ASSIGNMENT 1 DETAILS

In order to complete this assignment you need to critically discuss one of the essays below:

2. Are Australian schools meeting the challenge of equity and access in our democratic society?
Discuss the importance of equity in schooling practices by using examples from your own
experience and knowledge of schools to substantiate your point of view.

Schools retain the ability to allow oppression to subsist however Educational

teachers play a vital role in in either aiding or hindering these forms of oppression.

Equity and access refers to the policies that focus on redressing disadvantaged

groups, and providing equal access to education. Equity and access policies also

aim to service the systematic inequalities in regards to the educational outcomes of

the students that are affected by inequality. (personal communication, February 25,

2016) Equity and access limitations include various forms of limitation; these

limitations are often centered around but not limited to the following categories:

social economic status, cultural diversity, Religion, race, and Gender. Cultural

diversity contributes to the limitations of access and equity in areas that include

normalization and Habitus. “Intensification of migration and labour markets, bringing

into contact diverse languages, cultures and identities in ways never before

experienced” (Romain, 2011) has led to increasingly problematic issues of access in

equity within the educational environment. Australian schools have to a certain

extent attempted to meet the challenge of equity and access in regards to cultural

diversity. However as future educators we have the ability to further demise the

limitations of equity and access restricting and oppressing the students affected.

Cultural diversity both influences and inherently affects child's life chances and

opportunities with retrospect to equity, thus schools must recognise and facilitate

cultural diversity.
Intolerance towards diverse ethnicities and religions can result in limitations of

access. Cultural diversity can lead to disempowerment of an individual; this may be

due to a number of reasons such as issues of habitus. As stated in the lecture notes

Habitus refers to the set of dominant social norms and behaviours, values, traditions

and dispositions to which an individual is socialised (personal communication,

February 25, 2016). Diverse ethnicities encourage and uphold different values and

acceptable behaviour thus marginalizing the minority that are accustomed to their

own cultural or ethnic social values from the dominant Anglo Saxon English,

speaking majority. Due to an individual’s diverse ethnicity they may be unable to

access or activate power in various contexts; they may experience silencing,

invisibility, and resistance; they may be unable to give voice and nor demonstrate

their agency. They may also experience marginalization (Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C.,

& Ullman, J. 2015). Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C., & Ullman refer to these individuals

who are neglected or unaccounted or catered to by the educational system as the

“unseen half”. This metaphor symbolically groups individuals who are from diverse

cultural backgrounds who are “marked by their 'difference' from the 'mainstream'

and, as such, are often constructed as problematic”. (Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C., &

Ullman, J. 2015). They suggest that these individuals are overlooked and are

labelled as different due to their inability to conform to social constructed norms

“rendering them visible in particular ways, scrutinised and under surveillance. As

they consciously or unconsciously challenge, contradict or resist society's taken-for-

granted truths about who and what one should be, how one should act and what one

should think, they are positioned by others as problems requiring policing and

regulation”. (Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C., & Ullman, J. 2015). Therefore cultural

diversities being marginalised or categorized as different or problematic permits the

construction of “socially fabricated superiority” (Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C., & Ullman,

J. 2015). Providing empowerment to the individuals who derive from dominant

ethnicities who have prior knowledge of socialization and habitual norms while

disempowering individuals such as migrants who are “consciously or unconsciously

challenging” (Ferfolja, T., Jones-Diaz, C., & Ullman, J. 2015) dominant social norms.

Although the Australian educational system has to some extent attempted to

facilitate individuals who derive from diverse cultural backgrounds, it is evident that

equity and access limitations still occur. Many immigrants who retain cultural

backgrounds that are not English dominant speaking cultures form what is called the

Linguistic minority. These individuals are labelled illiterate and suffer vastly with

regards to limitations of access and equity. Although the education system has

attempted to cater to these individualsa with ESL classes provided to individuals with

limited or impaired literacy skills, thses individuals are still inherently impacted due to

their cultural difference.

As educators however we have the ability to improve and eradicate these limitations

of access and equity within the education system by implementing various

pedagogical approaches within the education system. These approaches can

include culturally responsive teaching, critical thinking, and critical pedagogy.

Culturally responsive teaching involves acknowledging that culture is a fundamental

aspect of education and encouraging cultural diversity as well as facilitating different

learning styles and implementing different culturally orientated teaching approaches

we can attempt to achieve “equitable access to education for students from all

cultures” (personal communication, February 25, 2016).