A reflection of my own experiences of culture and identity in relation to education

Educated in areas like Fairfield and Bankstown, one goes through school with an “us” vs. “them” mentality. “Us” being the kids from the notorious gun wielding, knife pocketing Western Suburbs, and “them” being the straw-hat-wearing, blazer-clad, Northern Suburbs snobs.  Although as a 20 year old I can read back over that sentence and see its obvious frivolity, I can’t help but shake that nagging feeling that my experiences growing up as “Westie”, (where it was assumed I was poorly educated, from a low socio-economic background, and without the intellectual or monetary capacity to enter an institution that would provide me with a level of education revered as one of prestige and fortune), and being labelled as an underdog, has changed the view I have of education, and question whether my motives to become a teacher differ to those in different circumstances to myself.

While a vast majority of teachers, both pre-service and practicing, are according to research, competent, committed and motivated to surmount the minimal requirements of their profession, the motives that drive individuals to initially enter higher education is seems do vary amongst different socio-cultural contexts (Schunk, 2008). Individuals have been found to be motivated by a range of intrinsic, extrinsic, altruistic, or a combination of these motives as a way to procure particular goals. These motives I’ve found however, don’t change so much from suburb to suburb, but more so from country to country. Turns out that while the States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have an attrition rate of 40% within the first five years of teaching as a result of stress, burnout, and disappointment, identifying myself as a source of specialist knowledge, an underdog whose identity was somewhat attributed to being told I was culturally incapable of succeeding by tabloids, did not leave me with any new or singularly inspirational motives for becoming teacher that separate me from the afore mentioned “them”. 

Identified motivations for becoming an educator include working with children, making a social contribution, job security, job benefits etc. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2005) . Watt and Richardson (2007) also determined that teaching does not appear to be a fall back profession, with most entering the field aware of the demanding nature and little return of the career.

As this is a personal reflection, I note that I cling to the idea that all pre-service teachers hope that they will make a valuable social contribution. I hope this is done in such a way that inspires the desire to learn and attain knowledge to ensure the continuity and progression of a culture that moves beyond stereotypes like the suburb in which you were educated, and instead revels in the notion of an intelligent and critical society where thinkers such as Honi Bhabha, suggest that new social cultures are brought into being through encounters and engagement, the whole idea of an intrinsically superior person based upon the place in which they were educated or born  is destabilised,  and the identity of individuals not tainted by what appears to so ironically be, a mutual lack of education.

References:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2005, ‘Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers’, Paris: OECD Publishing.

 

Schunk, D. H., Pintrich, P.R. and Meer, J. L. 2008, Motivation in education, 3^rd edn, Englewood

      Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?

Watt, H. M. G., & Richardson, P. P. W. 2007, ‘Motivational factors influencing teaching as a career

choice: Development and validation of the FIT-choice scale’, The Journal of Experimental Education, vol. 75 no. 3, pp. 167-202.

 

A reflection on a current educational issue in Sydney relating to culture and identity

Willis (2005) talks in the beginning of his book ‘Race, Identity and Representation in Education”, of how young people are the foot soldiers of modernity. He talks of how schools are one of the principal sites for the dialectical playing out of disjunctions and contradiction, which underlie some of the most urgent education debates – from traditionalism versus progressivism, to the canon versus multiculturalism”. In society today, social debates regarding the status of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) community are being spurred by young people, the foot soldiers of a modern and progressive social movement that wish to remove the contradictions of traditional legislation in favour of policy that promotes the desires of a changing society, and a cultural understanding and tolerance of the rights and legitimacy of the human, regardless of their sexual preference.

On the 17^th of October 2012, The Herald Sun released an article entitled “Being straight no longer normal, students taught”.  The article explains how a  “Proud Schools consultation report recently recommended that schools review existing Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education programs from Year 7 to "incorporate learning about same-sex attraction and sexual diversity because of schools being, according to research by LaTrobe University, the "primary site of homophobic abuse".

What was troubling about this article however was the response of Upper house MP Fred Nile, who attacked the program, calling it "propaganda", suggesting that educating students about issues regarding the cultural acceptance and political legitimacy of the GLBT community in society equated to brainwashing. In addition to these comments, Nile suggests that because homosexuals are a minority group, making up 2% of the population, the education department should not give priority to a program that aims to reduce the psychological impacts the suppression of a homosexual identity can have on a child. Nile, I feel, is an example of an older, culturally and socially stagnate individual resistant to the flows of cultural modernisation because it questions legislation and social norms locked in tradition that he is culturally comfortable with.

Willis (2005) suggests that changes and progression of culture to reflect a changing society  to protect the rights of minorities to the adult eye, may seem to be mysterious, troubling, and even shocking, resulting in a lack of understanding and acceptance. This to me however does not seem to be a legitimate reason for Nile or any other politician to cover what comes across as fear of change with “brainwashing”. The idea that the education of individuals on the desires and social legitimacy of a community has been rejected by a politician because they are a minority of the population will remain an educational issue in terms of how schooling will reflect the changing society and culture.

References:

Devine, M. 17/10/2012, ‘Being straight no longer normal, students taught’, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/being-straight-no-longer-normal-students-taught/story-e6frf7jo-1226497360980>

Willis, P. (2005). Afterword: Foot soldiers of modernity: The dialectics of cultural consumption and the 21^st-century school. In C. McCarthy, W. Crichlow, G. Dimitriadis, & N. Dolby (Eds.), Race, identity and representation in education (2^nd Ed.), (pp.461-480), New York: Routledge.