Re-forming the nation: Curriculum, text selection, and Asian literature in subject English in Australia

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which text selection practices and understandings of nation and identity in Australia have evolved over the course of the past 50 years through an examination of the historical record of English curricula in Australia available through the ALIAS database and the more recent guidance regarding text selection provided in conjunction with the Australian Curriculum: English. This chapter asks what kinds of knowledge, practices and resources are required of twenty-first century English educators in Australia in order to support contemporary understandings of Australia as geographically and culturally part of the Asia-Pacific.