Innovations in partnership-driven teacher education: stimulating Australian languages education through transnational knowledge networking

Recent history has seen languages education in Australian education come and go. Asian economies have prospered and fallen into 'crises', only to more recently re-emerge with strength, while Australian governments have been variously committed and uncommitted to intellectually and linguistically engaging Asia. Although there is a government mandate to internationalize (and nationalize) the curriculum to serve national economic interests, 'western' economies are now faltering, as was the case for the initial Australian Asia literacy program. Against this history this paper focuses on efforts to build intellectual and linguistic connections between Asia and Australia via international (as well as migrant and refugee) students from the region. Internationalizing Australian education by building intellectual and linguistic connections with international students from Asia can no longer be considered inconsequential or peripheral to Australia's economic interests, not in the least because of the increasingly competitive international student market. In elaborating this argument we report on the conceptual development of a research-based, school engaged teacher education partnership between Western Sydney and Ningbo and examine the prospects for a spin-off project to have local students make intellectual and linguistic connections with international students, most of whom come from Asia.