sociologist perspective of curriculum as a major conceptual lens, this chapter has a particular focus on specific characteristics of disciplines. As such, it is based on an empirical study undertaken in Australian universities, which engaged teaching academics from across disciplines that represented four distinctive knowledge fields (Trowler, Saunders, & Bamber, 2012) to holistically understand the pedagogical implications of Asia literacy. Drawing on their narratives, a multifaceted role of Asia that varies with different disciplines has been identified. This chapter concludes with a critical discussion to legitimate an informed place of Asia in the undergraduate curricula to reflect its multiple and discipline-specific purposes in promoting student’s employability, cultural awareness and worldviews. It also calls for a broader role for Asia in university teaching in order to articulate the intrinsic worth of knowledge so that the curricular focus on Asia is not reduced to only instrumental outcomes.
