(Community, 2012)
Growing up
in a multicultural society has definitely enhanced my keen interest in
understanding the individuals around me, with whom I share the land, the
atmosphere and the moralities and regulations with, that continue to retain
this society together. Living in
Australia consisting of individuals with varying cultures has revealed the
upmost advantages a person could ask for in relation to living in a country of
acceptance and recognition.
Culture is a
term that not only describes where a person comes from but rather as the shared set of values, ideas, concepts, and rules
of behaviour that allow a social group to communicate and work effectively
together (Abu-Lughod,
1991). To my concern this definition has
been put aside, excluding the initial importance of culture in the sense of
individuals living within the same country and the internal segments of
individuals incorporating their own culture in the sense of background. Instead
of living as one nation, these segments have been disregarding one another. This
immediately turns to the awareness of culture within educational segments. The
ongoing growth of immigration and cross-culture has led to schools integrating
a greater range of ethnic groups, languages and abilities than ever before in
the Australian history (D.
Hammond, Austin, Lit and Nasir, 2009). Australia has the second
highest percentage of overseas-born residents of any major country in the world
(Woolfolk and Margetts,
2007). Thus, one must recognize that racism and stereotyping should
not be tolerated under any circumstances, as we all live as one community.
However, reality is complex so it is reduced by groups to representations and stereotypes; generalizations which simplify it as make it easier to control (Wadham, Pudsy and Boyd, 2007). A major issue in which I have noticed and come across with my experiences during high school is the division of students into their “type of group”, the “white”, “Asians”, “lebos”, “Indians” and the “fobs” and so on. But I could never understand why we all didn’t just interact and intermingle. I was always a bystander to all the stereotyping and racism throughout class. For instance, many of the students would discriminate against the “Asian” girls due to their small eyes. They would continuously ask some of the girls why they weren’t wearing glasses. I would never say anything as I was afraid they’d begin to intimidate me. This shouldn’t be the case as we as a school should create social order between our cultures to benefit from one another. For this reason, I represented a speech during class, pointing out that all our cultural differences shouldn’t be used to discriminate against each other but rather let us join as one and achieve goals in a multicultural manner. My voice was heard and slowly my class peers interacted with one another more often, allowing us to exchange some of our cultural beliefs and attributes. With this, great friendships and bonds were made and we as a class set a tremendous example for the younger years, showing them that it is okay to interact with other students from different cultures. It was in fact an experience that I will never forget.
However, reality is complex so it is reduced by groups to representations and stereotypes; generalizations which simplify it as make it easier to control (Wadham, Pudsy and Boyd, 2007). A major issue in which I have noticed and come across with my experiences during high school is the division of students into their “type of group”, the “white”, “Asians”, “lebos”, “Indians” and the “fobs” and so on. But I could never understand why we all didn’t just interact and intermingle. I was always a bystander to all the stereotyping and racism throughout class. For instance, many of the students would discriminate against the “Asian” girls due to their small eyes. They would continuously ask some of the girls why they weren’t wearing glasses. I would never say anything as I was afraid they’d begin to intimidate me. This shouldn’t be the case as we as a school should create social order between our cultures to benefit from one another. For this reason, I represented a speech during class, pointing out that all our cultural differences shouldn’t be used to discriminate against each other but rather let us join as one and achieve goals in a multicultural manner. My voice was heard and slowly my class peers interacted with one another more often, allowing us to exchange some of our cultural beliefs and attributes. With this, great friendships and bonds were made and we as a class set a tremendous example for the younger years, showing them that it is okay to interact with other students from different cultures. It was in fact an experience that I will never forget.
This is effectively demonstrated in Garcia's article ' Multicultural Education in Your Classroom'. Although it is an American based article, it caught my attention as it covered all aspects of dealing and how to positively approach multiculturalism within educational facilities. For instance, Garcia effectively portrays the advantages of multicultural education, including helping the student develop positive self-image, offering students an equitable educational opportunity, allows multiple perspectives and ways of thinking and effectively combats stereotypes and prejudicial behaviour (Garcia, 2013).
Abu-Lughod, L. (1991). Writing against culture. WRITING, 1 p. 3.
Community, A. 2012. ABCD SEIT Community. [online] Available at: http://abcdseitcommunity.blogspot.com.au/ [Accessed: Sep 2013].
'
Garcia, E. 2013. Multicultural Education in Your Classroom. [online] Available at: http://www.teachhub.com/multicultural-education-your-classroom [Accessed: 19 Sep 2013].
Wadham,
B., Pudsey, J. and Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Frenchs
Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia.
Woolfolk, A. and Margetts, K. (2007).
Educational psychology. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education
Australia.
Fatima, thank you for this great post! I really enjoyed hearing about your experiences not only in high school but just in general, It's so refreshing to get an insight into how another individual from a different culture feels in a country like Australia and I think everything you said was spot on.
ReplyDeleteI loved the story at the end about your speech to your peers at school and the effect this had on them and the way they socialised and interacted with one and other. I love hearing about people that stand up for what they believe in and I am so glad you got up the courage to do what you did because if there were more people like you then racism and the issues that follow this black cloud over our society will start to really disappear. It just shows that as one person you can make a difference and speak your mind and be heard. I hope when I become a qualified teacher I come across a lot of students like you, teaching will be an extremely worthwhile and more rewarding place if that ends up being the case. Was a pleasure reading your post