This unit will provide you with an opportunity gain an overview of the contexts in which the contemporary concern with the need for intercultural understanding is embedded. It will help you to gain understanding, acquire knowledge and develop in students skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world, and help you to consider how these are played out in classrooms and the school environment. Specifically you will critically engage in the literature that informs understandings of culture, multiculturalism, and intercultural communication. The Melbourne Declaration acknowledges major changes in the world that are now placing new demands on Australian education, amongst them global integration and internationalism, and the need to become Asia- literate and accordingly, there will be a particular focus on Asia and Australia's place in this region.  The Australian Curriculum with its Cross Curriculum Priorities of Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia, and its General Capabilities focus on Intercultural Understanding is a key context for this unit as is the central focus on providing practicing teachers with ways of considering how these contemporary perspectives can be translated into effective practice in the classroom.