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

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.