Australia is a very diverse country; it is comprised of different groups of people from various economic status and social background. Due to this diversity, opportunities and educational attainment differ from people to people as social and cultural factors continue to contribute disadvantage to less fortune students and advantages for the more fortunate. It has been recognized that whilst inequality exists within the educational system, it can be addressed by distinguishing the role the school plays in creating the inequality. Therefore, Australian educational systems have been undertaking measurements to address and alter these inequalities so that there will be a more evenly distributed educational outcome. In this essay, the issue of diversity …show more content…
These school bags encompass the child’s knowledge, experiences, values, outlook, dispositions, expectations, norms, etc. that they have learned from their family, friends, and communities. Each child’s school bag will be unique to them, as it contains knowledge and experience that’s exclusive to only them, these may be influenced by their parents and communities’ values and beliefs, cultural beliefs and their social-economic status. There would be a huge contrast of the contents in the virtual school bag of a more affluent family and a child with a privileged family. A student that comes from a low socio-economic background is often missing some important parts of their virtual schoolbag, such as the ability speak English fluently, read, write and other components that are deemed important in the educational systems. They generally have a context that is not related to the specific schooling requirements. In “Schooling The Rustbelt Kids”, Pat Thomson gives the example that Thanh’s, knowledge of restaurants and music is not necessary for success in the classroom while Vicki’s virtual schoolbag contains many different things she is able to utilize at school. The diversity of a child’s virtual school bag can be both embraced and rejected in our current educational system, as schools contribute to the social disadvantage and privilege of social-economic backgrounds. A student’s cultural capital is turned into scholastic cultural capital (academic achievement). Whilst children of well-educated and often wealthier parents are then seen as being naturally bright (individual achievement) (Ewing,
However, the students that are on the lower end of the achievement gap are caught between being members of a disadvantaged community and aspiring to be a part of the middle class. This causes them to have to adapt to the communities that they are a part of. This act of adapting to the difference in normative expectations is what Morton refers to as “straddling the gap” or “code switching”. These students not only have to navigate differences in language and dress codes but they have to switch dispositions to ones that are unfamiliar to them, which can come into conflict with those at home (Morton 276). There are benefits to the code-switching that these students do. For example, multicultural societies are characterized by the intermingling of cultural communities and the students who belong to different communities have the greatest position to help new relationships form between them (Morton 277). However, educational systems are being used to potentially alienate the students from their communities values and relationships in order to form them for a labor market. Morton believes that “whether educational institutions are justified in undertaking the task of rectifying this injustice by shaping a
Since the schools symbolize cultural capital of the middle and upper classes, children from lower social backgrounds, who are not familiar with the hierarchy codes will have more difficulty understanding the schooling process. The influence of cultural capital is especially prominent in the first years of schooling. The lack of cultural capital is especially drawn from the video we have watched in class on “Tammy’s story” which was about Tammy’s cultural capital and how it has a big impact on her aspirations, opportunities, and achievements. Furthermore, from this video we learned unfortunately, much of the competition to get ahead in America is rigged. Wealth in America is highly concentrated on and it defines your place on the social ladder. Likewise, Tammy is very poor and she walks 10 miles a day to go to work and clean bathrooms. Not to mention, she has four kids and one of her kids that stands out the most is her son Matt. Matt on the other hand, thinks he’s going to be much better off than his family, and in the video clip he seems embarrassed by his family. Alternatively, Matt tries to dress well, make good friends and he hopes to get a scholarship to a college that he wants to go to. Also, Matt
Society holds a beneficial belief that education is a very prominent source that is necessary to engage in life’s successes. Education gives one the endurance to gain knowledge and the will power to accomplish goals and reach high standards. It allows individuals to know and understand the skills of life and the values it hold. Education has a history that has been around for hundreds of years that continuously develops as education improves, but the history of equal opportunity in education must continuously improve as well. Although education is known for its good deeds, inequality still plays a significant role in education today. There are opportunities that students must receive to relinquish some inequalities that are still present in education today. There are ways to address these obstacles and also ways to contribute to advanced opportunities to make education of equality.
The assumptions that everyone can learn, and that schools have the potential to transform a country with a tradition of hatred and an unequal distribution of wealth, extend from the vision of education as a democratic practice where there is "a struggle for both change and the freedom to change" (Irwin, p. 51, 1991). The change is about transforming an exclusive, often oppressive and disempowering system into a more inclusive, equal, and equitable one that is accessible to children from ...
It is an educator’s job to embrace and acknowledge the rich diversity all the children collectively bring to the classroom, while understanding that the children do not need to be treated the same because they are not the same as each other, but be respected and accepted for their differences. Inclusion is an essential; plank in the broad platform of social justice and raising achievement is a goal which all educators much hold for their pupils, It is important that early year professionals are aware of all different ways in which society constructs (Neaum 2010) this involves taking account children’s social cultural and linguistic diversity and including learning style, family circumstances, location in curriculum decision making process so all children are recognised and valued (Nutbrown and Clough 2006)
The effects of poverty can cause negative behaviour in the classroom due to emotional and social challenges. Research suggests that children who have had a disadvantaged upbringing are less likely to do well at school (Connell, White and Johnson as cited in Ewing , 2013, p. 74). Not being socially accepted because of socio economics can deter a child’s experience of schooling and create cognitive lags. For this reason, it is important for schools to bridge this gap. Children from different socio economic backgrounds bring similar knowledge to the classroom, but it is the children’s experiences that can have a negative impact on a child’s learning (Thomson, 2002, p.4). For example, children from low socio economic backgrounds can have high levels of behavioural and emotional problems, anger, have less linguistic knowledge and high levels of absent days from school. Likewise, another factor that can affect a child’s schooling experience is gender
Diversity among students including differences in culture, language and socioeconomic stance is not a new trend. The difference, however, is that today, the school system realizes that all students, including those who differ in some way from the "average" student, or those “at-risk” must be provided with an equal, opportune education (Morris, 1991).
The means of justifying these inequalities are important for the entire world. Education played and will always play a big role in everyone’s lives. Equality in education will eventually guarantee every person a better position in society. Educational inequality is the difference in learning effectiveness and results as faced by students with varying backgrounds. The effects of educational inequality are not only left within the circles of education, but also remain further to have an impact on other life aspects. All over the world, there have been unending calls to reform education at each level. With various causes that are very much connected to society, history and culture, the educational inequality has apparently been one of the most difficult challenges to address. Regardless of the challenges faced in removing educational inequality, education has continued to be a very important part of society with a big expectation of moving it forward. In the current-day America, very many disadvantaged children have continued to grow up missing key skills. Discrimination has continued to persevere in educational achievement between racial issues. Above all, low performance levels among these disadvantaged children have over the years been responsible for the long-term issues, especially in such an society with higher levels of skills and a failing incomes offered to those people that are less-skilled.
Through the development of Inclusive Education it is possible that children grow up to be more accepting of differences, where once the notion of something “different” and “separate” could cause caution, fear and ridicule. There are multiple policies and processes present within our society supporting inclusivity and the right every child regardless of their special needs or difficult circumstances has to an education. The Salamanca Statement developed world wide in 1994 states every child’s right to an education. In support of this policy the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act (1992) sets disability standards in our education system and the Melbourne Declaration (2008) further attempts to promote equity and excellence within our schools.
“Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.
...Elkins, J. (2008). Education for Inclusion and Diversity Third Edition. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.
Munro, J. (2008). Education systems and services. In A. Ashman & J. Elkins (Eds.), Education for inclusion and diversity (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.
The UK is a democratic, multicultural and diverse nation, which prides itself on equality. Each local authority is responsible for providing and funding a cross-national education for all children from five to sixteen years old. Based on this information, it would be reasonable to suggest that there is no inequality in education, because the law aims to provide the same opportunities through a universal system. In retrospect the reality seems to be very different. Through evaluating sociological perspectives and theoretical and empirical research, this essay will analyse the inequalities within the education system and how it affects society.
Our education system allegedly provides an equal opportunity to all members of society to reach their potential. The research by Richer, particularly in elementary school, leads us to believe that this is not essentially the case. Our school system has a “hidden curriculum” that produces an inequality between the middle and lower class as well as men and woman. When a child enters a school environment they are required to adhere to a set of values proposed by the teacher and classroom environment. This school environment is competitive, teachers r...
Croxford, L. (1994) “Equal opportunities in the secondary school curriculum in Scotland”, British Educational Research Journal, 20, 371-91