Australia in Asia and the Pacific (AAP) at Fahan

Major objectives of the Social Studies syllabuses in Years 9 - 12 within schools of the Education Department of Tasmania are to enable young people to become socially, culturally and Asia literate in the 1990's. Teachers at Fahan School have not been involved in the recent development of the Social Studies syllabuses for the Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE) because Social Studies as such is not taught at Fahan. The school has traditionally preferred to include Social Studies content in the Senior (secondary) School within the subject disciplines of History and Geography. However, teachers have held parallel concerns with teachers in other schools regarding the content of courses. During 1987 teachers at Fahan perceived an Australian and Asian literacy gap in curriculum offerings at the school and courses were devised to fill that gap under various banners between 1988 and 1992 Australian Studies in Year 9 from 1988 - 1990, Asian Studies in Year 9 and Australia in Asia and the Pacific (AAP) in 1992. AAP, within Education Department.Schools, is an extension of the Years 9 and 10 Social Sciences into Years 11 and 12. (In Year 9 the Social Sciences are termed Australian Studies and in Year 10 they are termed World Studies). AAP at Fahan was also conceived from the implementation of Australian Studies in Year 9 and the planning of World Studies in Year 10. In 1991, a year when no Social Studies courses were taught in the Fahan Senior School; a document entitled AUSTRALIAN STUDIES AT FAHAN by Jane Naqvi investigated the question \Is our Fahan leaver a culturally literate Australian?\" This was done by examining the content of all Social Studies units K - 6 (Junior School)-and all History and Geography units 7 - 12 (Senior School). The conclusions reached included the notion that modification of curricula was necessary to develop greater social cultural and Asian literacy amongst Fahan students. The document which was submitted as a paper for EED 806 Curriculum Design and Development in the M. Ed. Studies program of the University of Tasmania in November 1991 instigated the introduction of AAP at Fahan in 1992 and the re-offering of Australian Studies into Year 9 for 1993 (but the latter will not go ahead due to low numbers electing to undertake it). It is also a precursor to much of the thinking in this document AAP AT FAHAN which has two main objectives : ‚Äö to document the development of AAP as a subject for the TCE in general and as a viable subject for Fahan School in particular ‚Äö to put theory into practice through reflection of teaching in 1992 and planning for teaching in 1993."