TOPIC 5 – THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF

CHANGE

EDN331/3311 Schooling & Society

Education, Change and Society

Today Topics & Presenters

Chapter 6 – Cultural difference and IdentityBy Elanore Weller

Chapter 8 – GenderBy Michael Byrne

Chapters 6 & 8 –Bullying in societyBy Glenn Pozzi

Topic 5 – Examining the other: the Other in EducationBy Kamill Jinzarli

~ Class activity & Discussion ~

24% of Australians born overseas, Australia is regrated as very multicultural.

According to the Sydney morning herald 10th Dec 2005 Australia can be fairly deemed multicultural

However, many teachers, students and their parents may wonder what this really means?

• Tough laws on Asylum seekers• Violent, racist clashes in Cronulla in

2009• Attacks on Indian students in 2009

over east• The victimisation of Australian Muslims

who wanted to wear the hijab

Fact or Fiction?

Cultural Difference and Identity

Class

EthnicityGender

• The Australian curriculum does not embrace all cultures• Takes away the power of the individual. •What makes this problematic then is the relationship between what knowledge is considered high status, and some of the relations of power we need to consider in society (Apple, 1997).• There are problems between culture and power.• Education can be useful to understanding class and gender relations in education, as can Indigenous education

Understanding the interplay between culture and power is key

Culture Power

Migration – a brief history

Students Refugees Boat people Asylum seekers Business people families

All these people want a better life. Why are there so many rules? Why are people treated differently?

Keys dates that have shaped our Nation

1850- The discovery of gold- thousands of labourers from Asia 1859- 20% of the male population was Chinese- after many racist

outbursts and riots many returned home 1880s- The white Australia Policy 1947- The difference between European and Aboriginal people was 1 in

400 1947- Australia started to rethink the White Australia policy 1965- British migrants started to arrive 1970- Vietnamese boat people 1981- 14.5 million people had migrated to Australia 1983- Germans, Australian and Turks not allowed in 2002- John Howard created the ‘Pacific solution’ 2002- 40% are from Asia 2008- GFC had a rise from European countries

Implications for education Fostering values of multiculturalism is key to shaping the next generations on

Australians Education responds to changes elsewhere in society, but it’s still trying to hold

onto old values Education is not alone, there is a social lag with some parts of society

changing more rapidly

Now we have multicultural education Promoting cultural diversity as both dynamic and enriching Schools play a vital role on promoting values of respect for cultural diversity For example In NSW the education department now has 47 languages that are taught and

funded. South Australia has after hours ethnic groups workshops and Professional developments for students, teachers and parents

Gender

A socially constructed category that defines what it means to be a woman or a woman or man within a particular community at a particular time (Connell et al, 2013)

Social Construction of Gender

Early Grooming The food we eat – taken out of context?

Deconstructivists – Queer Theory

There is a taken for granted view that the human race divided into two categories, male and female, based on ones sexual characteristics

Gender roles are the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

These behaviors of femininity and masculinity are socially constructed by cultures and become normalised.

Normalisation places other genders on the margins of society

Queer theory questions and destabilises these fundamental taken for granted assumptions

It questions the assumption of heteronormativity to move beyond its confines.

Schools as Gendered Organisations

The Gender Equity Blue Print from the Australian Human Rights Commission 2010 sets out recommendations in five priority areas which significantly affect both the public and private lives of women and men: Balancing paid work and family and caring responsibilities Ensuring women’s lifetime economic security Promoting women in leadership Preventing violence against women and sexual

harassment Strengthening national gender equality laws, agencies and

monitoring

https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/gender-equality-blueprint-2010

Moral Panic The popular discourse is the feminization of teaching which talks of negative

effects of the lack of male role models in schools and the idea that girls are leaving boys behind academically.

It is a well established discourse that frames the feminization of the classroom as inherently problematic.

During the 60’s and 70’s boys out performed girls despite the fact female teachers substantially out-numbered males.

Several studies conducted regarding student motivation and teacher gender and the findings have been contrary to the discourse. Students were motivated by the quality of the teacher and the pedagogical practices. The only significant finding being that girls reported a better relationships with females.

Reflect - Have you ever felt the gender (not sex but masculinity or femininity) of your teacher has significantly affected your motivation or engagement?

Bullying: Racism & Bullying Bullying of ethnic minorities is not new to

Australian schools, with incidents dating back to post World War II, where young migrants would be subject to it.

While it should no longer be tolerated, and is hopefully is not as common, it still exists, and is not always effectively countered by teachers.

Bullying, Gender, & Sexuality Bullying has a significant impact on the

socialisation of young children. Schools can amplify restricted understanding

of masculinity, positioning girls and boys suspect of being gay as the negative other.

School was identified as the most hostile environment for students attracted to members of same sex, as they as they felt there was no-one to turn to, leading to feelings of alienation.

Bullying & the Regulation of Australian Masculinity

Bullying is a form of competition, differentiation, and identity formation used to establish a sense of power and dominance.

Bullies may receive some admiration from their peers for behaviours that leads to the intimidation of their victims.

“Protest masculinity” is where boys take on a macho-male persona by deliberately entering into conflict and becoming violent towards others.

Bullies & Their Victims

Bullies continue to have problems into adulthood including anger management, depression, and low self-esteem.

Victims can have a high level of depression and suicide ideation.

Bullies and victims have negative self-perceptions, are unhappy with school, are low achieving at school, and feel their relationship with their parents could improve.

Initiatives & Prevention

Teachers must be vigilant and promote the learning of other cultures.

Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding.

Anti-racism/discrimination policy and laws. www.racismnoway.com.au.

The OtherDifferences in race, gender and class have shaped and defined social interactions in today’s society. While there are many benefits of a diverse society, it can bring about conflict between the differences in race, gender and class. The tension between these groups of people has had a lasting effect on the representation and imaging of these people, which has created the concept of ‘us against them’.

https://blogs.stockton.edu/postcolonialstudies/a_dream_deferred/inclusion_by_virtue_of_othering/

Social theorists have referred this to ‘othering’. Othering can be defined as a “strategy of symbolic exclusion that is used to create artificial boundaries of race, culture, religion, sexuality, and gender difference”. Examples of ‘othering’ can explored through conflicting social relations such as

Male/Female Black/white

Can anyone think of any other contrasting social relations?

The Other: GenderOthering in gender is developed through contrasting and stereotypical meanings of who and what defines a ‘man’ and who and what defines a ‘woman’. In western societies, boundaries were created and arranged according to the roles of men and women within their domestic and public life’s. The norms of both men and women were defined through social meanings associated with emotions and physicality.

Men Women

Strong Weak

Rational Irrational

Responsible Caring

Individualistic Nurturing

The views of gender were very fixed, and men were able to move freely out of domestic and public life and the women were generally confined to a ‘stay-at-home-mother’

http://kidfocused.com/momsjob-description-by-ann-van-de-water/

http://www.etsy.com/listing/64317990/knit-mens-cardigan-sweater-pattern-1950s

Scholars have disputed that females have been the ‘other’ within the school curriculum and in social relations. (Bank and Hall 1997; Pinar et al. 2000).

When girls are labelled as the ‘other’ it can often effect their social relations within K-12 educational settings.

For example, it is common to hear boys in the playground say things like ‘you throw like a girl’. This implies that girls are inferior in physical ability in relation to boys. Another example is when a boy shows emotions such as crying, caring or concern they often receive messages such as ‘quite acting like a girl’. This shows that girls are inferior to boys because they are showing signs of weakness.

These cases demonstrate how social interaction and relation in a school context place cultural boundaries around women and girls as the other.

The Other: Race Dating back to the fourteenth century skin colour has been used as

measurement of human behaviour The descriptions of the Africans were exaggerated and labelled black

as oppose to dark skinned This led them to develop a schema of colour with ‘blackness’ linked

to human behaviour and culture This continued in the nineteenth and twentieth century where skin

colour was still used as a primary marker for racializing the other For example, in the United States ‘black’ people did not have equal

access to jobs, housing and education simply because of their skin colour

Scholars of education have argued that schools are not neutral institutions.

It is believed that schools reinforce mainstream social beliefs and norms.

Within a school context, categorise emerge to classify students as ‘dumb’, ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’.

For example, it is not uncommon to label a young ‘black’ male as an elite athlete and yet they are never seen as being students who can excel academically and are never pressured to pursue higher education. Another example of ‘othering’ is seen in Asian students where again are labelled as the ‘model minority’ because of their high academic ability.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cause-and-effects-of-coaching-syndrome/2008/12/19/1229189886267.html

Scenarios1. You’re a teacher on duty at lunch time and you over hear a

12 year old boy shout out to another boy ‘stop acting like a girl’. What would you do in this situation?

2. The principle has come to you and has asked to focus on the ‘Asian’ students because of state wide test coming up and that they give great results to the school. How would you reply to the principle?

3. As a teacher what can you do to help a student who is suffering from ‘othering’?

4. A parent comes into school and complains that her son is playing with dolls, and doesn’t like playing with other boys. The parent is concerned that her child might be gay. Consider this from a pre-primary and year 7 perspective.

Blue Card/Brown Card?

Ms. Jane Elliott's "brown eyes, blue eyes" experiment in 1970. This "Eye of Storm" documentary was made by William Peters in 1970 for ABC News and later included in the documentary "A Class Divided" (1985), which included a class reunion (of 1984).

Social Experiment

An Eye-Opening Experiment

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprahs-Social-Experiment-on-Her-Audience-Video