How should teacher deal with multi-culture classroom?

How should teacher deal with multi-culture classroom?

The racism in school has been underestimated. Discrimination in schools was despised, in this article demonstrates some students did not get the attention from teachers because of their different cultural backgrounds. Teachers do not pay attention to their emotions or culture, so they feel helpless in school. In fact teacher should consider students’ culture background and believe every student were capable of academic success that in order to improve their educational outcome and increase their confidence (Ladson.G, 1995).

  Especially the Arab-Australians students believe that even if they discuss highly emotional issues with their teachers, they would not get a response from the teacher or mercy. They feel very lonely and eliminating, and questioned where they would fit in. Commonly these students with different cultural backgrounds are minority in school, thus many teachers choose to ignore their difference, which led to them feel disappoint about school and lose confident of themselves. For example, female students of Islam despair of their turbans and the boys as suspects by the police due to their identity which make them feel distrust. In addition, because of their parents speaking little English, it is difficult to help their children in their studies. The project conducted by Deakin's Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights was sparked by reports about cultural tensions in schools (Cook.M, 2006).

The project is focusing on communication between students, schools and parents. The purpose is to improve the current problems of racial discrimination in school and help minority students out of anxious. This includes employing a cultural diversity facilitator to help parents understand the education system. In 2005, 79 per cent of students said relations between ethnic groups were good or excellent compared with 48 per cent in 2003 (Cook.M, 2006). The number of parents who said they were interested in and supported their children's education grew from 19 to 54 per cent during that period after the communication between teachers and students. Obviously, if teacher understand the students culturally, teacher would have better relationship with students. Better relationship help teacher guide them better in studies and make them feel they are involved. Therefore it is important that teacher treat every students equally and understand them culturally is helpful for teaching. 

Australia is a multi-cultural country, and as a teacher in Australia, they are faced different cultural backgrounds students in the classroom is a very common event. In my point of view teacher should not directly choose to ignore this small part of the population in class. When teachers treat the different culture background population in school, they should believe all the students were able to reach academic success and see students as unpredictable group, always in process of knowledge. Teacher also ought to saw all the students as members of the community, whatever their culture or identity is (Ladson.G, 1995). So as to teacher help multi-culture class process successfully in school. 

Reference:

1.     Cook.M (2006), Racism in schools 'underestimated', http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/racism-in-schools-underestimated/2006/05/26/1148524893047.html review 27/10/2013

2.     Ladson.G (1995).Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, American, American Educational Research Association, p478 http://aer.sagepub.com/content/32/3/465 27/10/2013

Preserving Asia and the Pacific's cultural traditions

Preserving Asia and the Pacific's cultural traditions

The Asia Pacific occupies one quarter of the world’s languages and they are at the risk of disappearing, Australia universities are assisting preserve the traditional culture of this region. The University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University are involved in the project of cultural protection which called PARADISEC. They recorded some small -lingual recording to prevent this language disappear, and some recordings even up to 7596 hours long. However, not everyone think it is worth to carry out the PARADISEC. The Australia government does not give enough support on this program as well. In my opinion, I believe these endangered languages should be recorded, as it can be used to tell us our future generations what kind of language does our ancestors speak as well as their culture.  

Here is an example about how PARADISEC helping preserve the traditional culture. Alamenk is the only man who lives in a small village in Papua New Guinea four years ago, and he knows how to make traditional artifact. Prof. Nicholas Evans had an interview with Alamenk in 2009. He recorded Alamenk was doing the traditional artifact one by one meanwhile Alamenk explained each artifact’s functions and how to make them in his languages. Alamenk insist on doing traditional artifact because he wants his children know the valuable things that his ancestors left behind. Prof. Nicholas Evans explained the aim of PARADISEC is to digital preservation and access to endangered language and music from the Asia Pacific, which includes music or includes story telling it includes a lot thing other than just language itself (2013). Whereas Dr. Nick Thieberger from the University of Melbourne does not agree with that, he thinks doing this is price lessens, they are unique often. The disappearance not only in those minority languages, but also the culture that related on those minority languages would disappear as well. “The most important relationship between language and culture that gets to the heart of what is lost when you lose a language is that most of the culture is in the language and is expressed in the language” (Fishman.J, 1996). Sometimes a small languages ​​disappear, perhaps imply a tribal cultural extinction. Nowadays, due to the rapid development of economic globalization and English as the international communicate language, it lead to western culture has become the mean stream culture. In our process of learning English, in fact, we are also studying and absorbing western culture and our own culture is slowly being forgotten. 

My personal idea is, as mentioned above, the development of economic globalization leading English as main communicate language. Many minority languages ​​will gradually disappear, and this region's culture will slowly disappear as well. I believe that PARADISEC program is a good way to preserve the endangered languages and its traditional culture. After several years later, some of these extinct languages can be tell to the next generations by PARADISEC website, let them know their ancestors left them some precious culture. The Australian Research Council should give more support to PARADISEC for funding and technology. It is important to protect the minority language, they gradually extinct indirectly and thus leading some culture disappeared. If the vanishing of languages is continuing, one day cultural diversity will slowly disappear, and the world would be boring. 

Reference  

1. Arnott.K, 2013, Preserving Asia and the Pacific's cultural traditions, Australia, Australia Network news, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-24/an-preserving-asia-and-the-pacific27s-cultural-traditions/5042756 26/10/2013 
2. Cantoni.G (Ed.) (1996), Stabilizing Indigenous Languages-What Do You Lose When You Lose a Language Joshua Fishman, Northern Arizona University Center for Excellence in Education, Flagstaff, P71-81 http://www2.nau.edu/jar/SIL/Fishman1.pdf, 26/10/2013 

A Reflection of my own experience of Culture and Identity in relation to Education

I am a Singaporean Chinese born in multi-racial Singapore. Although my parents are bilingual in the English and Chinese language, English is the main language used in my home environment. When I was younger, I used to think that I was an "English" girl and would question my parents when they tried to converse with me in Chinese.

My parents believe in the importance for their children to maintain their Chinese roots and identity. When I was about four, my parents enrolled me in a Chinese cultural dance school.  They hoped that I would be immersed in a Chinese-speaking environment as the teachers' medium of  instruction would be in the Chinese language. I remembered performing Chinese cultural dances in ethnic Chinese costumes. In one public performance put up by the dance school, my role was as a rabbit, one of the animals in the Chinese zodiac. I learned that I was born in the year of the monkey!  Looking back, I appreciate that my Chinese identity has been cultivated from an early age by being exposed to the Chinese culture in music, dance and language. The Chinese language helps me to access my roots, culture and identity.

I was enrolled in a primary school with a strong Chinese identity. In this school, besides the government policy of bilingualism in English and Chinese, there is emphasis on the teaching of Chinese culture and traditions. The  school curriculum  incorporates the teaching of  Chinese moral values. On reflection, I think the school's pedagogy has imbibed in me important values some of which are filial piety, hard work and placing importance on the family. It has nurtured my identity grounded in Chinese values.

After graduating from primary school, I chose to go to an all-girls Catholic school where there are Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians and other nationalities. There is religious tolerance as non-catholics are not required to participate in religious activities like masses and prayers. Besides celebrating the country's multicultural festivals, the school celebrates Racial Harmony Day where students reflect the success of the country as a harmonious nation built on a rich diversity of cultures. In this multicultural school, I have the opportunity to interact with different races every school-day. This gives me a cultural advantage as I acquire skills for communicating with different races, learn and  appreciate their cultures, customs and beliefs. In light of what I have learned this semester, this school is an ideal micropublic for cross-cultural engagement. This is because multicultural schools "throw people from diverse backgrounds, compelling them to engage in the everyday negotiations of sharing a social space" (Amin, 2002). Ho also highlights that  "schools are hosts to conflict and harmony and this teaches young people to negotiate across differences and to respect the legitimate presence of the other" (Ho, 2011). 

                                   

Based on what I learned from the Ladson-Billings article (1995) and reflecting on the teachers who had taught me, I feel they were culturally relevant in their pedagogy. They helped me in my academic achievement. They  nurtured and supported cultural competence in the classroom. One example would be that the teachers arranged for the mother of a student of Thailand to teach us Thai cuisine for our enrichment class. We were also  encouraged to develop critical consciousness by  participating in community involvement programmes.

Giddens (1991) says that identity is not an essentialized fixed product. In fact, the schools I have attended, my teachers and pedagogy all play an important role in influencing the process of my identity formation.

References:

Amin, A., (2002). Ethnicity and the multiculturalcity: living with diversity. Environment and planning A 34 (6), 959-980.

Giddens, A., Modernity and Self-Identity., Standard University Press.

Ho, C., (2011).  Respecting the Presence of Others: School micropublics ad everyday multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(6), 603-619.

Ladson. Billings G,2013  "Towards a Theory of  Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" American Educational Research Journal

Cultural understanding required for Indigenous education

What does it mean to allow students to learn effectively in Australia, where multiculturalism becomes the main context? Is it the amount of work you give them? or is it the classroom discipline you apply? Personally I believe that in a multicultural society such as Australia, student's success does not only depend on these factors, but also on teacher's understanding of different cultures and relationship with the student. According to Irvine (1990), the concept " cultural synchronization" is a very important element behind student's success in learning. What she meant by "cultural synchronization" is that when it comes to teaching students with different cultural background, teachers shouldn't just focus on speech and language interaction, but instead they should develop relationship and get to know the student's culture, such as student's morality, responsibility and spirituality etc. (Irvine, J. 1990) Indeed, with the lag of understanding of student's culture, there would be a gap created between teachers and students, resulting in teaching students with methods that they are not use to and misunderstanding created from stereotyping. Billings (1995) suggests that an effective pedagogy should have a balance between student's achievement and the "fit" between home and school culture. (Billing, L 1995) Therefore, not only is it important to focus on student's achievement in school, but it is also important that there is a connection between the school and the student's culture.

In schools, teaching students with indigenous background is a very good example supporting the importance of cultural connection between teachers and students. In response to the low improvement on attendance of indigenous students, a news article on 18th Sep 2013, found on http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/schools-should-consider-aboriginal-culture/story-fnihsfrf-1226722232796, argues that it is necessary for schools to understand and consider aboriginal culture when teaching. The article argues that there is a different between western and indigenous education system and it is ineffective to teach indigenous students in the western way where "... Kids don't take risk don't learn..." applied. Therefore, the article stresses, it is very important that teacher understand indigenous culture and teach in their context in order to improve the learning of indigenous students.

I understand and agree to the fact that student's achievement is very important in learning, but it is also very important that teacher understands students culture and teach them accordingly, because it is more effective to teach students in their context than having them to struggle and follow yours. A lag of connection between student's home and school culture will significantly decrease the effectiveness teaching and i have seen this personally when a friend of mine completely lost interest in learning due to the fact that there is a major difference in how hes being taught in china and in Australia.

Reference

Billings, G.L. (1995) "Toward A Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" "American Education Research Journal" 32(3), pp. 465-491

Irvine, J. (1990) Black Students and school failure. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/schools-should-consider-aboriginal-culture/story-fnihsfrf-1226722232796

Low grades for casual teachers in NSW schools

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/low-grades-for-casual-teachers-in-nsw-schools-20131004-2uyct.html

The article “low grades for casual teachers in NSW schools” by Anna Patty has questioned the quality of casual teachers who carry up to 10 per cent of the teaching load at public school. In the past several years, the shortage of casual teacher had left some schools unable to supervise their classes. In 2003, the department of Education established a call centre to reduce the short notice of the casual teachers in government school.  While the short notice of the casual teacher has been improved, a survey of school principals has found the teaching quality of the casual teachers was a concern. “Schools that were unhappy with a casual teacher’s performance did not re-hire them. However, those low grade casual teachers were sent to other school. One quarter of the casual teachers registered by the call centre has not worked recently and some are no longer seeking casual work.” (Anna, 2013)

According to Ken, “the quality of teaching and learning provision is by far the most salient influences on students’ cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes of schooling—regardless of their gender or background.”(Ken, 2003) Teaching quality is the critical factor that affecting the student’s experiences of school and their educational outcomes of schooling.I am doing my professional engagement in this year, and I observed the difference between a low grade casual teacher and a highly professional casual teacher. Based on my observation, I found the difference between the low grade casual teacher and the highly professional casual teacher falls into three categories: unprepared, responsible and experienced. 

A well prepared teacher whom arrives early at school, spend some time to prepare for the class such as read through the class teacher’s lesson plan and have work sheet ready. For teachers who arrive unprepared and unorganized will found themselves without any progression from their students. For example, a casual teacher I observed last week, whom just hand out the work sheet from the class teacher without introduce himself and any instruction.A responsible casual teacher will guide students and improve the student’s knowledge in whatever area they teach. They follow the classroom teacher’s lesson plan and work hard to possibly change the lives of their students on their casual time. A low grade teacher doesn't feel responsible for students. They just spend their time at school and wait to leave at 3:15 with their pay-check. A highly professional teacher is often the teacher who had many years’ experience and continues to update their own education. Having a degree in teaching doesn't mean professional in teaching. Without further training or adaptation of the changing nature of students will found themselves fail to engage and motivate students to learn and participate in class activities.

I have seen the difference between a highly professional casual teacher and a low grade casual teacher on my professional engagement. And have noted the different behavior of their students.  It is obvious to see the students follow instructions and respect to the teacher who are prepared, responsible and experienced. The low grade casual teacher should be removed from the Department of Education’s register. It is time to focus on providing quality casual teachers. 

Reference:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/low-grades-for-casual-teachers-in-nsw-schools-20131004-2uyct.html

Ken, R. (2003). The importance of Teacher Quality as a Key Determinant of Students' Experiences and Outcomes of Schooling.  Background paper to keynote address presented at the ACER Research Conference. Melbourne.

Private schools no guarantee of higher NAPLAN scores

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/private-schools-no-guarantee-of-higher-naplan-scores-study-finds-20131012-2vf63.html

Education is one of the most important things because it can help open doors of opportunity. That is why the choice of school becomes important as school is the place of education. Parents have to decide which school is best for their children and which school will provide their children a best possible future. For decades, more and more parents have been flocking to private school based on the assumption that private school can produce better grades and test scores than public school. 

The table above is the statistics related to the size of school systems. From these statistics, we can see the number of independent school has increased since 1984. Full time school students enrolled in non-government school also increased by 7%.

One of the major differences between public school and private school is funding. The public school was fund by government and run by the department of education. However, private schools are very diverse in the way they run and received money from student tuition fees. As the result of funding, students from private school have more access to technology, books and advanced facilities for their education. On the other hand, class size is also different between the public and the private school. A private school has smaller class size as the majority of the students attends public school. Therefore, students will have more one-on-one time with their teacher.

The private school student may benefit from better school facilities and more “one-on-one” time with their teacher. Study in the private school also cost expensive tuition fees that most of the family couldn’t afford. According to the news in The Sydney Morning Herald, “children who attend private primary schools don’t perform any better in NAPLAN tests than their peers at public school”. NAPLAN test scores of students from the private schools did not have statistically difference in academic achievement with students from public schools. The school facilities and teaching quality are just some measurement of school performance. It’s not indicative of the overall value of the school performance and the experience for students and parents.

According to Black, “Parental engagement in school is associated with better student achievement and retention and greater take-up of further and higher education.” Parental engagement is also a measurement of school performance. Students with parents involved in their learning are often the students who succeed in school. “Researchers also found, children whose parents had completed year 12 had significantly higher test scores across all subjects. Students whose mothers worked long hours did worse in all tests, except numeracy”. (The Sydney morning Herald, 2013).

In my point of view, public school and private school are both educational institution. Their goals are to teach and develop the student’s ability and skills in different aspects. Private schools may be more aware of the student’s university preparation than public school. However, public school offers the variety of VET course to choose such as hospitality, engineering studies, retail services and construction. More than 50 per cent of the student didn't attend the university after they graduate from high school and there is always many path ways to go to university or college. Study a VET course in high school can provide students with a head start in their chosen career and enable students to gaining a training qualification. I was graduated from public school and I feel that the diversity of public school have made me better adapted for the real world. 

Reference:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/private-schools-no-guarantee-of-higher-naplan-scores-study-finds-20131012-2vf63.html

Black, R &Morgan, S. (2008) Networks for Students. In: Black, R &Morgan, S. Beyond the Classroom: Building New School Networks. (pp. 33-51)Camberwell, Vic.

Connell, R, Campbell C., et al. (2007) Public and private schools. Education, Change and Society. (pp.221-225)  Melbourne,.

Reflection on a current educational issue in Sydney relating to culture and identity

Issue in relation to identity and culture found in Australia, I personally believe, are the presence of discrimination against homosexuality and race, where discriminated targets have limited opportunity and right to the access of education. According to Gewirtz (1998) "...Equality of opportunity can be viewed as the existence of equal formal rights, equality of access and equality of participation..."( Gewirtz, S. 1998). I once heard on the radio speaking of Australia as a country of equal opportunity, and I believe in that personally, hence in relation to education, I believe that equal opportunity should be, as described by Gewirtz, giving all students the same right and opportunity in accessing education, regardless of their race, age, sex, social status and homosexuality etc. However, in reality, I found that this is not the case and it seems that discrimination still exists within education in Australia.

The Sydney morning herald, on September 19 2013, talks about the introduction of anti discrimination amendment due to the ineffectiveness of the Anti-Discrimination Act  in dealing with discrimination in schools due to the fact that the act only has effect in public schools, whereas private schools ignores it. The article also stress on situations where discrimination against homosexuality still exists in private schools, even though the opponent to he bill denied such fact. The situations bought up in the article talks about how homosexual people don't have the same educational right as others. They are being denied by their school due to their identity, e.g. not being able to get into senior high school and being called as disgrace to the school by their teacher because of the catholic religion etc. From this we are able to see that the situation of the current education in Sydney is completely opposite to what Gewirtz proposed, due to the fact that homosexual people are being  discriminated against because of their identity and are being denied of having equal opportunity. From more information go visit: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/discrimination-has-no-place-in-schools-20130919-2u13f.html

In terms of cultural issue, there are many students that are still facing racial discrimination in the classroom. Multiculturalism is one of the main characteristics of Australia, especially in education where students from all over the world with different background are present in the classroom. This, however, becomes the basis for discrimination in the classroom where students from a different cultural background are being discriminated against. The article written by Roving, E (n.d. ) has reported situations where students from different cultural background are being discriminated against in the classroom, for example being making fun of by others, stereotyped by others and being alienated. This also shows the issue of the current educational system in Sydney, where there are racial discrimination in the classroom. This denies the equality of participation in an emotional and psychological way as students are not able to participate equally in the class due to alienation by other students as the result of discrimination, where students could not find a sense of belonging in the classroom.

For me, personally I believe that every one should have equal opportunity in gaining access to education regardless of their race, sex, homosexuality and status etc. I believe that every one should be treated equally and have the same opportunity. Therefore I am completely agree with what the principal is doing in Punchbowl High School in promoting equality as reported by abc news on the 31st of July, where acceptance of different cultures are being promoted through the building up of a community. More information can be found on http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-31/hip-hop-helps-students-overcome-racism-in-australian-schools/4854174

Reference:

Gewirtz, S (1998). Conceptualizing social justice in education: mapping the territory. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), pp. 469-484

Roving, E (n.d.) Racism in Schools. Youth Central. retrieved from http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/News+%26+Features/Articles/ViewPage.action?&repositoryName=&siteNodeId=515&CurrentFolderID=1966&ItemID=15527&BackToFolderID=1523#.Umzuy8V9xF0 on 27th Oct 2013.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/discrimination-has-no-place-in-schools-20130919-2u13f.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-31/hip-hop-helps-students-overcome-racism-in-australian-schools/4854174

Doing the sums. Connection between culture and identity in relation to school choice.

Each living thing is attached in culture, it’s a fragile phenomenon that at the same time is one of the broadest.  Culture in modern times is seen as a sense of political thought rather than artistic ideology, with evolving needs and concerns with the growing number of migration and multiculturalism in counties. ‘Culture is a form of politics’ (Leonardo, 2009, p.3). It is a sense of achieving justice for those minority groups. Within education there is much debate on the topics of academic, high achieving and highly disciplined schools. With the high number of cultural diversity in Australia, parents in choosing a school often look at the cultural and ethnic values that are present at the school. It is often perceived in society that those students who attend public schools are less likely to be as high achievers as those who attend a private school. In considering this parents from high socio-economic backgrounds in making school choices prioritize there children at a private school and spend thousands a term because their belief is their children are 'better off'.

Young peoples' identities will be greatly influenced by particular places such as their school. Consciously or not young people will connect and build up social identities in which they categorize their personalities. As such they are racialised, classed, gendered and culturally accepted in specific social groups within school. And as with all students and from my own personal experience, the saying you are who you're friends are is to some extent correct. This is due to some students having the mentality that friends and the popular social status is better to have then high grades. This is why parents get afraid to enroll in public schools as they believe that there is less discipline and structure. This is seen in the article that I read, which I found interesting as the thoughts of some parents reflected in the article was fairly similar to the way in which my parents thought. The article, 'Doing the sums- does a private education add up?' discusses whether or not parents and students are getting the value for their money at private schools. Most parents believe that academic, discipline and opportunity wise, parents are getting great value for the money they spend. "It's worth every cent," says one mother paying close to $30,000 for her daughter's HSC year at Kambala. "Think about how much you pay for a lawyer or a plumber. Considering the quality of the teachers, the educational standards, the people they mix with and all you get, it's an absolute bargain." 


 photo by Gary Heery.
As represented in the picture above which was included in the article, it cleverly perceives how a student can gain so much from attending a private or independent school. Coming from a private school myself, I believe that private and independent schools do a little more extra than public schools, as with my school we had afternoon classes in year 12 to help with our HSC and also we had a great amount of interaction and advice from our teachers. Whereas some of my friends in public schools tended to be a little more stressed and unorganized.
However a problem I find in many private schools, those with not as high academic standing as most of the students in their school, tend to be neglected and gain a vast amount of low-self esteem as they feel they do not fit in. I found this in a journal article were it gives an example of a girl who attends an independent school , she found that the good is only for the good. As the year 10 girl at Halls says, "Our school stresses on getting high marks, If you don't get high marks you are gone, and you are just a person who sits in the back."
Overall in my perspective where ever you place your child, regardless if it was private or public, their results will end up being based on their own identity and their sense of cultural upbringing. Anyone is capable of a great academic standing, work needs to be put in whether a student attends a private or public school.

Read more on the article'Doing the sums': http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/doing-the-sums--does-a-private-education-add-up-20120327-1vw9g.html

Refrences:
-Kenway, J. (1998). Consuming children? Public education as a market commodity. In A. Reid (Ed.),
Going public: Education policy and public education, (pp.47-56). Deakin, ACT: Australian Curriculum
Studies Association.

Culturally relevant pedagogy - what teachers can do

 In her article, "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy", Gloria Ladson-Billings suggests that culturally relevant teaching must meet three criteria, namely, an ability to develop students academically, a willingness to nurture and support cultural competence and the development of sociopolitical or critical consciousness (Ladson-Billings,1995, p.483).

There is an important need for culturally relevant pedagogy as more students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds populate schools. The implication is that teachers must be trained and be prepared to effectively deliver culturally relevant pedagogy. Besides helping  students of different cultural and linguistic background to achieve academically, teachers must provide an environment where cultural competence is nurtured and supported and sociopolitical or critical consciousness is developed.

Teachers have the responsibility to ensure that their students have equal opportunities to attain their highest academic potential. While teachers promote  academic achievement and cultural competence, they themselves must recognize social inequities.  I feel that teachers should reflect and reconcile their prejudice or racist attitudes and not making assumptions and having stereotypes.  By honestly examining their attitudes and beliefs about themselves and others, they will begin to confront biases that have influenced their value system (Villegas & Lucas, 2002).  They can then be better placed to help students to appreciate and respect diversity. All students should also feel that they are respected and not  subject to unfair discrimination because of their differences. Otherwise,  they would feel angry or unworthy and this may affect their academic achievement. Teachers should be exemplary role models, promoting equity and mutual respect among students.

Teachers should  also assist students to develop sociopolitical or critical consciousness. To foster this consciousness, teachers can initiate discussions among students pertaining to certain social issues.  They should guide students to question, reflect and critically examine the policies and practices in their society. Students can think about whether they can work towards correcting unfair policies and practices. They can be encouraged to write letters to the newspapers to voice their concerns about these issues. Students can also be encouraged to volunteer in  activities to help the less fortunate. I feel that such activities motivate the students to take ownership and learn to find a solution to the prevailing social issues of the society they live in.

Ladson-Billings says that  prospective teachers must understand their culture and that of others and the ways culture functions in education. She adds that a culturally relevant pedagogy will encourage teachers to ask about the nature of the student-teacher relationship, the curriculum, schooling and society (Ladson-Billings,1995, p.483).  Wadham et al. also write that "education and schooling are two of the most important ways in which we learn to live within and contribute to our own cultural lives"  (Wadham et al., 2007, p.1). By understanding culture and how it is related to the education system, teachers can then understand their students and the society that they belong to.

References:

Ladson. Billings G,2013  "Towards a Theory of  Culturally Relevant Pedagogy" American Educational Research Journal

Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: Rethinking the curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education.

Wadham, B., Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R., Culture and Education, Melbourne :Pearson.

Reasons for poor achievement in NAPLAN for Indigenous students? Or Poor achievement in School.

The Educational systems and governments all over Australia have been trying to pinpoint the reasons for why Indigenous students are under-performing in schools, pinpointing it especially to the statistical data of NAPLAN. In my perspective however there is not one set valid reason to why Indigenous students are achieving such low results. To support my argument I found an interesting article that states that improved attendance of Indigenous students does not necessarily improve their NAPLAN results. The article 'No relationship between attendance and school performance' by Caddie Brain pinpoints that school performance does not improve NAPLAN results, and that students' spirits and encouragement for schooling should be high in order for their performance to improve.

What more can be done to make Indigenous students feel inclusive and apart of the school culture
   ?
There are many explanations to why Indigenous students have low achievement and retention rates at school, which may include many factors whether it was school or home environment. Factors include:
- Poor attendance
- Low income of parents to support children
- Motivation of Indigenous learners is low
- Culturally inappropriate curriculum 
- Health and disability issues
The achievement gap and 'closing the gap' have set goals in which they strive to achieve which include to

• halve the gap [between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students] in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children by 2018

• halve the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 (or equivalent) attainment rates by 2020.  (http://www.coag.gov.au/closing_the_gap_in_indigenous_disadvantage).

However these programs are not necessarily closing the gaps but making them worse. This is due to the fact that NAPLAN and structured exams are not going to improve by improving the retention rates of Indigenous students. The use of culturally inappropriate testing is just going to present low results rather than using the results of the NAPLAN results to cause a rise of change in testing methods and the curriculum in general.
In my perspective Indigenous students do not only need to be retained at school for the sack of keeping them in schools for longer, there needs to be a clear understanding of the lack of cultural practices and studies in schools that the educational systems should work towards achieving. Is it necessarily to figure out the poor achievement in NAPLAN or to try to improve their achievement at school in general?
In the article I mentioned above, it states of a five year study that was undertaken by Co-operative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation is looking at how education can best meet the needs of remote communities. Senior research fellow Sam Osborne, from the University of South Australia, compared the data to school attendance.  He found and commented that, "But our research has shown there really is no relationship between improved attendance and improved outcomes with NAPLAN results over the five years." And as Katrina Tjitayi, former PYEC Director and School Improvement Co-coordinator for the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands puts it "It's very important for kids' spirit to be strong.."
So as I believe and the article supports Indigenous students need more than a strive to improve in statistical data of NAPLAN. But more in working to improve connection with school culture and not thinking about Indigenous education radically but implementing change in the curriculum to help fit their needs and aspirations. 
As Ober (2009,39) defines it this way:
'Both ways education is about drawing on and acknowledging skills, language, knowledge, concepts and understandings from both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems. It's about everything that makes up an Indigenous person's identity, and then finding a bridge from this knowledge to link into new Western academic knowledge.'
 For a closer read on the article above; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-19/nrn-naplan-school-attendance/4967690

References:
- Margot Ford (2013). Achievement gaps in Australia: what NAPLAN reveals about education inequality in Australia, Race Ethnicity and Education, 16:1, 80-102, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2011.645570
- Ober, R. 2009. Both ways: Learning from yesterday, celebrating today, strengthening tomorrow. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. V. 38, 34-39.

Identity politics throughout education

Issues surrounding gays, lesbians and bisexuals throughout an educational environment sparked long ago due to the fact that “Christian fundamentalists believed that discussing homosexuality in any thing but condemnatory terms promoted deviant and immoral sexual behavior that placed innocent youth at risk.” (Griffin, P. & Oullett, M. 2010. p. 109). This particular view evidently opposed views of advocates for lesbian and gay youth, arguing that schools were in turn unsafe environments, where these particular students were subject to harassment. Over time, therefore, homosexuality throughout education has become a large topic that has seen a vast increase in academic writings in regards the treatments of gays, lesbians and bisexuals throughout a schooling environment. However, among all of this, it is evidently highlighted that there is a lack of insight into transgender and their role in educational environments. Although in more recent years transgender has been focused more so upon in educational literature, schools and educational facilities must understand that there is a difference between gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender.  

“Gender oppression is inextricably intertwined with heterosexism and homophobia in schools, but educators and researchers must not assume that the experiences of gender non-conforming youth are the same as their LGB peers. School policy and practice with regard to transgender youth need to be guided by useful and accurate information, which to date, we simply do not have.” (Griffin, P. & Oullett, M. 2010. p. 111). In relation to this idea that even in the modern world we lack correct information and understanding in regards transgender, the following information retrieved from an article that was released in March this year, closely demonstrates how the future landscape of education in regards transgender is going to have to dramatically shift. 

Coy Mathis a six year old transgender girl was recently denied access to the girls bathrooms by her school, advising her that she either use the boys, or the nurses bathroom instead. At only 18 months of age Coy began to develop features and behaviors that indicated she was a girl (born a male), naturally her parents were furious and filed a civil rights law suit against her school in Colorado. "It set her up for a lot of harassment and it wasn't a place where we were able to let her be because we want her to be safe and we want her to be healthy." (http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/news-features/live-life-as-a-girl-transgender-childs-parents-sue-school-20130301-2fatj.html) stated Coy’s mother, Kathryn Mavis. Coy’s story was pursued by the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund with high hopes that the case will have large consequences.

Personally through researching this particular article I am lead to understand that there is indeed a lack of understanding and sensitivity towards transgender people throughout the education system. Much alike any other child Coy’s age she has the right to go to the bathroom without being questioned or told otherwise. Her parents have every right to protect her in her young age and in my beliefs they have set a great example for struggling parents out there. I believe that there needs to be more corrected measures and rules that need to be established throughout schools in regards transgender, they do however need to be made through a correct use of relevant information and consideration of transgender rights. 

REFERENCES

Griffin, P. & Oullett, M. (2010). Equity and Excellence in Education: From Silence to Safety and Beyond: Historical Trends in Addressing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Isssues in K-12 Schools. Retrieved: October 19, 2013, from http://www.tandfonline.com.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/10665680303508

‘Live Life as a Girl’: Transgender Child’s Parents Sue School. 2013. Retrieved: Ocotber 19, 2013, from http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/news-features/live-life-as-a-girl-transgender-childs-parents-sue-school-20130301-2fatj.html

A reflection of your own experience of culture and identity in relation to education

Parents view the coeducational schooling and single sex schooling debate as a large issue that must be taken into thorough consideration when selecting a school for their child, indeed for some it is more important that others, however, it appears to be a large contributing factor to school selection overall. Throughout my own experience, and upon recalling many opinions, memories and experiences throughout my high school education experience, I have come to the understanding that gender identity is a large issue throughout secondary education. 

Personally, having being sent to an all girls school, I was not at all phased by the decision my parents had made for me, they had given me the option to look into any other schools that I had desperately wished to go to, I however was just interested in where i knew i would continue to get an education, and where all my friends were going, which so happened to be the school in which i was sent. For my parents, upon speaking to them recently, they revealed that they were lead to believe that students throughout a high school environment tended to learn better when surrounded by the same sex (single sex schooling). They claimed these beliefs developed from small articles they had read over the years in newspapers on HSC and NAPLAN result related pieces, from speaking to friends with older children already in high school education, from their own experience and an idea of traditionalism. My parents explained that around the time of enrollment for secondary education, many of the other parents of children in my year 6 class had various comments, both positive and negative, to make on their decision for my education. Attacked with statistics mainly, all of these new time parents enrolling their first child into high school, all of a sudden became the experts on how I would learn better in a particular environment. 

The difference between coeducational schooling and single sex schooling is not only a focal point for parents when selecting a school for their child, but a social issue for students throughout high school. This issue first became largely apparent to me when I was in my final year of primary school and a great divide emerged between the girls whom were attending the local all girls school, and the girls who were attending either local or non local coeducational schools. This issue did not cease for me until post high school. From the day i started I was surrounded by girls who were either not phased at all, were entirely phased by their surrounding environment or girls that held opinions that were easily swayed in either direction. Upon focusing on coeducational schooling versus single sex schooling, it can be understood the the idea of gender identity is where the issues generally orbit. Throughout my secondary schooling experience I witnessed first hand the sole reasons as to why single sex schooling was opposed by so many teenagers. Many people both internally and externally would associate my school in particular with higher rates of homosexuality, higher rates of bullying do to ideas surrounding girls being extremely heartless and cruel, stunted social growth as girls were not enabled to socially interact with males on a day to day basis as you would in a coeducational school and the school incurred a bad reputation in regards rumors that the school was full of girls whom were very sexually forward and promiscuous. 

An article from The Age reveals that in 2010, principal of Kilvington Girls Grammar made the decision to turn the school coeducational in the following year. “Mr Charlton spent a great deal of time poring over the latest research on the merits of single-sex and coeducational schools... Acknowledging a widely held belief in the community that boys do better in coeducational schools and girls perform better in single-sex classrooms, he says the latest research reveals that any differences are not very significant.”. The article proceeds to look upon coeducational schooling in various lights in regards this particular principles decision. Personally I would have to agree with the point stated my Mr Charlton that life is indeed coed, therefore coeducational schooling would be a more naturally based environment for youth to learn. 

Coming from an all girls school I would not negatively look back upon my educational experience, and any issues that i had throughout high school were not at all related to the idea that the school was single sex. I often wonder if perhaps my results from my HSC would have been any different if i had in fact attended a coed school. Personally I feel that i did feel extremely comfortable in my school environment, and i feel as though some of that is indeed owed to the single sex environment. I believe that knowing each girl in my grade personally that a coed environment would have influenced their educational situation, for some positively and for some negatively. However in saying this i am not certain, therefore my statement is merely a hypothesis. I do not disagree with either types of schooling, i feel that ultimately it comes down to the individual and the way in which they learn and how their surrounding environment influences them. 

REFERENCES

Ryan, D. (2010). Single sex or coed? The gender agenda. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/single-sex-or-coed-the-gender-agenda-20100827-13voh.html

Popular culture and education

Popular culture and education

Ryan Haynes, Osmosis CTO and Shiv Gaglani, the CEO, are classmates from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. They developed a mobile app which uses pop culture factoids and video to help explain the right or wrong answers as part of its approach to learning. The app includes practice questions and uses push notifications to help students reinforce what they have learned and how they have performed. Gaglani said that emphasis on context and association could create powerful memory so that students would remember the complex subjects.

Popular culture is associated with education nowadays. Images, videos, apps are some of the common forms of popular culture used in schools. Collins (2012) indicated that the use of popular culture could help students to achieve better results. Popular culture jumps out of the boring, plain traditional contents; it’s about the technology that we could make use of; it’s the way that adapts the 21^st century. Why would the mobile app that I mentioned initially reinforce the learning? Roda (2011) showed that “it is possible to increase effective working-memory capacity by presenting information in a mixed visual and auditory mode rather than a single mode.” (p. 99) However, it is just a particular example for medical school; it could be extended to other subjects, such as science, geography. We could make animations or create a simulation system to reveal some contents which are impossible to do on paper. 

Nevertheless, although popular culture has many advantages, I think it also has its negative effect. Once I went to a high school and observed a class. The lesson I would like to talk about was Maths. Students used a system called “Mathletics” to learn and do the exercises. Mathletics could show students how to do a particular question and leave similar questions as exercises. The interface was gorgeous, which could engage students. But, the point is, some students didn't do the exercise and play other games instead, since they both required computers. This was even worse than teaching traditionally. Similarly, this could happen at home. Students play games or do other things on the computer in the name of doing homework. It might be hard for parents to recognise what a child’s really doing. That decreases the quality of learning. So the negative aspect of popular culture should also be considered when using it in the education.

As we can see, popular culture has both advantages and disadvantages, but overall, students benefit more from it. Popular culture changes our lives, our way of being educated; it engages students and contributes deeper research. Though it has some negative effect, teachers and parents are supposed to work out a solution for this problem and let popular culture serve education better.

Reference:

http://medcitynews.com/2013/08/what-does-pop-culture-have-to-do-with-a-med-school-study-app/

Collins, Karen. (2012). STRATEGIES FUR USING POP CULTURE IN SPORT PSYCHOLOGY AND COACHING EDUCATION. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 83(8), 20-23.

Roda, Claudia. (2011). Human attention in digital environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Indigenous education

Indigenous education

Indigenous people have their own language and culture, so schools should consider indigenous education as well. Education researchers are now calling for a schooling system which focuses on what they value to help them learn. Furthermore, the education system has too narrow a focus on measuring learning success. It will always show a gap between indigenous and non-indigenous communities if we measure success under NAPLAN results, as it relies on the understanding of western logic, reason and English language literacy. Schools might consider a schooling which these children will be taught in their own languages and about their own culture, but still improving English literacy and numeracy simultaneously to prepare for university entry.

We know that indigenous people were the ones who first came to Australia and had lived for more than 40,000 years. They have their own culture which is different from ours, so we should show some respect to these people, to their culture. In the North and the Centre of Australia, indigenous people still speak traditional languages as their first language, especially in very remote regions. (Ford, 2012) So in the areas where lots of indigenous people live, it would be a good idea to have such a schooling system that I mentioned above. They could learn their languages as well as Standard English, literacy and numeracy skills. The traditional culture is reserved and the skills that allow these people to involve to the mainstream are also learnt and applied. However, it would be a waste of resources if there are only few indigenous people in the school for some areas, but it doesn’t mean that these people should be neglected; schools should provide some extra help for these indigenous students. Greg (2012) indicated that “…it is also critical of Indigenous people for receiving additional support in comparison with other ‘Aussie battlers’”. Additional support could narrow the gap in language, literacy and numeracy differences and let them know that they are not isolated; indigenous culture is as much valuable as Australian mainstream culture.

I have some ideas about how to support indigenous students in school. Firstly, schools may provide the training services for improving language skills or peer coaching activities such as homework club for these students to ensure that they have the same level as non-indigenous students. Secondly, schools may arrange the participation of indigenous parents for students’ decision making, say, the higher education entry. The arrangement makes parents know more about their children, about what they want to do in the future. Regular meeting would be a good opportunity for discussing these issues between the school and indigenous parents. Thirdly, schools may increase the number of indigenous people employed as teachers, year advisers or other educational positions. These people obviously can understand the feelings of indigenous students and know what they really need, and hopefully are more willing to help these students as they have the same cultural background. Students would feel warm and the communication would be smoother.

All we can do is to help indigenous students reduce the difference with “Aussie battlers”. Schools should consider indigenous culture while making the strategies for these students. Additional help is also definitely needed whatever the school is as long as there are indigenous students in the school.

Reference:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/schools-should-consider-aboriginal-culture/story-fnihsfrf-1226722232796

Ford, Margot. (2012). Achievement gaps in Australia: what NAPLAN reveals about education inequality in Australia. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 80-102.

Greg, Vass. (2012). 'So, what is wrong with indigenous education?': Perspective, position and power beyond a deficit discourse. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 41(2), 85-96.