Young Writers Society

Was closed, but people are providing really interesting discussion points, so open again to those who wish to comment

- - - - - - - - - -

Hey everyone, my name is Jai and today I would like to ask for your help

First, I'd like to thank anyone who contributes to this research by offering the incentive of a review by me of any of their works.

Second, the research information gathered from this would make up part of my assignment for my unit Teaching In New Times, second semester of university, so I ask that any replies be as truthful as possible. As the users of this site are quite anonymous, nothing you post here will get back to your home town, or whatever else might be holding you back from replying truthfully.

What the Task Sheet says

In the field research section, you are to engage with the ‘real world’ in some way to see if what you find confirms, refutes or enriches what you’ve been reading and hearing on your topic. The purpose of the field study component in EDB001: Teaching In New Times is to introduce you to the application of research to the ‘real world’. It is designed to encourage you to observe, reflect on, and discuss your newly acquired ideas. What we’re looking for is an examination of the unit topic through a socio-cultural lens.

To my knowledge, I'm the only person in my unit who has decided on a whim that "real world" means an online literary forum



The ways we behave are shaped by not only our prior learning experiences (behavioural model), or our biology (medical model), or unconscious (psychological model), but by our social and cultural contexts - the world in which we live. Socio-culture refers to classes in power (middle class, upper class), location, identity, lifestyle, a set of perspectives, race, ethnicity, physical differences, culture, values, traditions, stereotypes... Socio-culture is your culture and how it has been affected by society, or how your culture has affected society.

Socio-culture is a trajectory through time and space, it is relational, yet neither side of it is the dependent variable, and the overall significance of it is about being something and not something else.

Sociology is the study of society in an aim to investigate and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity. It is the study of the relationship between what exists (onotology) and the certainty of our theories about social reality and how we know these theories (epistemology). Essentially, sociology is humans studying themselves in an attempt to understand societies and the way societies are divided. This means examining inequality and what ideologies lend themselves to who has social power.

Inequality is reproduced over time and is shown to be systemic. Racism is one of the key issues facing education, as it is both institutionally embedded and interpersonally enacted.

A race is a group of people believed to possess certain characteristics, based on physical or biological ancestry. Classification of race began as early as the 17th century when scholars first began to separate flaura and fauna. Individuals are not remote from history and social structures, thus it was only a natural step to start separating people by location or skin colour. At one point in history, Africans were not considered human. It was only in the 18th century that The Enlightenment stated that humans were unequal and placed blacks as the lowest of the races in the Great Chain of Being.

Nowadays almost no contemporary scholar uses the term "race" to distinguish groups based on biological characteristics, and notions of "race" have no scientific basis. Ethnicity follows the same path, but is used to categorise people who share the same beliefs, culture (and/or religion), nation, heritage/ancestry and language. These physical differences are superficial, as under skin colour is muscle, and bone and marrow. Our understandings of race are socialised into us, and as such, provide fuel for discrimination.

Discrimination is not simply an individual bias, it is an institutional practice. The uneven inequalities of race/ethnicity are related to the legacy of predominantly European colonial domination, complex world history, aftermath of wars and the speed of industrialisation in different countries. All these contribute to the unconsciously perceived hierarchy of nations by individuals ("Iraq and Iran are full of terrorists, and American's fight terrorism, so American's are above Iraqis").

Racism is based on this socially constructed race hierarchy and is the structural subordination of minority racial groups by ruling social groups (in the case of Reverse Racism, the ethnic/indigenous group shows racism to the race that is higher on the racial hierarchy that exists in the wider society, even if the ethnic group is dominant in that local setting. Eg, Aboriginal children towards "white fellas" in the Northern Territory).

Conventional understandings of racism are usually linked with prejudice on the basis of physical appearance, nationality and language/linguistic stereotypes. This discrimination is commonly based on the perception that one ethnic group/language is superior to all others. Racism can lead to segregation and racial slurs can escalate to physical violence, which furthers the feelings of inequality harboured by ethnic minorities.

However, there are always outliers within statistics. Individuals can choose to reject the inherent stereotypes, change social class or even their own gender to escape the limits placed upon them for their characteristics. Straying too far from the norm can have consequences of its own. Agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices, but Structure is all the factors that limit of affect the choices and actions of individuals. Can one be separated from the other? this is an ontological debate in social theory:
"Do social structures determine an individual's behaviour? Or does human agency?"

Changing demographics, social, political and economic forces and cultural diversity impacts on pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. Multiculturalism must go beyond tolerance to be diverse.



If you've got some fantastic ideas about whether racial stereotypes affect approaches to teaching? by all means, address the question in any way you like. Otherwise, later on there are some points that can stimulate you and provide some points to build up your argument.

What I'm trying to encourage is a debate between you all about whether racism exists within schools. Personal experiences, stories you've heard, even stereotypes you believe in ("Asians are smart", "People from Nigeria are fast runners", "Black people are all gangstas"), or the lack of how race/ethnicity impacts in education, is what I want to be reading in your replies.

So out with it What are your ideas about how race/ethnicity affects education?

Are there obvious bias towards some students compared to others because of their race? In Australia, if you are Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander, you receive special consideration in exams, support groups are available, a chaplain is assigned to you in case you require someone to talk to during and out of school hours, and special camps and events are held for you.

Things I have noticed/my immediate ideas

I believe that racism is quite strong, but it means less than it used to. Whereas if you were black you couldn't attend schools, couldn't ride in the same bus as "whites" etc a long time ago, Generation X is growing up in a society where all nations are supposed to be equal. That'll make a huge difference in the future.

In Australia people tend to pick on race as opposed to skin colour. If you're Aboriginal you're immediately classified as a slow learner, a drunk and a good-for-nothing (those stereotypes are the ones I have grew up with, whether I heard them from elders, or I read about them, or the gaps and silences that became obvious when the topic of Aboriginals was brought up), if you're Asian, you're smart. If you're Indian, you'll be a taxi driver (in Brisbane, anyway). These are the stereotypes that come to mind when I think "racism".

I'd notice that at uni. When someone of colour speaks up, especially if that person has a heavy accent, the other students will stop listening. You only stand a chance if you are of lighter skin colour and your English is impeccable.

I have heard about schools separating races to avoid conflict, but to my knowledge it is frowned upon in Australian schools below tertiary level. Certainly in some cases there are certain university tutorials that are "race specific" to allow for the travelling students to make friends with the people of their own culture and so they can talk amongst themselves in their own languages etc.

I've noticed that Asians stick together, and only occasionally do I see a solitary, or a pair of Asians interacting openly with a group of students of other races. Asians also tend to loudly talk in their own language all the time, even in lectures and tutorials which further alienates them from the other students.

Other races, such as African, try really hard to fit in and hide their obvious differences, so they are more widely accepted.

------------------

Awaiting your ideas

- Jai

Hey Jai!!!!!! Princess Rosie is here to the rescue! XD

Well, I'm Asian but I like to think of myself as "a global citizen". I've always been encouraged at home to not limit myself because of my race or my gender, but you'd be surprised at how many Asians that still believe that both of those factors are very important when you try to find work elsewhere. (I'll talk about that later.)

I believe that race and ethnicity does, in some sense, affect education, but it is now not so very important, as people (well, Asians) now are beginning to understand and accept that we are equal and no race is better than others. Yes, racism still exists, in schools, shops and nearly all of the places here, and people here still believe that white people supposedly lead better lives than us, but it is starting to change for the better. At least, I think so.

I've been to two types of schools in Hong Kong --- so-called "private" schools and public ones. At the private elementary school I've been to, the teachers usually teaches in English, which is very unusual in Hong Kong, as the usual medium of teaching is Chinese/Cantonese. We are taught that each and every person are equal, that skin colour doesn't matter. Even though it is not an international school, there are quite a few students of mixed ethnicities and races, and for some reason, those with browner or blacker skin are usually subject to teasing, i.e: "Don't touch them, they're dirty!" "Look at the filth on their skin! Don't their mommies wash them everyday? "

Of course the teachers will almost immediately scold them for being racist, but even they don't really want to touch them. It is actually a Catholic school, but people with other faiths (Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, etc) are accepted into this school too. No-one would force you to believe God, unlike the school I now go to. I actually loved being in this school, because no-one made fun of my weird Cantonese and Chinese.

In the school I'm now in, there are mostly Asians. People here are expected to believe God eventually after five to seven years of utter brainwashing --- Jesus is the One True God and any other faith is stupid and evil! Fear His wrath if you ever disobey His word! --- and those who are remotely Caucasian or have better English than the rest of them are worshipped. Seriously, the teachers would fawn over you and make you their poster boy (girl in my case) and give you loads of opportunities to prove your worth to the world. Or something like that.

Take my friend F for example. He's half Chinese and half Caucasian, and all of the people in his class think that he's some kind of god that their One True God gave them. Whenever he gives his opinion, everyone will suddenly says that F is right instead. To be honest with you, I think it's really annoying but what can you do? Even the teachers are like that! Still, I'm positive that not all of the schools in Hong Kong are this way...I hope.

Curiously in my school, you would hear teachers say, "Study hard, and one day you'll be as rich as the white people [Caucasians]!" I mean, what kind of logic is that? Yes, most Asians have some kind of inferiority complex or something along those lines when they compare themselves to their American or English or Australian counterparts, but I think it's plain ridiculous! White people =/= rich people, but most of the people I've met in my school have this weird mindset! It really annoys me.

Also, Asian people, for some reason, think that being Asian lowers their chance at working in any country on Earth (with the possible exception of their own). That's why they would, at all costs, send their children to English-speaking countries and/or schools where the medium of instruction is English. People whose children don't have these chances would send them to tutors and/or cram schools to improve their English. And that is also why Asians yearn for authentic American/Canadian/British/Australian accents when speaking English, because then they can pretend that they are actually not Asian at all.

I would really love to start ranting about how Asians are not smart and stuff, but I have to go and eat my dinner now!

~Rosie =]

Thanks for your reply, Rosie. It is exactly what I needed - I wasn't expecting such an in-depth response.

As such, I've decided to roll with what you've said, as my assignment is kinda due next week If people still want to respond, then that's fine, but this is a occurrence of...

... Case Closed!

:3

Race was actually made up to classify blacks as inhuman, actually. The scientific categories were not a part of that. Just sayin'. They've come to mean something else.. but that's being nitpicky!

I think racism happens to a certain extent in public universities in the United States, through something called "affirmative action." Not sure if you've ever heard of it... anyway, it's a system that was installed so that the percentage of students in a particular race in the school will match the percentage of race in our population. This is basically done so that minority students, like Blacks and Hispanics get a better chance to actually get into school, even though they live in crappier situations... or so it's assumed.

Generally, the people over here who work the hardest are the Asians, so we have a huuuuuge Asian population in our schools. However, people are complaining because more Asians means less of the other races, so they're actually talking about limiting the amount of Asians. Which is sad because... well... the reason they're there is because they work harder than the other groups. But they're restricted as well.

Hispanics also get it rough because you have the whole "illegal aliens" situation going on. Not sure if you know about this, it being in the United States, but we have a lot of people coming from South America and Mexico and crossing the border illegally. Some of the students have lived most of their lives in the United States, but they have no chance of getting a legal status because they entered the country illegally since their parents took them to the country when they were babies. You're not a citizen if you grew up here... you have to be born here. And unfortunately, they weren't born here. Or, sometimes, they were born here, but the rest of their family is illegal, so if they come out, they could get their whole family in trouble. So Hispanics will generally not respond to the Census, which means that we can only guess at what their actual percentage of the population is.

And yes, it's confusing.

As far as other schools? Well. In my neighborhood I grew up in, which was pretty much gang-infested, you had the Blacks and the Hispanics basically fighting each other. They're in competition because they're trying to do the same sort of jobs. So what does this have to do with schools? Well, they influence the schools and serve to separate the Blacks and Hispanics from each other. It is strange. Also, it can lead to fights. And, because they're essentially creating gangs, the Hispanics and Blacks generally fail at school. They're too busy hating each other. Of course, this might just be the area I lived in... we had a lot of people come from Oakland, CA. Soooo... it can get a little rough. It isn't like this everywhere. That's in the middle school and high school grades, in any case. These sorts of people generally don't go into university.

As someone who is Caucasian and in university? We, as a group, are motivated to do what "feels" right to us. So, while Asians will be doing stuff that there is a need for and is practical, we'll basically "search" ourselves to find out what we really want to do. And... we don't really work as hard as the Asians. Racism really doesn't affect us, except in affirmative action. But even then, more Asians are accepted than Whites, so the Asians are the group that is glared upon and we kind of get ignored. But you should understand that whites generally don't get affected with racism over here. We're the group that has the easy in.

Also... before this, I was homeschooled. Whites generally are homeschooled more, over here anyway. It's seen as a way of taking kids out and letting them find themselves more easily, in the safest way possible. It's a cultural thing, I guess. The other groups either don't have the money or financial stability, the parent available for homeschooling, or the mentality that their kids need to find themselves in the first place. But whites have had the cultural background over here with the homemaker mom. So that lends itself to homeschooling.

Uh... yeah. Just a bunch of random thoughts. Hopefully, they'll be useful.

Hey Jai, I know you said it's closed, but I feel I owe you my $0.02

Positive discrimination has already come up, but I have never met an aboriginal person at uni, so I certainly couldn't say that my personal experience has lead me to believe it's unwarranted, or excessive.

Asian students form the vast majority of overseas students. They are supported by their own student organisation, but even so, cop a lot of flack for a variety of reasons;

Their grasp of english is often incomplete, to the extent that I've heard many people question how so many of them are able to pass language-heavy subject. Coupled with the fact that Overseas students are full-fee paying, and I have heard the charge levelled many, many times that allowances are made for overseas students because they pay more money.

This builds on a general social disconnect. I have observed very little actual hostility to overseas students, but cultural differences, as well as a tendency towards shyness and language problems can lead to a lack of social interaction between the predominantly asian overseas student body and the rest of the students.

Asian students (whether overseas or not) often tend to wind up in a certain variety of subjects and courses, such as accounting. Medicine and Law also seem to receive a few (and Law is the only language-heavy subject where this is the case) and some of my asian friends have confided that this is due to family pressures (which Rosie may have mentioned in her post).

Other than that, race doesn't seem to be a huge issue at university.

Hope this helped.

some of my asian friends have confided that this is due to family pressures

Hmpf. Parents.

Bunch of new notes that I'll somehow work into my assignment:

- - - - - - - - - -

Sociology is the study of society in an aim to investigate and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity. It is the study of the relationship between what exists (onotology) and the certainty of our theories about social reality and how we know these theories (epistemology). Essentially, sociology is humans studying themselves in an attempt to understand societies and the way societies are divided. This means examining inequality and what ideologies lend themselves to who has social power.

Inequality is reproduced over time and is shown to be systemic. Racism is one of the key issues facing education, as it is both institutionally embedded and interpersonally enacted. Discrimination is not simply an individual bias, it is an institutional practice. The uneven inequalities of race/ethnicity are related to the legacy of predominantly European colonial domination, complex world history, aftermath of wars and the speed of industrialisation in different countries. All these contribute to the unconsciously perceived hierarchy of nations by individuals ("Iraq and Iran are full of terrorists, and American's fight terrorism, so American's are above Iraqis").

Racism is based on this socially constructed race hierarchy and is the structural subordination of minority racial groups by ruling social groups (in the case of Reverse Racism, the ethnic/indigenous group shows racism to the race that is higher on the racial hierarchy that exists in the wider society, even if the ethnic group is dominant in that local setting. Eg, Aboriginal children towards "white fellas" in the Northern Territory).

Conventional understandings of racism are usually linked with prejudice on the basis of physical appearance, nationality and language/linguistic stereotypes. This discrimination is commonly based on the perception that one ethnic group/language is superior to all others. Racism can lead to segregation and racial slurs can escalate to physical violence, which furthers the feelings of inequality harboured by ethnic minorities.

However, there are always outliers within statistics. Individuals can choose to reject the inherent stereotypes, change social class or even their own gender to escape the limits placed upon them for their characteristics. Straying too far from the norm can have consequences of its own. Agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices, but Structure is all the factors that limit of affect the choices and actions of individuals. Can one be separated from the other? this is an ontological debate in social theory:
"Do social structures determine an individual's behaviour? Or does human agency?"

Changing demographics, social, political and economic forces and cultural diversity impacts on pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. Multiculturalism must go beyond tolerance to be diverse.

- - - - - - - - - -

And on to the replies

- - - - - - - - - -

Rosie:

Well, I'm Asian but I like to think of myself as "a global citizen". I've always been encouraged at home to not limit myself because of my race or my gender, but you'd be surprised at how many Asians that still believe that both of those factors are very important when you try to find work elsewhere.

I've been told to flaunt my race and unusual looks As I'm half filipino, I look rather different to anyone else around me, especially because of my height, of which isn't expected of someone with Asian descent.

I believe that race and ethnicity does, in some sense, affect education, but it is now not so very important, as people (well, Asians) now are beginning to understand and accept that we are equal and no race is better than others. Yes, racism still exists, in schools, shops and nearly all of the places here, and people here still believe that white people supposedly lead better lives than us, but it is starting to change for the better. At least, I think so.

I believe that racism is quite strong, but it means less than it used to. Whereas if you were black you couldn't attend schools, couldn't ride in the same bus as "whites" etc a long time ago, Generation X is growing up in a society where all nations are supposed to be equal. That'll make a huge difference in the future.

We are taught that each and every person are equal, that skin colour doesn't matter.

I don't even know if there are schools out there that teach students that people of different colours aren't equal.

Even though it is not an international school, there are quite a few students of mixed ethnicities and races, and for some reason, those with browner or blacker skin are usually subject to teasing, i.e: "Don't touch them, they're dirty!" "Look at the filth on their skin! Don't their mommies wash them everyday? "

Wow, I've never heard insults like those before. In Australia people tend to pick on race as opposed to skin colour. If you're Aboriginal you're immediately classified as a slow learner, a drunk and a good-for-nothing (those stereotypes are the ones I have grew up with, whether I heard them from elders, or I read about them, or the gaps and silences that became obvious when the topic of Aboriginals was brought up), if you're Asian, you're smart. If you're Indian, you'll be a taxi driver (in Brisbane, anyway). These are the stereotypes that come to mind when I think "racism".

Of course the teachers will almost immediately scold them for being racist, but even they don't really want to touch them.

Sounds like covert racism is common where you come from :O

those who are remotely Caucasian or have better English than the rest of them are worshipped. Seriously, the teachers would fawn over you and make you their poster boy (girl in my case) and give you loads of opportunities to prove your worth to the world. Or something like that.

Because English is becoming the global language, and you need to speak it to communicate. Globalization is a bitch

Take my friend F for example. He's half Chinese and half Caucasian, and all of the people in his class think that he's some kind of god that their One True God gave them. Whenever he gives his opinion, everyone will suddenly says that F is right instead. To be honest with you, I think it's really annoying but what can you do? Even the teachers are like that! Still, I'm positive that not all of the schools in Hong Kong are this way...I hope.

I'd notice that at uni. When someone of colour speaks up, especially if that person has a heavy accent, the other students will stop listening. You only stand a chance if you are of lighter skin colour and your English is impeccable.

Curiously in my school, you would hear teachers say, "Study hard, and one day you'll be as rich as the white people [Caucasians]!" I mean, what kind of logic is that? Yes, most Asians have some kind of inferiority complex or something along those lines when they compare themselves to their American or English or Australian counterparts, but I think it's plain ridiculous! White people =/= rich people, but most of the people I've met in my school have this weird mindset! It really annoys me.

In my high school it was inverted, "If you drop out of school, you're no better than an Aboriginal." It's harsh, but that's what was said.

Also, Asian people, for some reason, think that being Asian lowers their chance at working in any country on Earth (with the possible exception of their own). That's why they would, at all costs, send their children to English-speaking countries and/or schools where the medium of instruction is English. People whose children don't have these chances would send them to tutors and/or cram schools to improve their English. And that is also why Asians yearn for authentic American/Canadian/British/Australian accents when speaking English, because then they can pretend that they are actually not Asian at all.

I have to sadly agree with this though. If you are Asian in Australia (especially Brisbane), you have to stand out *somehow* because there are so many Asians. You have to speak English better, you have to understand English better, you have to *be* Australian better than the other Asians around you to stand a better chance of being noticed. That's what I have seen, anyway.

Thanks for your opinions, Rosie!

- - - - - - - - - -

Snoink:

Race was actually made up to classify blacks as inhuman, actually. The scientific categories were not a part of that. Just sayin'. They've come to mean something else.. but that's being nitpicky!

The implications of "race" came about in the 17th century. It was only in the 18th century that The Enlightenment stated that humans were unequal and placed blacks as the lowest of the races in the Great Chain of Being.

I think racism happens to a certain extent in public universities in the United States, through something called "affirmative action." Not sure if you've ever heard of it... anyway, it's a system that was installed so that the percentage of students in a particular race in the school will match the percentage of race in our population. This is basically done so that minority students, like Blacks and Hispanics get a better chance to actually get into school, even though they live in crappier situations... or so it's assumed.

Wow. Just wow. I've never heard of that before. Why would the government actively enforce this limitation?

Generally, the people over here who work the hardest are the Asians, so we have a huuuuuge Asian population in our schools. However, people are complaining because more Asians means less of the other races, so they're actually talking about limiting the amount of Asians. Which is sad because... well... the reason they're there is because they work harder than the other groups. But they're restricted as well.

That's pure insanity. It almost makes no sense. I can see where they were coming from in terms of making sure minorities held a place at universities, but limiting expansion just so other majorities hold their places is not the way to go about it.

Hispanics also get it rough because you have the whole "illegal aliens" situation going on. Not sure if you know about this, it being in the United States, but we have a lot of people coming from South America and Mexico and crossing the border illegally. Some of the students have lived most of their lives in the United States, but they have no chance of getting a legal status because they entered the country illegally since their parents took them to the country when they were babies. You're not a citizen if you grew up here... you have to be born here. And unfortunately, they weren't born here. Or, sometimes, they were born here, but the rest of their family is illegal, so if they come out, they could get their whole family in trouble. So Hispanics will generally not respond to the Census, which means that we can only guess at what their actual percentage of the population is.

Australian's have the same deal with Asylum Seekers. Basically if you land on Australian soil, anywhere on Australia, Australia will protect you. We *have* to take you in. Because of this, the Australian policy had to adapt (wiki research follows): Mandatory detention in Australia concerns the Australian federal government's policy and system of mandatory immigration detention active from 1992 to date, pursuant to which all persons entering the country without a valid visa are compulsorily detained and sometimes subject to deportation.

As far as other schools? Well. In my neighborhood I grew up in, which was pretty much gang-infested, you had the Blacks and the Hispanics basically fighting each other. They're in competition because they're trying to do the same sort of jobs. So what does this have to do with schools? Well, they influence the schools and serve to separate the Blacks and Hispanics from each other. It is strange. Also, it can lead to fights. And, because they're essentially creating gangs, the Hispanics and Blacks generally fail at school. They're too busy hating each other. Of course, this might just be the area I lived in... we had a lot of people come from Oakland, CA. Soooo... it can get a little rough. It isn't like this everywhere. That's in the middle school and high school grades, in any case. These sorts of people generally don't go into university.

I have heard about schools separating races to avoid conflict, but to my knowledge it is frowned upon in Australian schools below tertiary level. Certainly in some cases there are certain university tutorials that are "race specific" to allow for the travelling students to make friends with the people of their own culture and so they can talk amongst themselves in their own languages etc.

As someone who is Caucasian and in university? We, as a group, are motivated to do what "feels" right to us. So, while Asians will be doing stuff that there is a need for and is practical, we'll basically "search" ourselves to find out what we really want to do. And... we don't really work as hard as the Asians. Racism really doesn't affect us, except in affirmative action. But even then, more Asians are accepted than Whites, so the Asians are the group that is glared upon and we kind of get ignored. But you should understand that whites generally don't get affected with racism over here. We're the group that has the easy in.

Whites aren't the subject of racism here in Australia either. Unless one counts "reverse racism".

Thank you for your points, Snoink!

- - - - - - - - - -

Rohan:

Positive discrimination has already come up, but I have never met an aboriginal person at uni, so I certainly couldn't say that my personal experience has lead me to believe it's unwarranted, or excessive.

lol I haven't seen one Aboriginal either.

Asian students form the vast majority of overseas students. They are supported by their own student organisation, but even so, cop a lot of flack for a variety of reasons;
Their grasp of english is often incomplete, to the extent that I've heard many people question how so many of them are able to pass language-heavy subject. Coupled with the fact that Overseas students are full-fee paying, and I have heard the charge levelled many, many times that allowances are made for overseas students because they pay more money.

Seen and heard and read about this too. Overseas students are also allowed extra time in exams and in-class essays if they ask for it, and are allowed dictionaries or language books to help them with their English.

This builds on a general social disconnect. I have observed very little actual hostility to overseas students, but cultural differences, as well as a tendency towards shyness and language problems can lead to a lack of social interaction between the predominantly asian overseas student body and the rest of the students.

I've noticed that Asians stick together, and only occasionally do I see a solitary, or a pair of Asians interacting openly with a group of students of other races. Asians also tend to loudly talk in their own language all the time, even in lectures and tutorials which further alienates them from the other students.

Other races, such as African, try really hard to fit in and hide their obvious differences, so they are more widely accepted.

Asian students (whether overseas or not) often tend to wind up in a certain variety of subjects and courses, such as accounting. Medicine and Law also seem to receive a few (and Law is the only language-heavy subject where this is the case) and some of my asian friends have confided that this is due to family pressures (which Rosie may have mentioned in her post).

I have two Asian friends, one is doing Business and Psychology, and the other is doing Psychology and Law. Both were born in Australia. I've noticed Asians in my calculus and algebra lectures, and I think that class is a pre-requisite for most sciences, including medical.

Other than that, race doesn't seem to be a huge issue at university.

A slightly ironic statement, don't you think?

Thanks Rohan! It's nice to hear from you

- - - - - - - - - - -

So, to everyone who has replied, I promised some reviewing. PM me with what you would like reviewed, and I'll get on it.

Oh, and do my notes at the very top spark any more opinions?

If anyone was slightly interested (lol), this is what my project ended up like. When I receive my results, I'll post an update. It was a poster assignment. I wish I had taken a photo so you could have seen how it looked - it was really nice in the end. Black background, with text on white paper with coloured borders of magenta, purple and blue, with the "touch of unity" picture as the centre-piece picture.

Thanks to everyone who added ideas, and don't forget - I offered reviews for replying to this topic, so just PM me or whatever with what you want reviewed

Jai

- - - - - - - - - -

Topic 3: The Impact of Race/Ethnicity on Education

Do racial stereotypes affect approaches to teaching?


The ways in which we behave are shaped by not only prior learning experiences, biology, or the unconscious, but by social and cultural contexts, called a socio-cultural lens that impact on children, schools, education and teaching. Essentially, sociology is the study of humans studying themselves in an attempt to understand societies and the way societies are divided. This means examining inequality and what ideologies lend themselves to who has social power.


Inequality is reproduced over time and is shown to be systemic. Racism is one of the key issues facing education, as it is both institutionally embedded and interpersonally enacted (Milojevic et al., 2000) and ingrained in the fabric of society (Gillborn, 2006). A race is a group of people believed to possess certain characteristics, based on physical or biological ancestry. Nowadays almost no contemporary scholar uses the term "race" to distinguish groups based on biological characteristics, and notions of race “lack a credible foundation,” (Gracia, 2010) and have no scientific basis. Our understandings of race are socialised into us as “race does not exist outside of our social world” (Shih, 2007), and as such, provide fuel for discrimination (shown in Image 1, “Racial Profiling”).



Discrimination is not simply an individual bias, it is an institutional practice. The uneven inequalities of race/ethnicity are related to the legacy of predominantly European colonial domination, complex world history, aftermath of wars and the speed of industrialisation in different countries. All these contribute to the unconsciously perceived hierarchy of nations by individuals. “Whites” are generally professed to be the superior race. One of the most insightful comments regarding “white politics” made by Lipsitz (1998) was, “Whiteness has a cash value: it accounts for advantages that come to individuals through profits made from housing secured in discriminatory markets, through unequal educations allocated to children of different races, through insider networks that channel employment opportunities to relatives and friends of those who have profited most from present and past racial discrimination, and especially through intergenerational transfers of inherited wealth that pass on the spoils of discrimination to succeeding generations.”


Racism is based on a socially constructed race hierarchy (Shih, 2007), and is the structural subordination of minority racial groups by ruling social groups. Conventional understandings of racism are usually linked with prejudice on the basis of physical appearance, nationality and language/linguistic stereotypes. This discrimination is commonly based on the perception that one ethnic group/language is superior to all others. Racism is a complex and multi-faceted, leading analysts to recognise that both racial identities and racism might be articulated and experienced in a range of different ways (Vincent, 1998). Racism can lead to segregation, and racial slurs can escalate to physical violence (Milojevic et al., 2000) and negative consequences (shown in Image 2, “Racism”), which furthers the feelings of inequality harboured by ethnic minorities.


 
Negative racial stereotyping is the essential key factor towards racism within education. Gracia (2010) claims that there is positive racism and negative racism, and that positive racism towards one race entails negative racism towards another. He believes that negative racism tends to be founded on stereotyping, and that racial stereotypes are “founded on false generalizations because groups of people do not in fact share any properties at all times and places”. Stereotypes bias people’s perceptions of individuals (Jussim et al., 1995), and within the classroom, this could have substantial negative effects on students. In an interview with an Australian Aboriginal in 1986, the interviewer, Cole, asked, “To what extent do you believe that the existing education system reinforces racism and racist stereotypes of Aboriginal people? Do you think schools have a major role in reproducing racism?”, and the woman being interviewed answered, “Yes, they certainly do. Schools promote the fallacy that Aboriginal kids are the dummies and are not good learners, when they’re not aware of the social conditions that Aboriginal students come from. Unless teachers know these sorts of things and look for signs in a student, they’re going to keep reinforcing the theory that Aboriginal students are less intelligent than white kids.” The woman being interviewed then went on to say that she believed Australia's school system had a bad record over providing appropriate education for Aboriginal students (see Image 3, “Aboriginal Children at School”).



A study by B. E Cross in 2003 found that when teachers were asked what they had been taught in their education curriculum about teaching in a culturally diverse classroom, the teachers listed the following: respect children's language, use diverse literature, recognize cultural diversity and to acknowledge background knowledge and experiences. Most of these teachers seemed to believe that the reasons behind any disruptive behaviour of students of ethnicity was due to their backgrounds, so ignored their behaviour or considered it normal for their culture, so much so that “negative perceptions about the students and their families inhibited the teachers' abilities to think positively about the race or culture of those they were teaching” (Cross, 2003).


Conversely, (Gillborn, 2006) suggests that many "white" teachers hold systematically lower expectations of "black" and other minority ethnic students and often respond more quickly or harshly to perceived signs of unruly students in an attitude or behaviour which is discrimination through unconscious prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racial stereotyping.


Educators of today have a moral responsibility to move beyond the limits of racial context to a social context that embraces humanity without barriers and fears (Pullen, 2000), even if this movement is small and only just brushes the depths of how much people will have to accept and change (see Image 4, “Touch of Unity”). The effects of racial stereotypes on teaching in Australia have changed over the years. Via email correspondence with a current English/Drama teacher in the aim of acquiring field research, it was found that while racial stereotyping may occur sub-consciously, it rarely, if ever, changed the attitudes towards teaching a student of a different race.


 
Field Research

The nature of the field experience was to determine whether approaches to teaching are affected by racial stereotypes, by interviewing via email a current English/Drama teacher in Queensland over the period of a week (22/08/2010 – 29/08/2010) and asking her to reflect upon some stimuli. The stimuli provided included the definitions of race, racism and stereotypes, some general questions, back and forth debate upon her answers and the topic statement. Results indicated that while there was a positive correlation between racial stereotypes and different approaches to teaching than what is normally expected of a teacher under the same circumstances, the interviewer found that this teacher operated under a wide knowledge base of how to approach students of particular racial backgrounds. For example an excerpt of the transcript of the correspondence:

Interviewer: Have you witnessed racism within the classroom?

Teacher: Sometimes there is inverse racism where an ATSIC student might claim that they are being targeted because they are "Black" just because the teacher may be trying to discipline them just like any student. But this is usually overcome if the teacher ignores it.

Interviewer: Why is the best option to solving the accusation of racism to ignore it?

Teacher: I really ignore claims of racism as spurious as they are trying to get the teacher off the point of their poor behaviour and so I stay on task so as to speak and focus on their bad behaviour and focus their minds on their choices of staying on task, following instructions or there will be consequences.

The teacher believed that acting this way was the action most beneficial to the entire classroom, not out of personal prejudice towards any student based upon racial stereotypes, as she demonstrated with this statement, “I think that there may be a bit of a wariness when dealing with any very difficult student no matter what racial background and if one has had some bad experiences it could colour one’s attitudes. But I have had some bad experiences with indigenous, Maori and Caucasian so it really depends on the individual student rather than their race or cultural background.”


Bibliography

Cole, M. (1986). The Aboriginal struggle: an interview with Helen Boyle. Race Class.

Cross, B.E. (2003) Learning or unlearning racism: Transferring teacher education curriculum to classroom practices. Theory into practice. (pp. 42-53)

Gillborn, D. (2006) Citizenship education as placebo: ‘standards’, institutional racism and education policy. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice. Institute of Education, University of London.

Gracia, Jorge J E. (2010). Racism: Negative and positive? The Monist. Chicago. (pp. 205)
This text argues that there is a positive and negative side to racism. Gracia argues that any positive kind of racism for certain races entails negative racism toward others and that racial pride/kinship became harmful for those who are not members of the race in question. He talked about how an individual's biology should not shape how the world views that particular race. With examples of racial stereotypes involving “blacks” seen to be lazy, Irish as drunks, French as sophisticated and Jews as greedy, Gracia showed how diverse and widely speculative stereotypes can be. For my purposes, this text helped me discover the overall assumptions of racism, stereotypes and whether racism could be seen in a negative or positive light.

Jussim, L., Nelson, Thomas E., Manis, M., Soffin Sonia. (1995). Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Labeling Effects: Sources of Bias in Person Perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Lipsitz, G. (1998). Possessive investment in whiteness: How White people profit from identity politics. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Milojevic, I., Luke, A., Luke, C., & Mills, M., & Land, R. (2000). Moving forward: Students and teachers against racism (pp. 5-19). Armadale, Vic.: Eleanor Curtain Publishing.
This text maintains that racism is an inherent structure within society. Milojevic et al., argues that racism is one of the key issues facing schools, communities and the nation. With examples of active/overt and passive/covert forms of interpersonal racism from victims of bullying, physical assaults and violence, Milojevic et al., reveals that racism is both institutionally embedded and interpersonally enacted. For my purposes, this text helped me understand how victims of racism felt about the attacks, that conventional understandings of racism are generally linked with prejudice on the basis of physical appearance and that racism has long-lasting negative consequences.

Pullen, P. (2000). Breaking racial stereotypes by reconstructing multicultural education. Multicultural education. San Francisco. (pp. 44)

Shih, M., Bonam, C., Peck, C., Sanchez, D. (2007). The Social Construction of Race: Biracial Identity and Vulnerability to Stereotypes. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. (pp. 123-155)
This text maintains that stereotypes and bias are purely constructed within society. Shih et al., argues that there is a heightened awareness of race as a social construct, and as such, has an impact on the relationship between racial stereotypes and performance. With studies that examined whether individuals accepted stereotypes that suggested race biology determines ability and whether people of monoracial backgrounds would be more susceptible towards believing racial stereotypes, Shih et al., shows why individuals believe such things despite easily undermining the biological basis of racial categories. For my purposes, this text helped me understand attitudes towards stereotyped identities.

Vincent, C. (1998) Researching racism in education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society

Interviews and Observations

Email correspondence with Marijolijn Dudgeon between the dates of 22/08/2010 – 29/08/2010.

Hey guys, just thought I'd post up my grade

I got a 6-, the highest possible grade at my university is a 7. A 6- is at least 75/100%, so thank you all for your input

I lost points for not having enough references from different socio-cultural views (I had two references from different psychology journals, but apparently that's enough to mark me down in that section because of the "sameness") and from not tying my field research into my main discussion enough.

A 6- is good enough for me, especially seeing as my oral presentation group got a 5 and so altogether I'm sitting on 37/50%. Just have to sit my final exam for EDB001, and if I pass it well, I should get at least a 5 overall.

Woot.

So thanks again

- Jai