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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Blog post 4: HSC Belonging question theme for 2013 – cultural diversity

URL: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/rich-themes-of-cultural-diversity-in-belonging-hsc-question-20131014-2vixi.html

The HSC Paper 1 for 2013 Advanced English was based on Cultural diversity as identified by the article titled “Rich themes of cultural diversity in belonging HSC question” by Josephine Tovey. The article pointed out that in Australia’s diverse classroom there has been a push for writing “what you know” and almost 70, 000 students in NSW sat Paper 1 with underlying themes of cultural diversity.

The article provides the example of Birrong Girls’ High School in south-west Sydney where girls come from more than 45 language backgrounds and as a result of the HSC questions students were able to draw on their “Experiences with asylum seekers and conflicting cultural values as inspiration for creative writing pieces centred on the theme of belonging”.

The HSC area of study section of the Advanced English syllabus frequently points to occurring themes of that year, taking into consideration political happenings and Australian themes. This topic was not only very much relevant to our Australian society, however also a fantastic way of incorporating issues of multiculturalism, race and culture into student writing.

Prinita Thevarajah says that she wrote “about a little asylum-seeker boy who comes here and gets rejected”. Prinita drew inspiration from her parents who work with asylum seekers and visited other boys in detention centres. Similarly, Najwa Halwani wrote about a “conflict experienced by a Muslim woman working in an Australian corporation”. Here we are able to understand an almost positive aspect of the HSC exams and the most recent English examination – It’s ability to incorporate issues of race, culture and identity into education allowing students of different cultural backgrounds to draw on their subsequent experiences.

While this is only a small inclusion of culture in the HSC testing, it is arguably an effective step towards greater testing belonging and inclusion. Students of cultural backgrounds for once had the advantage, being able to draw on personal experiences and background to write their work, and likewise students who aren’t from cultural backgrounds were able to touch on and identify with these ideas for their own responses.

Blog post 3: Deteriorating language culture in Education

URL: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/students-stop-taking-asian-languages-in-senior-years-20131007-2v4cu.html

The article titled “Students stop taking Asian languages in senior years” by Amy McNeilage and Josephine Tovey indicates speaks of how senior school students have steered away from taking Asian languages in years 11 and 12. The article points to how between 2010 and 2012, the “number of high school students learning Chinese grew by 42 per cent to almost 10, 000”. However over the same period the number of HSC students who were studying languages had been minimized by 27%.

Also the statistics indicated that only 902 HSC students studied Chinese this year, dropping by 5% from last year. It has been indicated by Tom Alegounarias the president of the Board of Studies that students began to form the opinion that studying a language was not as significant anymore when it came to studying the HSC, once being renowned for giving students a “competitive advantage” among their peers.

This deter away from studying languages in high school is result of our growing globalization which could be perceived as a positive, however the negative would be that culture and language seems to be suffering as a result. Students feel that in this day and age you don’t need another language other than English and students seem to be aware of such.

The article also points out that “the proportion of students continuing to more advanced study in the senior years continues to slide, with Fairfax Media revealing last week that the rate of students studying a foreign language for the HSC is at a historic low of just 8 per cent”. When looking at this statement we need to take a couple of points into consideration. Firstly, as aforementioned, how the growth of globalization means that students feel they do not need to learn a language to benefit in society. Perhaps another factor and also mentioned in the article is that students are deterred to learn languages that are not innate to their own culture as they feel they will be competing against students who have the same language background and will be disadvantaged in the HSC as a result. Furthermore perhaps the fact that languages are not signified as important in a myriad of Sydney schools in comparison to extension subjects and higher scales subjects such as Physics and Chemistry.

This article relates to culture and education for a number of reasons, primarily that despite our growing multiculturalism and arguable move towards multicultural harmony the learning of language is deteriorating and therefore culture itself.

It is perhaps up to each educational system to ensure that languages are as valued as other subjects, with Dr Ellis even pointing out that there is “a lot of evidence that bilingualism can enhance cognitive abilities”. Essentially the importance of bilingualism and learning language in school should be enhanced and not deterred in Educational institutions, ensuring that this little bit of culture does not essentially diminish for good.

Mandatory blog post 2: A reflection on a current educational issue in Sydney relating to culture and identity

The issue that I have chosen to reflect on is the role and identity of Gay or transgender students within an educational setting and environment, which has become a prominent topic within the labour party within the last few months.

The NSW Labor party has announced that it is in support and will arguably push to abolish laws that allow private schools to expel students who are either gay or transgender. While this is quite a controversial issue regarding student identity for numerous reasons, I would firmly argue that students should not be discriminated against due to their sexuality. One’s sexuality is very much a representation of their identity and almost a new-age culture, and therefore to discriminate a student on this basis is to strip away their sense of inclusion within the school environment. While I myself am quite conventional and conservative when it comes to matters of education and politics, I still believe that a student’s sense of inclusion should override conservative morals.

The independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich did introduce a private member’s bill to remove exemptions for private schools from parts of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act. The act identifies that it is unlawful for educational institutions to discriminate or expel students due to their homosexuality or transgender status. Despite this however, private schools are not included and exempt from such laws, and therefore are able to discriminate on this basis. Private schools are often driven by numerous external influences one primary being the parental committee’s and it is possible that they are potentially influenced by parents who feel homosexual or transgender students could somehow influence their children.

Carmel Tebbutt the spokeswoman for Labor’s education pointed out that the party decided against a conscious vote and would embrace and support the bill when it is voted upon in a few months. I would argue that this is not so much a debate for or against gay or transgender citizens, however more-so an argument for discrimination against culture and identity within the educational system. This bill, if passed, will indicate that it is unacceptable to discriminate against students due to not only their cultural background in terms of nationality and religion, however also their sexuality which very much makes up their cultural existence.

While certain private schools could view this bill as a threat to their religious freedom, I would personally reflect that inclusion and belonging within a school environment surpasses any notion or debate surrounding “religious freedom”. I believe this is clearly a pretext for independent schools to enforce a hidden discrimination policy that is very much influenced by external stakeholders. As indicated by Alex Greenwich this is an issue that is indeed above politics as well as issues of gender, it is about our education system and vulnerable students who are negatively affected by discrimination.

Mandatory blog post 2: A reflection on a current educational issue in Sydney relating to culture and identity

Mandatory blog post 1: Reflection of your own experiences of culture and identity in relation to education

I have separated my own experiences of culture and identity in two primary educational stages of my life; primary and secondary school.

I attended a Catholic primary school and so coming from a Greek background it was difficult to accustom myself with the traditions and services that we mandatorily attended such as Mass, Communion and Reconciliation as although similar to the Orthodox culture – still quite different from a primary school perspective. Despite this, I still very much appreciated learning about the Catholic culture and I felt no different identifying myself as a Greek student in a primary school that only had three or four students of the same culture. I did however find that I tended to make friends more-so with the Greek students at that point which I would argue is a result of our similarities and the very cultural way I was raised pre-primary.

Having been born in Australia, English was funnily enough still my second language and so attended a primary school where I had to learn English after fluently speaking Greek was quite difficult especially as all students were quite good at English from memory.

In a few months however with the aid of an English teacher I learnt quite fast and eventually went on to being in the gifted and talented English class! I’d say that this is tribute to the guide of the primary school teachers who took the effort and time to assist my cultural difference. Overall this particular primary school was fantastic with recognising cultural differences and allowing each student to maintain their own identity.

Secondary school was quite different in that although I went on to another Catholic secondary school I found that the cultures in this particular area were very much distinguished by what was then called the “wogs’ and the “ozzies”. The school was essentially separated by these two terms. I very much found that the teachers, although may have recognized this disparity, didn’t do much to create peace between both “groups” within the classroom. An example of such would be in-group work, where the teachers would prefer to keep the peace by leaving each student with their preferred culture. While this may have been a temporary solution, in the long term the tension remained. Of course by year 12 and with greater maturity the year group began to unite, however the same issue was occurring in the younger years. This experience taught me that although cultural disparity does occur, teachers have a responsibility and duty of care to implement specific strategies to ensure that each individual feels included and is able to maintain their sense of identity within an educational setting. Although each individual felt they were included within their own cultural group, the tension with the other cultures was highly evident.

Overall my own personal experience and identity in Australia has been quite successful and not bothersome. I would attribute this largely to the friends I did make and the primary school that shaped my understanding of cultures. Furthermore I think a parent’s role is largely disregarded sometimes when it comes to their role in also educating their students about our multicultural society and identity within an educational setting.