New Zealand looks at Asia : ideas about Asia in school syllabuses, textbooks and journals, 1930-1974

Abstract

How has New Zealand's thinking about Asia changed since the 1930s? In seeking to answer such a broad question this study confines its attention to the attitudes that have been commonly conveyed by the school system. Fot it is in the field of education that something of the direction of national changes in thinking about Asia and Asians can be measured. The thesis analyses the amount of content devoted to Asian areas in school syllabuses (for history, geography and social studies), examinations, textbooks, Journals and Bulletins and it reviews the main ideas contained within that content. It also traces interest in the continent amongst teachers as it manifested in the educational journals. Prior to World War II when there was virtually no contact between the two areas New Zealanders learnt very little about Asia from the schools and universities. Most of what was taught was highly ethnocentric and concerned only with the activities of the British in Asia. There was some interest in expanding what was taught about Asia in the schools during the thirties but this was confined to a few individuals. As a result of the War, the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the fall of Singapore syllabus revisions in the 1940s made some additional allowance for Asian topics. But there was still very little information available on the area in school textbooks and what there was tended to be simplistic and superficial. As a result of a humanistic movement in education generally the new topics introduced after the War were more concerned with the people of the region and their ways of life than they had been before. In the early 1960s several influences combined to produce new initiatives sponsoring the study of Asia in schools. There was at this time a heightened awareness of the areas importance to New Zealand and this helped the Asia movement in education. It was helped too by a special Unesco project on teaching about Asia, by new university courses and by the more up to date concerns of a new pedagogy. Textbooks appeared on the region, often written by New Zealanders, and by the end of the decade Asian languages were being taught in a small number of schools. The ideas had changed too. Syllabus topics and textbooks were less simplistic and aimed to develop a sympathetic understanding of cultural values within the region and to explore some of the social changes taking place. These tendencies have been further developed during the seventies when Asia has found a fair and balanced place within the curriculum. The major problem in recent educational programmes on the region is an apparent reluctance to consider some of the controversial issues that are likely to assume increasing importance in future years. The role of New Zealand's foreign assistance for example and the different approaches to rural development in Asia have not been adequately dealt with in textbooks.