Reflection on a current educational issue in Sydney relating to Culture and Identity

Racism has been a prevailing issue throughout Australia’s history, and some have even argued that it helps make up the ‘Australian Identity’. It is no secret then that issues of racial discrimination frequent our headlines, yet as a nation we seem to be quite ignorant and nonchalant about the issue all together.

Such a view was reflected recently in an interview with TV presenter Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, where reflecting upon his most recent visit to oz he made the statement that “Australia turns out to be a sensational place, albeit one of the most comfortably racist places I've ever been in. They've really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.” This ‘easy racism’ that our nation reflects can be seen through many issues, however the issue has more recently become something in need of fixing.

2013 has seen countless examples of racist attacks in Australia, some such incident’s including the cam-corded race-fueled verbal attack made on a young Chinese male catching a Sydney bus, as well as more recently aboriginal AFL star Adam Goodes being subject to racial taunts by a 13-year old girl from the sidelines of a game. When such issues involve the youth of Australia, the issue seemingly becomes more appalling and apparent as it really makes us wonder as to what the education system is doing in order to prevent such things, especially in regards to our steadily growing multicultural society.

With ‘440 students from 35 different cultural groups and 98 percent’ of students coming from non-English speaking backgrounds, Punchbowl Boy’s principle Mr Dib attempted to attack the prevalent issue of racial discrimination in his school through employing ‘anti-racism contact officers’, a task which provided the school with positive results. Similarly (and more significantly) the NSW government has began to employ the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act which aimed to make it “unlawful to expel, refuse to enrol, limit access to benefits provided by a school, or subject a student to any other detriment based on certain grounds of discrimination” such as race, sex, gender, marital or domestic status, disability or homosexuality.

However, whilst such strategies to attack issues of discrimination can be seen as effective in particular ways such as the banning of discriminatory decisions by the school in these areas, in the end the ability to dispel racism from the classroom is controlled by the teacher themselves. It would thus be wise for teachers to actively participate and develop strategies of their own to battle these issues in the classroom. With Dib as a model, through establishing a more caring and friendly relationship with the students a teacher is able to better attack racism at it’s routes as well as give additional support and advice to students who are facing such issues so they are not battling them alone. In order to establish such a relationship, understanding needs to be established.

In the article 'Racism, College and the Power of Words: Racial Microaggressions Reconsidered' Julie Minikel-Lacocque makes the important point of governments being more typically concerned with racism in regards to a students performance, ignoring the more obviously detrimental affects upon the students mental health and ‘experience’. (pg 433) Feelings of isolation and depression brought on by racism in these Institutions would mean that students from different backgrounds would find it more difficult to adjust and identify with the predominant culture suppressing them. It is thus important for the teacher to attack the issue of racism in the classroom, helping students get through such issues so they don't feel so alone, as well as stopping racism in the schoolyard.

Resources:

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=35987#.UlUu9-CUDow

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

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/discrimination-has-no-place-in-schools-20130919-2u13f.html#ixzz2hEaLMd40

J. Minikel-Lacoque (2013), American Educational Research Journal Vol.50, No.3, 'Racism, College, and the Power of Words: Racial Microaggressions Reconsidered', pp. 432-465