The separation
of siblings as a result of the current trends of city migration, resulting in
boundary lines being reassessed, is strongly troubling to parents. Sydney
schools are being rapidly effected by urban development and consolidation.
Rapid urban consolidation and young families choosing to live close to the city
are putting pressure on schools. According to the department's own figures,
there will be 20 per cent more primary school children in schools in the
Balmain electorate by 2018, and 27 per cent more in the Sydney electorate
(Tovey, 2013). Classroom shortages will hit most schools by 2018 unless extra
space is created. This shortage has also stood to highlight the growing
disparity in particular Sydney regions and parents choosing to propagate
particular social beliefs surrounding both schools and students from a low
socioeconomic area.
Nareen
Young, chief executive of Diversity Council Australia and an inner Sydney
parent, said she had observed parents avoiding schools with higher proportions
of poor and indigenous students, or those from non-English speaking
backgrounds, such as Glebe and Alexandria Park (Tovey, 2013). There is a
tendency to call on culture when faced with facts people do not want to delve
further into ( Arniel, 2009 pg 27). This is very much the issue currently
surrounding our educational system and the way in which parents choose schools
for their children. The struggle for educators and social activists to build an
educational system that is significantly more democratic is currently
restricted through the view that good education is directly tied with economic
needs ( Apple, 1996 pg 13).
''My
kids went through Darlington [Public School - where about 20 per cent of
students are indigenous] when the North Newtown parents wouldn't let their kids
play with kids in a Darlington uniform. There was a sense of superiority and
racism that seemed to me at the time to be overt.'' Ms Young said (Tovey, 2013).
Indigenous Australian students are typically viewed as a culturally deprived
group (Dunn, 2010, pg 21). The presence of racial prejudice within society and
furthermore, and more worryingly, a sense of superiority has clearly had
negative impacts upon a wider school environment. The segregation of students
through an increasingly commercialized educational sector allows for social
discrimination based on cultural and educational identities. Private schools
are increasingly becoming pockets of socioeconomic and cultural isolation and
this is being reflected through the geographical trends of school zoning areas
(Ho, 2011 pg 617).
The issues that arise with the pervasive
effects of cultural politics on education, and the way this can impact upon
families is clear. The push for students to attend schools that are more
academically renowned has led to the need to split siblings to rebalance the
inequality currently present in public schools. Not only is this an
inconvenience to parents and removes some of the security felt by students
making a transition to a secondary school, but it serves to highlight the
issues present in Sydney’s educational demographic and the pervasive effects of
a market based educational system.
Bibliography
Apple, M. W.
(1996). Cultural politics and education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Chapter 1
Dunn,
K.M., Kamp, A., Shaw, W.S., Forrest, J. & Paradies, Y. (2010). Indigenous
Australians’ Attitudes Towards Multiculturalism, Cultural Diversity, ‘Race’ and
Racism, Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 13(4), 19-31.
Gewirtz,
S. (1998). Conceptualizing social justice in education: mapping the territory. Journal
of Education Policy, 13(4), 469-484. doi: 10.1080/0268093980130402
Ho,
C. (2011). Respecting the presence of others: School micropublics and everyday
multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(6), 603-619.
Phillips,
A. (2006). What is culture? In Arneil, Barbara and Deveaux, Monique and
Dhamoon, Rita and Eisenberg, Avigail, (eds.) Sexual justice / cultural
justice. London, UK : Routledge, 2006, pp. 15-29.
Tovey, Josephine. (2013) Compassion needed
to keep siblings together. Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/compassion-needed-to-keep-siblings-together-20130928-2ul09.html
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