AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY
Australian Government White Paper
“Every Australian student will have significant
exposure to studies of Asia across the
curriculum to increase their cultural knowledge
and skills and enable them to be active in the
region.”
http://asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au/white-paper/executive-summary
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
“We will need an education system - right from
the very earliest years of schooling - that
acknowledges and recognises Asian culture
and history, equipping the next generations
with the ability to operate more effectively in an
Asia-centred world.’’
Dr Ken Henry,
Head of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper
task force
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
“If you have kids at school and they are not
learning anything about Asian culture or
history, you should challenge the school or
change it.”
Amanda Vanstone
The Age, 1st October, 2012
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
Martin Jacques author When China
Rules the World: the End of the Western
World and the Birth of a New Global Order
Senior Visiting Research Fellow at IDEAS, at the
centre for diplomacy and grand strategy at the
London School of Economics
Co-founder of the think-tank Demos
Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing
Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy, Washington
DC
Visiting Professor at Renmin University, the
International Centre for Chinese Studies, Aichi
University, Nagoya, and Ritsumeikan University,
Kyoto
Former deputy editor of The Independent
newspaper, UK
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
Martin Jacques TED Talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhUmLtlZpw
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
Question:
What is your response to Martin’s proposition
that the rise of Asia and China will
fundamentally change the world as we know
it?
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
• Civilization state rather than a nation state
Continuous, cohesive civilization and
Confucian based cultural identity for over
2,000 years
• Powerful sense of racial identity - over 90%
of Chinese identifying as Han for whom
maintenance of the Chinese civilization is a
priority
• The government is the guardian of the
Chinese civilization- maintaining order and
ensuring its continuance. Strong public
approval
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
Questions:
•In terms of real student learning outcomes,
what would you like to be achieving in your
school in two years’ time?
•With the rise of Asia, how likely is it that the
world will become increasingly unfamiliar to
people in the west ?
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia
“We need to help them understand that
there is a great big world out there that is
neither white, not Anglo- Saxon nor
Christian- and to whet their appetite to
learn more.”
Amanda Vanstone The Age, 1st October, 2012
Leading 21st Century Schools Victoria : Engage with Asia