You guessed it - that is a photo of me during my school days. I'm the one that is standing fourth from the left. The picture was taken at Bondi Beach on an Advanced English excursion... the viewing of King Lear, as I recall.
I've had a fairly unique experience in my secondary schooling. A charter school, listed as an independent school in the middle class south-western Sydney suburb of Liverpool, but drawing attendees from Shellharbor to Brighton, my school demographic consisted of a students of a primarily Muslim background with English being a secondary language for the significant of the attendees (Myschools, 2012). A quintessential private school, persistent campaigns in image management and direct advertising were (and, to my knowledge, still are) frequently undertaken and included the practices outlined by Kenway and Bullen (2001) including newspaper features and advertising, billboard hire on major roads and posting of academic achievements directly in front of the school, including pictures of high achieving students and their corresponding UAI/ATAR.
The value schools place in the far-reaching power of positive marketing still holds true; in typing the name of my school into Google and looking on the first page of images, I found my own photograph from a news article published in the local newspaper some years ago which talked about my success in winning an international competition in mathematics; my success continues to be the success of the school as a participant and producer of its product (Kenway and Bullen, 2001). Indeed, I recall numerous occasions where my parents were phoned because my shirt wasn't ironed, or that my socks were too short. Surely academics take precedence? Of course, I was rather a scamp.
I found myself thriving in such a primordial melting pot of cultural soup, as student backgrounds covered all the inhabitable continents of the world. Christina Ho's concept of 'microrepublics' was evident, as students of different cultures frequently shared dishes from various cultures and participated with enthusiasm in Australia day and stood in solemn silence for diggers long gone while simultaneously shouting themselves hoarse at large screens as their country of heritage and origin advanced in the FIFA world cup.
As a school, students were actively encouraged to participate in inter-cultural and interfaith activities. As we held bullying workshops with local schools and attended an interfaith dialogue workshop with students from Emmanuel College and Kincoppal (Rose Bay), my peers and I were amazed at the similarities that brought us together in an environment where we originally saw ourselves as worlds apart, allowing us to rise above the idea of multiculturalism and into being able to practice it in our schools. This practice has continued even after my graduation, with the
interfaith event ‘youth encounters’ said to be ‘one of the state’s most
acclaimed interfaith programs’ with students exploring similarities and differences
(Constantantinou, 2009).
Vic Aldaheff, of the NSW Jewish board of deputies, captured the
positive effect such cultural encounters can have in the microrepublic and
stated “Racism is dislike of the unlike, and [Youth Encounters] drives home the
message that we all share common values and that the values of democracy and
inclusion are what makes Australia the great nation that it is,”
References
Constantantinou, S (2009) ‘Interfaith
event breaks down the barriers’ accessed at http://wentworth-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/interfaith-event-breaks-down-the-barriers/
Ho, C.
(2011). Respecting the presence of others: School micropublics and everyday
multiculturalism. Journal of
Intercultural Studies, 32(6), 603-619.
Kenway, J.
& Bullen, (2001). Consuming children:
Education-Entertainment-Advertising. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Chapter 5: Designer schools, packaged students.
School profile on Myschools (2012) http://www.myschool.edu.au
No comments:
Post a Comment