School leaders build their schools' capacities to equip and empower their students for informed and active participation in the 21st century where Asia plays a central role.

In this module, developed in partnership with the Asia Education Foundation (AEF), you will engage in a process of whole school curriculum change to develop a sustainable, Asia literate school. Each stage will provide you with resources and self-paced activities. The stages assume no prior experience: however many principals will have already made progress on this journey and will want to select those stages which best meet their needs. The module starts with understanding why Asia literacy is essential for today's Australian students and moves through processes to support you in ensuring sustainable curriculum change.

The one resource referred to in the Module that is well worth obtaining before you go too far is the 2020 Schools: Engage with Asia DVD. This is available by contacting the Asia Education Foundation (AEF). Email s.blyth@asialink.unimelb.edu.au or phone 03 8344 4800. In addition, we suggest you download the following three documents which are referred to extensively throughout this Module.  National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools  National Statement for Languages Education in Australian Schools  Leading 21st Century Schools: Engaging with Asia Tool Kit Modules

The Melbourne Declaration acknowledges major changes in the world that are placing new demands on Australian education... India, China and other Asian nations are growing and their influence on the world is increasing. Australians need to become 'Asia literate', engaging and building strong relationships with Asia.

Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians >>>

• Asia literacy assists young Australians to make sense of the part of the world in which they live; the Asian region.
• Asia literacy is foundational and includes deep knowledge, skills and understandings about the histories, geographies, societies, cultures, literature and languages of the diverse countries that make up our region. This is a core part of a twenty-first century Australian curriculum.
• Asia literacy is integral to the achievement of educational goals including personal futures, interpersonal development, social responsibility, cultural sensitivity, building communities, local and global futures, intercultural understanding, moral and ethical integrity, spiritual and aesthetic development and the skills of communicating, creating, thinking and innovating.

Australia has to make itself the most Asia-literate country in the collective West. The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister of Australia, Asia Society, June 2008

In May 2008 the AEF's Leading 21st Century Schools National Forum brought together 243 school and system leaders from around Australia. The forum aimed to motivate them to lead the changes necessary to build a critical mass of Asia literate students, and achieve the goals of the National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools. The following audio clips are from the National Forum.

Asia is now the region whose current emergence is one of history's greatest catalysts for worldwide change. Australians require new skills, knowledge and understanding related to the Asian region and Australia's engagement with Asia in order to meet the challenges and opportunities of living and working in the twenty-first century.

National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools >>>

Asia literacy is developed when a school's program: contains sequenced learning about Asia includes a focus on Asia across learning areas includes skills, understandings and knowledge of Asia provides an opportunity to learn an Asian language helps create student connections with the region supports professional learning opportunities for staff to build their Asia literacy supports learning with Asia focused resources across learning areas. In outline form, these descriptors provide a simple but clear account of what principals, teachers and schools really do when they revise their programs to make learning more 'Asia-engaged'.

Now more than ever we live in one world ... How schools can, and do, respond >>>

This Module follows a process of school change. Your school can join the process at any stage of development - it is not a lock-step approach to change. These stages are reflected in the Module Assertions (on the right hand side of each webpage) that are structured using the five propositions of the L5 Frame.

These stages are:

1. School leadership commitment to developing Asia literacy and engaging stakeholders and developing a school vision
2. Gathering data on school readiness for Asia engagement
3. Developing an action plan with implementation and evaluation strategies
4. Building a curriculum focus from action plan, processes and resources
5. Providing quality professional learning
6. Developing sustainable strategies
7. Monitoring progress, evaluation and celebration.

This Module includes a number of Activities that are intended for individual or group use. They are an essential part of the learning. These Activities are also collected together in the Module Workbook. They are all downloadable Word documents.

We recommend that you download the Workbook now, and save it to your desktop so that you can work on it throughout the Module, or download the individual Activities as you come across them and save them into a folder on your computer.

 The Module Workbook