Measuring Australian preservice teachers' Asia capability and perceived readiness to teach the Asia cross-curricular priority

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 ‘meeting’ expectations for Asia literacy, and (2) how the tertiary provider might better respond to their learning needs. Like previous research (see Australian Government, 2023; Halse & Cairns, 2018), we found that most respondents felt unqualified to teach about Asia. Participants expressed the desire for more content knowledge, authentic opportunities (such as in-country experience or language capability), and pedagogical skills. We argue that the national improvement of Asia literacy in preservice teachers is tied to its assessment. There is a need to consistently define, delimit and assess Asia literacy within a framework of cultural literacy. These theoretical considerations underlie future, systemic efforts to track and evaluate a long-term government initiative.