Christina Ho emphasizes the importance of “respecting the presence of others” (p.610) and she
demonstrates that through a diverse school community with children from
different socio-economic, religious and cultural backgrounds, that it will have
a positive impact on not only the education of the students but on their future
in the real world as they will experience to accept, learn, grow and share with
people from who they share differences with. Ho also illustrates that schools
are places in where everyone’s own opinions and views are voiced allowing them
to achieve positive social and life skills especially in a new era of the
communication industry (p.606). In the
present day most jobs and professions require people to excel in forms of good
customer service, respect for colleagues and efficient team work which all
require the tolerance and respect of others views and opinions; multicultural
schools help promote these attributes and skills which will benefit students in
the long term.
On the 4th
of September 2012, the Sydney morning herald’s article titled “diverse, disadvantaged
and doubly dedicated” states that whilst 62 % of parents at Braybrook secondary
school earn one of the lowest incomes in Australia it is one of the most
multicultural schools. The article signifies the positive impact diversity has
had such as learning to speak in different languages, illustrating the
cross-cultural sharing helping to promote tolerance and respect for others. It signifies Ho’s idea of the benefit of
multiculturalism in schools however just as Ho, the article also re-affirms
that schools in low-socioeconomic areas or disadvantaged communities are more
likely to have a diverse range of students from different cultural backgrounds.
In my opinion school choice is a significant factor which can alter which
cultures attend different schools especially through word of mouth through
different parental groups and the socio-economic background of the parent;
however it can be generally said through ABS statistics that generally students
will go to the school closest to their residence. Braybrook has many children
from multicultural backgrounds in which they will speak more than one language,
the increase in funding for the literacy programs has had a positive impact on
the results as they achieved greatly. This emphasises the importance of
different schools supporting the needs and requirements of all their students
in order to help them reach their full potential. Although Braybrook exists in
a low-socioeconomic area, its diversity has been the key for success and will
help its students to develop good social skills. This will enable them to learn
how to connect and communicate with people of different backgrounds and show respect
and tolerance for the views and opinions of others. Overall this will help
increase their number of job opportunities as most jobs require excellent group
work and social skills in which they would have excelled at during their
schooling period. Increasing the number of job opportunities can change their
socio-economic status and create a brighter future and enhance their overall
quality of life.
Schools are
environments which should create these different options and opportunities,
regardless of the social-cultural or economic background of family.
Schools
should have policies in which can help close the gap of inequality by giving
everyone a fair go, for example increasing funding on certain programs which
will benefit the wider school community such as that illustrated by Braybrook’s
literacy program. Both Ho and the news article has illustrated that diversity
is a positive marker in school communities which can strengthen peace and
equality and erase hatred and misunderstanding in the world.
- Ho, C. (2011) the presence of others: School Micropublics and Everyday Multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32 (6), p. 603-619
- The Sydney Morning Herald, September 4th 2012, “Diverse, disadvantaged and doubly dedicated, Karl Quinn, Viewed on the 12th of September 2012: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/diverse-disadvantaged-and-doubly-dedicated-20120903-25asi.html
"It signifies Ho’s idea of the benefit of multiculturalism in schools however just as Ho, the article also re-affirms that schools in low-socioeconomic areas or disadvantaged communities are more likely to have a diverse range of students from different cultural background". This quote is true and comes in to play when testing Children, as in one of my blogs a Melbourne principal slams the use of NAPLAN testing especially in schools with a high immigrant population and a low socio-economic status. Of course these schools are going to perform below the average when tsting in the NAPLAN, this will only further the reputation of the school as a bad school.
ReplyDeleteAs Christina Ho says, the benefits of multi-culturalism are evident, however i'm not sure how this applies to a community in which there is a saturation of 1 particular ethnicity, or where there is a large portion of disadvantaged people.