How and why the lack of diversity in Sydney’s elite schools are discouraging
everyday multiculturalism.
I come from a country town where school choice is not
necessarily limited but is no where near as diverse as in Sydney. I think this is the reason why studies on
private and public schools interest me so much.
In this blog I am going to look at the multicultural differences between
private and public schools and what effects these differences have.
In an article in The Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson
analyses the differences in students of private and public schools. He notes that at most of Sydney’s “high-fee
independent schools less than 10 per cent of students have a parent who speaks
a language other than English.”
Christina Ho reiterates this point in the Journal of Intercultural
Studies when explaining how dramatically different the levels of cultural
diversity are between public and independent high schools (Ho, 2011). In particular, results from the My School
website show that, in the wealthy Northern suburbs students from a language background
other than English (LBOTE) form the minority, only 13 per cent of students.
This is compared to LBOTE students forming over fifty per cent of students in public
schools across Sydney (Ho, 2011, 606).
I’m not going to continue on and on with mind-blowing
statistics. Instead I’m going to share with you why exactly this is an issue.
Basically, schools are excellent institutions for
multiculturalism to exist and be understood.
They provide a space for people to negotiate with each other (over
answers in class for example), exchange goods (like a roll up for an LCM bar), and learn how to respect one another even if
they don’t want to become friends. I’m not ambitiously dreaming that all
cultures can co-exist peacefully if we get it right in the school yard. But I am suggesting students can learn to
respect differences and carry this respect and knowledge throughout their life.
Even in the newspaper article the principal of Ravenswood
(and elite upper north shore girls school that only has 9 per cent LBOTE
students) is quoted saying “We are conscious of the fact that our girls live on
the upper north shore, that for many of them their experiences can be limited
and we have to try and create experiences for them” (Stevenson, 2012). What the principal is referring to is
cultural experiences and they’re trying to create them by offering Chinese
languages to make the school more attractive to Chinese students.
Apart from the alarming fact that many of Sydney’s private schools
seem to be seriously selective in the number of LBOTE students they admit, this
is creating an adverse effect for public schools. In the Western suburbs of
Sydney, public schools have been abandoned by Anglo-Australians fleeing to the
private sector. Although you might look
at these Western Sydney public schools, full of students from different
cultural backgrounds, as positive in
encouraging multiculturalism, in fact it is the opposite. Being “disproportionately
migrant dominated” (Ho, 2011, 611) is not helping them understand or respect
others in Australia.
So I’ve made this sound like a pretty depressing blog full
of statistics and the negative implications. However statistics on the My
School website are only proving this trend, and it needs to be addressed
pronto. But by who? Maybe the Government,
or the schools, or the families? How about all of them combined to address the
need to educate students on how to respect one another in this very, very
multicultural country of ours.
References
Christina Ho (2011) Respecting the Presence of Others: School Micropublics and Everyday Multiculturalism, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32:6, 603-619
Andrew Stevenson (2012) The white bread playground: top private schools shun ethnic diversity, The Sydney Morning Herald, http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/the-white-bread-playground-top-private-schools-shun-ethnic-diversity-20120611-20663.html
The My School website www.myschool.edu.au
By AMANDA BROWN
It really shocked me when I researched the topic of Private vs Public schooling in Australia. Private school marks are relatively higher to their counterparts excluding selective schools. Private schools and selective schools have an interview process which allows them to be selective in their students and don’t have to take on ESL or disadvantaged students. I examine the issue of social reproduction and maybe that’s why its contributing to your blog about why sydney's elite schools are discouraging multiculturalism.
ReplyDeleteThe current structure of schooling in Australia is a system with both a private and public based sector of education. Private schools, also known as independent or non-state, consist of private, catholic and independent schools. These schools are not government run and select students on their own merits. Private schools are funded by mainly student’s tuition payments, and have been known to be more expensive than public counterparts. Public schools on the other hand get their financing from local, state and federal government funds, mostly admit students living within the boarders of their district and divided into open and selective schools. In this essay it is important to identify the meaning of social reproduction. ‘Social Reproduction is a theory used to define a reproduction of a socio economic class or group of people based on where they live and attend schooling i.e. structures and behaviors that transmit social disparity over generations’ (Doob 2013).
The media shows that private schooling produces better results but it does not take into account the socio-economic factors or the discrepancies in funding and the needs of students. Private schools are able to provide the best resources due to higher funding. These schools take in fewer students with special needs, fewer indigenous and fewer students whose first language isn't English. Public education however, accepts students from all socio-economic backgrounds, students with disabilities and learning difficulties, ESL students and students from distinguished backgrounds. Reiterating that social reproduction theory argues that schools are not institutions of equal opportunity but mechanisms for perpetuating social inequalities. (coleman 1996)
References:
- Coleman, James S., Ernest Q. Campbell, Carol J. Hobson, James McPartland, Alexander M. Mood, Frederic D. Weinfeld, and Robert L. York. 1966. Equality of Educational Opportunity. Wash- ington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
- Collins, J. (2011). Literacy as social reproduction and social transformation: The challenge of diasporic communities in the contemporary period. International Journal of Educational Development, 31 (6), pp. 614--622.
- Collins, J. (2009). Social reproduction in classrooms and schools. Annual Review of Anthropology, 38 pp. 33--48.
- Doob, C. (2013). Social inequality and social stratification in US society. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.