Impressions

The National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools (NALSAS) strategy reflects the commitment of the Commonwealth Government to incorporate the teaching of key Asian Languages and cultures in schools across Australia. In respect to studies of Asian cultures, the aim has been to infuse a perspective on Asia across the curriculum, with particular emphasis on The Arts, Studies of Society and Environment, and English.

The three anthologies published by the Curriculum Corporation; Reflections: texts from Asia for the lower secondary English classroom; Dimensions: texts from Asia for the upper secondary English classroom have been funded by the NALSAS taskforce for secondary classrooms. They attempt to address several key aspects of studies of Asia in particular, whilst at the same time incorporating fundamental principles of working around and through texts embodied in National and State English curriculum guidelines. They are written by Anthony Bott, Lee Grafton, Carolyn Millard and Doug Trevaskis.

Impressions, Reflections, Dimensions is a textual enterprise which endeavours to open up dialogue around written and visual texts that testify to the richness and diversity of the cultures in Asia and to the similarities that exist across cultures. The focus on texts spanning social and cultural contexts, in time and place resonates with the studies of Asia `project` to dismantle stereotypes and narrow and inaccurate understandings of Asian cultures, lifestyles and traditions. Hence, the anthologies work from the understandings that texts embody social and cultural meanings and that the reader/viewer in turn brings particular ways of `seeing and being` in the world to the text. What the enterprise aims for is that close engagement with rich, beautifully produced collections of texts which will offer students alternative ways of `seeing and being` in relation to Asia and Asian people, past, present and future.

Impressions, Reflections, Dimensions individually and as a collection, cover a variety of text types that move students beyond commonsense understanding into the world of the unknown; offering opportunity for multiple readings of the texts and reflection on themselves as readers/viewers of these texts. They also cover a range of topics that appear to have been selected on a perception of `age appropriateness`. In Impressions the emphasis is on folktales, myths, legends and autobiographical writing: Reflections covers some political comment and stories of political standpoints to complement folktales and oral histories; and Dimensions focuses on gender roles, stereotypes, changing personal relationships, large scale political change and personal recounts of living under political oppression.

At all times, the voices that echo throughout the anthologies are the voices of the Asian people. These voices bare witness, for example, to the everyday (Beijing Snacks); the historical (The Crow and the Archers); the challenging (I am Not that Women); the political (The Coldest Winter); the contemporary (NP) and the evolving (The Coconut Orchestra). Students are invited to relate to these voices through activities that encourage literal, analytical and critical readings of the texts. Personally, I feel an opportunity for more critical readings of the text to be included in all three anthologies has been missed. For it is the struggle between different discourses, `Asia` and `Australia`, `Self` and `other` and all that exists in between that develops new ways of `seeing and being`.

Nevertheless, Impressions, Reflections, Dimensions are excellent resources for examining diversity within and across texts and within and across cultures. The anthologies offer students the opportunity to engage with written and visual texts that bring cultures, lifestyles, traditions and issues to the reader/viewer from a variety of viewpoints and places in time. However the outstanding contribution that the anthologies offer, I believe, is that they value the voices of peoples of Asia, and in doing so avoid speaking for the people of the Asian region. Importantly, they produce Australian students with a rich entry point into the world of difference and, indeed, a world were similarities across cultures defy an unbridgeable gap between people. The anthologies attempt to address what Michael Garbutcheon Singh aptly describes as a multivocal curriculum were the circulation and exchange of Asian voices facilitate the emergence of an `Asian presence` in Australia from a marginalised and stereotyped space.

* Reproduced with permission

Julie Hamston, University of Melbourne

Viewpoint Vol 7 | No 1 Autumn 1999

pp10