Deploying the post-colonial predicaments of researching on/with ‘Asia’ in education: a standpoint from a rich peripheral country

Abstract

Against the current infatuation with Asia in Australian education, this article rearticulates the notion of ‘Asia literacy’ to explore new ways of researching on/with/through Asia. Drawing on the post-colonial critique of Western social science knowledge, I first demonstrate the problematic nature of Australian knowledge production on and with Asia in social science and education. And yet, I also highlight the contribution that Australian scholars have made to decolonizing knowledge work, with particular attention to their critique of internationalization of cultural studies in the 1990s. In so doing, I identify the particular epistemic standpoint of Australian scholarship, which has emerged out of its ambivalent location in the global politics of academic knowledge production. Then, I identify three types of engagement by Asian researchers with Western knowledge. Situating Australian education scholarship among them, I explore what ‘Asia literate’ education research might look like from the vantage point of Australia.

Keywords:

• Australian education research
• Asia literacy
• Asian century
• cultural studies
• post-colonial
• politics of knowledge

Acknowledgements

The initial ideas upon which this paper is based were presented at the postgraduate conference at the School of Education, University of Newcastle in April 2012, the symposium Globalizing education in an Asian century: An Australian perspective organized by the Graduate School of Education, University of Queensland in August 2013 and the symposium Knowledge of/in ‘Japan’ in an era of globalization: Perspectives from sociology, anthropology and Japanese Studies held by the International Center for Japanese Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in December 2013. I would like to sincerely thank those who kindly invited me to speak at these events and all the participants for helping me refine the ideas presented here. I would also like to thank my UNE colleague Dr Stephen Heimans for his insights which helped me reconsider parts of my discussion.

Notes

1. Most recently, this intellectual tradition has engaged productively with the feminist standpoint theory, forming the basis of the indigenous standpoint and research methodology (see Nakata, 2007).