A Reflection of my Experiences of Culture and Identity in Relation to Education

I am a 2^nd generation Australian. My parents migrated to Australia in the 1970s due to the military coup and consequent dictatorship of General Pinochet. I had, like others from a diaspora background, a challenging but rewarding experience in assimilating into the naturalized hegemony.


In my younger years I grew up in an exclusively Latin American community. It was quite evident that my parents “identified and empathized more easily with those whom have more in common than with those whom has less.” (Levy, 2000, p. 6) However, it was also quite evident the low opportunities and expectations of that community. Despite the social security and the preservation of my culture, we moved to a demographic dominated by the Anglo-Australian hegemony.


I had metaphorically dived into an Anglo-Australian ocean. I was one of maybe a maximum of 5 students that could speak another language at home. My early years at school I was nurtured by my year conveners and was given special treatment and care – at the time, I had no idea why. On reflection, I see it was clear that I was an outcast and these teachers implicitly attempted to be life buoys in case I was finding transition difficult.

Due to the depictions of the Latin American cultural group, I was held accountable to those stereotypical elements – where I failed miserably. Although the tendencies of my character reflected the allegiance of my culture, my identity was not determined by my culture alone. The ‘difference’ between the dominant and dominated hegemony (Apple, 1996) could not be applied within the context of my educational experience. I negotiated and mediated my assimilation into the white hegemony as an individual – with the pluralism of an individual’s attitudes and behaviour. Therefore, my culture did not deduce my assimilation into the cultural norm, rather the autonomy of my character. The difference between ‘culture’ and 'identity’ is a binary opposition. Where culture is traditional and governed by expectations and practice, it diametrically opposes identity: dynamic, individualistic and self-determined.

I will state that I was victimized. Within my one-dimensional cultural school, I was an obvious target – representing the ‘other’. However, when I confronted the dominant hegemony, I did not recede into the established Latin American stereotype. I did not, like other diaspora, align with my cultural expectations. Rather the disparity between who I was and who they [other students] were, both groups negotiated to cultivate a harmony based on acceptance and understanding. I truly believe that only my experience within the public school system, enabled my peers and I to access a fundamental truth – we are all essentially the same.


References:  


Phillips, A. (2006). What is ‘Culture’? In Arneil, Barbara and Deveaux, Monique and Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenburg, Avigall, (eds.) Sexual Justice / Cultural Justice. London: UK: Routledge, 2006, pp. 15-29. 


Levy. J. (2000) The Multiculturalism of Fear. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).