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Measuring Australian Preservice Teachers’ Asia Capability And Perceived Readiness To Teach The Asia Cross-Curricular Priority., James F. Toohey, Peter R. Grainger, Michael Carey

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Preservice teachers are soon-to-be graduates expected to deliver the Cross-Curricular Priority ‘Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia’. Teachers of all learning areas are expected to teach about Asia, irrespective of their knowledge or capabilities in Asian contexts. The curriculum review has revised expectations for ‘Asia literacy’ in graduates. The changes de-emphasise cultural knowledge, and instead, promote relationship-building and intercultural understanding. This research identified 31 preservice teachers’ perceptions of their Asia literacy and preparedness to teach the related curriculum initiative. Grainger and Christie’s (2016) linguistic model was used to define and measure Asia literacy. Thematic analysis identified (1) how participants conceptualised …