Some Reflections on the Challenges and Opportunities of the CCP Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia in the Australian Curriculum

Three decades ago, Stephen Kemmis (1990) argued that curricula provide insights into how nations and states interpret themselves and how they want to be interpreted. He also noted that 'debates about curriculum reveal fundamental concerns, uncertainties and tensions which preoccupy nations and states as they struggle to adapt to changing circumstances' (Kemmis, 1990, p. 32). This empirical paper draws from the literature to review the inclusion of the Cross-Curriculum Priorities (CCP) as one of three basic dimensions of the Australian Curriculum. In doing so, this paper argues that the CCPs can be viewed as indicative of the curriculum challenges Kemmis canvassed and it raises questions about how particular approaches to curriculum can be integrated into subject-based curricula. In particular, the discussion focuses on the CCP of Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia as a contested form of knowledge in the current curriculum, together with some of the challenges and opportunities Geography teachers face in planning to implement this CCP.