Student Unionism and a Culture of Resistance

This article details responses to a budget realignment on education funding.¹ The previous Labor government cut funds from higher education to pay for the Gonski reforms. Thus the tertiary sector was paying for the secondary sector. Student and staff unions were not at all happy by the move and they would have preferred an increase to the entire education budget instead of realignment within it. Because the Gonski reforms are essentially egalitarian and because higher education favours the well off questions of equity are raised. Cultural questions of the relationship between a Labor government and unions in a postmodern world are also raised as are questions of broader educational significance, through this divide and conquer strategy. Should not a social democrat government increase education at all levels? Is if fair to save children now but jeopardise the students as adults? Isn’t it a step backwards in a high tech world to cut tertiary funding? Is it fair that some get to go to university while others flunk high school because of class? Should the debate be between different sectors rather than within the education one?

The Apple reading talks of the need for interlocking revolutions. I think this is very appropriate under the circumstances. It escaped the us vs them debate in this argument and calls for greater solidarity between the different cultural groups in education. This will lead to greater educational relevance and quality overall. Instead of pursuing their interests separately and shifting oppression from one area to another the situation would be bettered if they acted collectively to collectively throw off their shackles. Thus the idea of interlocking oppressions resulting in interlocking revolutions is important. The nature of a student union should also be changed to one that acts like a proper union and not just a dispensary of soccer balls.

Turning back the clock to the previous government I would liked to have seen stiffer opposition to the cuts. Students in France once brought down a Republic, they could do it in Australia also. To that end I do think student unionism is important and I do think it is important that they are militant. The silence of the Teachers’ Federation on this was pathetic and goes against the idea of interlocking revolutions. For a better education system and indeed system, people need to fight for each others’ interests regardless of sector, age, class, gender, race, orientation etc.

 

1.       Will Ockenden, “Uni Students Protest Over Sector Cuts,” 14 May, 2013, ABC News, http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3759098.htm.

2.       M. W. Apple, Cultural Politics and Education, (New York: Teachers College, 1996).

Poor Little White Boy – A Personal Reflection

This is sort of a frivolous post, it is not my intention to cry ‘racism!’ at such trivialities. But I do hope to explore a little the idea of hegemony and education culture.

So, it was this year, this semester, this faculty. The Jewish high holidays came up, Yom Kippur the day of atonement, fasting and Jewish guilt and Rosh Hashanah the (major) Jewish new year, days of feasting, honey, cake, gluttony and awkward conversations with your friend’s grandmother over the table.

As they often do these holidays fell in semester time. Try as I might I could not get out of classes for the day. Since classes were compulsory and since I had an in class assessment due I took a hit to the academic record on one day but had to break the holiday on another. This isn’t intentional racism, but it is a little irritating. Mainstream Christians/post Christians do not have these issues because the university’s/society’s calendar is based on their calendar. This is perhaps for the best, since it seems to keep most people happy, but for those of us for whom it does not work it is annoying and puts us at a slight academic disadvantage, at the very least more leniency would be appreciated, and perhaps also an end to Saturday exams. Perhaps for a multicultural society to function it needs to trample over minorities. Is this really multiculturalism? Can institutions exist free from cultural bias? Would this leave everyone unhappy and is it, in fact best to at least placate a few?

I think this speaks to course readings on micro aggression and racist institutions. Lentin and Titley talk of the current system and how it recreated hegemonic (in this case Anglo structures)¹. It also talks of the way the Jewish microrepublic is trampled to keep the dominant republic functioning². In this way the institution creates micro agressions and micro imperialisms, perhaps unavoidably in the current system.

My own opinion is that this kind of thing is unavoidable. I would like Anglos to be more aware that their culture is not a blank culture and that it leaves footprints. While things like academic leniency would be nice I can’t ultimately see a university that doesn’t trample the calendar of the minority, to keep the majority happy. It has to happen when calendars conflict.

Disclaimer: this is a really trivial petty post, it is not my intention to trample on the actual racism that others may have experienced, rather…the blogs are due in an hour, this came to mind, it’s an interesting micro view, please don’t think I’m crying ‘oppression’.

 

1.       1. A. Lentin and G. Titley, The Crisis of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age (London: Zed Books, 2011).

2.       C. Ho, “Respecting the Presence of Others: School Microrepublics and Everyday Multiculturalism,” Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(6) (2011): 603-619.

The Effect of Globalisation on Education

According to Albrow and King (1990), “globalisation refers to the processes by which the people of the world are incorporated in a single world society; a global society” (p. 9). All these processes have impacted on the way education is being delivered in the classroom, the type of content that is being given and the accessibility of these types of information. Although in some cases globalisation is found to have a negative impact on the world, there are also many benefits that arise as a result. Such positive impacts include technological advancements such as computers, laptops, projectors, tablets etc.

In the past few years, advancements in technology have been one of the major factors impacting on the education system. As a result of these technological advancements, teachers are able to easily pass on knowledge to their students. These technologies have enabled for teachers and students to have immediate access to a large amount of information just by the click of a few buttons. One of the major impacts of technology is that not all areas in Australia are able to afford these types of technologies creating cultural division among schools and students. Some students may be able to enhance their knowledge through these types of technologies whilst others may be disadvantaged as the school may not be able to afford them as some can be very costly and thus causes differentiation in the quality of education each student receives.

However, due to these constant advancements, the role of the teacher in modern society has changed. Only a few decades ago, the learning environment in schools was teacher focused, however, due to nearly every child owning their own laptop in high school, there has been a shift towards a student focused learning environment. Wolfe (2003) stated that technology has allowed teachers to teach through different teaching strategies as it provides access to a large variety of learning tools. Also according to Wolfe (2003), these technologies allow for students to become engaged in the learning process as they understand concepts through visual, verbal, written and audio means.

However, because technology commits to a large part in learning and teaching in schools, there is consistent change of pedagogies. According to study from Charles Sturt University, it has been examined that “technology is changing the way we need to deliver professional learning to people” (Groves, 2012, p. 4). Recent research has proved that depending on the type of technology used in the classroom, some technologies have a more positive impact on the achievements of students than others. For example, math is not very interesting to many students, however a math game will enable the student to play a game which they may enjoy and will hence enhance their mathematics results. These technologies have allowed students to take part in and engage in classroom discussion and develop a better relationship with the teacher. Instead of the teacher providing all the resources and relevant information to the students, technological advancements has allowed for the teacher to be a guide to help students collect the relevant information and resources.

According to an article on Education Technology success stories (2013), there are many past experiences that further prove the idea that technology has helped both students and teachers in education, one of the examples is that of Khadijah Niazi. According to the article, in the past, “new technologies have facilitated the exponential growth of human knowledge” (West, 2013). However since then, “innovators have seen technology as a way to improve communication, learning, and the mastery of instructional material” (West, 2013). 

Globalisation is the driving factor that is the reason as to why everything is happening today. Australia needs to respond to the rapidly globalising world, in order to treat every individual with respect due to the cultural and social diversity that exists in today’s society.


References

•          Albrow, M. & E. King (1990). Globalization, Knowledge, and Society: Readings from International Sociology. London, UK, Sage Publications.

•          Groves, C. (2012). Interactive Creative Technologies: Changing Learning Practices and Pedagogies in the Writing Classroom. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 35(1).

•          West, D. & Bleiberg, J. (2013). Education Technology Success Stories. Brookings. Retrieved from: http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/03/20-education-technology-success-west-bleiberg

•          Wolf, C. (2003). Technology in Environmental Education. New Horizons for Learning. Retrieved 10 July, 2013, from: http://www.newhorizons.org

Indigenous Education

There has always been the aim to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students and hence eliminating any form of indigenous disadvantage in education. In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) developed multiple aims to eliminate the disadvantages faced by indigenous Australians in regards to education. Some of the key aims in the sector of education include:

•    Ensure indigenous students have access to early childhood education by the year 2013
•     Halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy for children by 2018

•   And halve the gap for indigenous students in completing year 12 by 2020. 

To ensure these aims where achieved, COAG endorsed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan in May 2011. The aim of the plan was to commit governments to a unified approach to closing the gap between indigenous and non- indigenous students in education outcomes (COAG, 2008). 

One of the main factors contributing to the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students is school attendance. Daily school attendance is a necessity for every student in order to achieve the required skills in order to move from grade to another every year. It is also important for students attending schools to achieve the core skills, such as literacy and numeracy for them to achieve high results in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). According to Ober (2009), “education is about drawing on and acknowledging skills, language, knowledge, concepts and understandings from Western knowledge systems”. One of the key factors as to why indigenous students face disadvantage is somewhat due to this gap in developing  the key concepts and skills.

According to an article in ABC news (July, 2012), “more than 80% of indigenous students in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and Australian Capital territory achieve the minimum national standards”. There is a large number of indigenous students in Australia who are falling below the basic numeracy and literacy tests and according to the NAPLAN results, the results of these students have not improved over the last four years since the start of the NAPLAN tests in 2008. Also, according to the article by ABC news, indigenous students make up 4.8% of all the students attending school in Australia. However, this percentage has almost doubled according to the 2011 census in which indigenous students estimated to be 2.5% of the Australian student population. Statistics on the MySchool website provide information on the results of indigenous students. Out of an estimated 150, 000 indigenous students attending school in 2010, 60, 000 of them are not achieving the minimum national standards.

Status	Reading		Writing		Numeracy
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Year 3
Indigenous	11,743	91.6	11,783	91.9	11,573	90.3
Non-Indigenous	243,586	96.8	243,656	96.8	242,626	96.4
Year 5
Indigenous	11,944	92.7	11,970	92.9	11,762	91.3
Non-Indigenous	247,566	97.1	247,509	97.0	246,620	96.7
Year 7
Indigenous	10,825	90.4	10,840	90.5	10,722	89.5
Non-Indigenous	238,841	96.7	239,045	96.8	238,005	96.4
Year 9
Indigenous	9,941	80.8	10,104	82.1	9,852	80.0
Non-Indigenous	249,491	94.5	250,182	94.7	248,314	94.0

                 
This graph demonstrates the no. and proportion of students participating in the year 3, 5, 7 and 9 NAPLAN reading, writing and Numeracy in 2009.

This then leads to the main question? Why is there a gap between the performance of indigenous and non-indigenous students? Is it because the Australian government is failing to provide cultural practices and resources to enhance these students education.

Reference

§  Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2011). National Report on Schooling in Australia 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national_report_on_schooling/aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_education/assessment_naplan2.html

§  Hughes, H & Hughes, M. (2012). Poor education is letting indigenous children down. ABC news. Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4112432.html

§  Ober, R. (2009). Both ways: Learning from Yesterday, Celebrating today, Strengthening Tomorrow. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. p. 34