ENGLAND VS AUSTRALIA

A REFLECTION OF MY EXPERIENCES OF CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION

I attended a co-ed public school in Oxford, England, until the age of sixteen. The percentage of non-British students was approximately 1/3. These students were most likely Black African, Indian, Pakistani, Asian or Eastern European – representations different to those in Australian schools. Unlike others (Denny, 2011; or see Michelle Dao's blog entry), I feel there was no - or very limited - racial segregation at my school. People might say I was naïve, or perhaps I left before it started (Denny, 2011). To me, students appeared to form groups based on shared notions of identity, not limited to culture, and I can recall many multi-ethnic groups. I attribute this degree of racial inclusion to the diversity of religions taught, and the accessibility of international school excursions.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) state that as of 2011, 63% of students attend a private school. This is a stark contrast to the UK's 7% (Hensher, 2012). My parents pointed out this fact, but aside from Christian schools, the area (rural Mid North Coast) offered little alternative and I was unwilling to attend a Sydney boarding school. My identity was therefore set – as a public school attendee – a tag I'm by no means ashamed of.

In rural Australia, I was initially quite surprised at the lack of ethnic diversity, and when there was diversity, how segregated it was. My school was mostly white, with a small number of Indigenous students and a smaller number of Asian students. As with lots of Australian schools, there was a special unit for Indigenous students, and often classes were separated. Whilst I have since learnt that this is to tailor education to Indigenous students and is in fact intended to positively benefit Indigenous students, I do feel as though this only emphasised differences and the idea of “otherness”(Hall, 1988:28 as cited in Henry, 1993:8).

Philips observed that:
“the experience of being in the minority makes people more conscious of the distinctiveness of their culture; while the sense of being pressured to conform to majority norms sometimes makes people more committed to sustaining their distinctiveness”

(2006:6)

I believe this speaks to the differences I perceived during Australian schooling. Whilst in the UK, non-white-English students were the minority, but as a whole it was a more integrated experience, possibly because there was a larger degree of ethnic diversity or because these individuals felt represented in society. Due to exposure, knowledge, and understanding, there was no longer an “exoticism” (Phillips 2006:1) associated with a different culture.

Overall, my personal experience in England was more inclusive of different cultures and ethnicities, tailoring education to the masses; whilst my experience of Australia is that cultures are separated - albeit with good intentions - leading to the feeling of exclusion.

I would again like to emphasise that these experiences should not be representative of each nation and the reasons for the differences could be vast, including the contrast of urban and rural areas, the difference in my personal maturity and awareness, or even the contrast in public school percentages.

Words: 472

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) Government and Non-government schooling Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc

588/9fa90aec587590edca2571b00014b9b3!OpenDocument

Denny, Z. (2011) Multiculturalism – the great divide. Retrieved from

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jun/17/multiculturalism-david-cameron-segregation

Phillips, A. (2006). What is culture? In Arneil, Barbara and Deveaux, Monique and Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenberg, Avigail, (Eds.) Sexual justice / cultural justice. (pp. 15-29). London, UK : Routledge.

Henry, G. (1993) Living dangerously: Identity politics and the new cultural racism: Towards a critical pedagogy of representation In Cultural Studies, 7 (1), pp. 1-27.

Hensher, P. (2012) Rejecting Oxbridge isn't clever – it's a mistake. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-rejecting-oxbridge-isnt-clever--its-a-mistake-6292041.html