Recruiting 'one of us'.

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

Well first off, I attended an all girls catholic school in Sydney’s south west, which was dominated by students of my own racial background (Assyrian), gender, religion, and geographical location. Therefore I rarely ever endured any form of racism by students during my 13 years of education. My culture, a term which I used to identify and group myself (Blanchard, 2013), was similar to the most of the students at my school. This culture included my thoughts, morals, values, traditions, gender and religion.

Therefore due to this, I felt as if my identity was fit to the school and thus feeling the notion of ‘habitus’, which in turn had a more positive impact on my education. My school experiences were similar to those experiences at home. This in turn provided me with a cultural fit between school and home. I perceived that akin to all my other fellow students, I also had a chance to succeed in my education, finish school, university and obtain a successful career.

Furthermore, this perception was one which was once encountered by Australians during the ‘White Australia Policy’, in which they believed that with this policy implanted, they could 'be themselves' (Schech and Haggis, 2001). All my beliefs, values, actions, speech and conduct were similar to my surroundings, therefore in the classroom it would be easier for me to ask and/or answer questions, getting further involved in my education through communication and participation.

However, this is not the case with many students; we also had a percentage of non-ethnic some including white Australian and Indigenous, which experienced differing events at school. Where many received detentions for truancy, foul language and some did not place much importance on education. This brings about the need of schools to focus on values which ALL students find important.

Using Indigenous students as an example, this idea is evident in the article ‘Schools should consider Aboriginal culture’. This article accentuates the vital fact of what effect education plays on an individual, if the cultural values and school contradict. Mr Osborne states that students of remote areas, have their own ways of learning and these are not reflected in the mainstream schools the students attend. Therefore it would be relevant for schools to help these remote students feel at home while at school, by incorporating values and traditions in the schools. This is strictly due to the fact that a lack of connection between home and school ,which can lead students astray, feeling doomed to be uneducated due to their culture.

Furthermore, since Indigenous students have their own way of learning, teachers must be trained in teaching students with rough experiences, english as a second language, and relate the curriculum to real life events to enhance the students' interests in school. 

Thus it is evident through my experiences and the experiences of indigenous/remote students what a detrimental effect culture and identity has towards ones own learning. Consequently it is the role of schools to incorporate cultural ideas of students in the schools activities and system to ensure belonging and in turn participation in schooling.

References

Schech, S and Haggis, J. (2001). Migrancy, Multiculturalism and Whiteness: Re-charting Core in Australia. Communal/Plural ,9(2), 143-160.

Blanchard, B. (2013). What is culture, War is Crime. Accessed 20^th September 2013 from http://wariscrime.com/new/what-is-culture/

Vanovac, N. (2013). Schools should consider Aboriginal culture. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/schools-should-consider-aboriginal-culture/story-fni0xqi3-1226722232796