Socio-Cultural Diversity In Australia

Diversity encompasses many areas which educators need to acknowledge and support children who withhold differences in either background or experiences as oppose to other children in educational settings. To put it simply, children bring to school with their beliefs, customs, practices and behaviour. This set of identities is known as socio-cultural. In fact, Ewing (2013, p. 74) state a claim by Connell, White and Johnson that most often, children who come from disadvantaged environments are inclined to be successful at school than their privileged counterparts. Mostly, the circumstance where those children in are implicated through social and income inequality, cultural diversity, gender and sexuality, and consumerism. This means that socio-cultural

Australia’s population is made up of people from around the globe. As quoted in Lawrence, Brooker, and Goodnow (2012, p. 75) the population sits on 44 per cent of Australians were born overseas or from other parts of the world. Lawrence et al. (2012, p. 76) state former Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared that Australia is a community of multicultural and which diversity should be recognised and embraced. In addition to this, Ewing (2013, p. 92) also state Australia is one of the most multicultural nations globally and this means that diverse language and cultural backgrounds constitutes a significant portion of the school environment and early childhood settings. Many schools and early childhood settings are cultural diverse. The climate of the shift corresponds to groups of community settled in each area. For example, Richmond West Primary School (http://www.richmondwestps.vic.edu.au/) nestles in an inner eastern suburb of Richmond, Victoria, which has a large population of families whose origins are either Chinese and Vietnamese. So, the number of students is largely made up from Chinese and Vietnamese backgrounds, and school values the language within its community. The school provides an immersion language program to support and encourage children in further developing their home language. Another example is Thornbury Primary School (http://thornburyps.vic.edu.au/) provides a culturally diverse image on its home page. Therefore, it is

Through early childhood education teachers and educators can make a difference, challenge gender stereotypes, and provide a non-sexist setting to make changes. By definition stereotypes are discriminatory and hateful which Jennett (2013, p. 3) describes they are prejudice and bigotry that inhibit on people’s lives. As mention earlier, Australia is one of the multicultural nations, so there are many different types of family structures. Each family has its beliefs, customs, and values. To put it simply, certain cultural values place differences on male and female roles. For instance, Jennett (2013, p. 8) states in a school project run by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) the teachers expressed that girls are still dissuaded from being overtly assertive and pursuing more challenging and robust careers, whereas, the eldest boys become less respectful of female teachers. In other words, cultural views influence an individual in forming perspective that males are masculine and females are nurturing. That males are opposite to females; what is stereotypically male and female. For example, males are leaders and strong while females are emotional and soft. This kind of mentality is described by Gobby (n.d.) as binary thinking, which a person views the world in black and white with no greys. So then, if any individual who does not fit the