In education this is particularly so, with the educator often functioning as an emissary for knowledge and perspective formulate by the culture of the nation-state. Australia's teachers are today in the difficult position of attempting to resolve this position with the needs posed by immigrant students. So denotes the text by Hassam (2007), which contends that "teachers who seek to critique the nation by deconstructing media knowledge need to consider the ethics of engaging with their students' sense of self-identity and the pedagogical risks of questioning their own authority to speak on behalf of the nation. Internationalising the curriculum means developing teaching methods and assessment instruments which will invite students to reflect on their imaginative journey into 'new' and 'different' cultures; but it will also require the teachers to reflect on their own conflicting identities and loyalties, and to make that journey alongside their students." (p. 1)
According to much of the literature confronted during the preliminary steps of this research project, the level of racism in Australia is itself complex and contributory to the sometimes difficult immigrant experience. Though it has dispatched with many of the aggressively and overtly racialist principles of its past, Australia remains a nation flowing with an undercurrent of discrimination, bias and inequality. Bryant (2009) points out with respect to the claim that Australia still struggles with this racist proclivity that "from the sometimes paranoiac reaction...
There's also a counter-argument: that the bigger, more optimistic story about race in post-war Australia is how successfully immigrants from all over the world have successfully been assimilated without any great backlash." (p. 1)
This is the juxtaposition at the center of this preliminary statement, the intended research proposal and the question of globalization at large. For nation-states that have developed powerfully defined cultural identities, it is often the case that said identities have been established to the favor of a hegemonic order. This is quite so in Australia, where the racially and ethnically monolithic nature of its education must change if Australia is to continue to present itself as a bastion to educational opportunity for immigrants from throughout the global community.
References
Bryant, Nick (2009). Online article: "Is Australia unusually racist?" Retrieved
16/03/2010
Carnoy, M. & Rhoten, D. (2002). "What does globalisation mean for educational change?" A comparative approach. In Comparative Educational Review, 46(1), 1-
9.
Hassam, a. (2007). Speaking for Australia: cross-cultural dialogue and international education. Australian Council for Educational Research.
