The History Wars

 “There is no such thing as a non-political or value-free history. Every historian has a political outlook, which shapes their method, whether or not they are conscious of it, and whether or not they choose to espouse definite political views. ” (Beams, 2004)

Articles like this and this are of particular significance to the discourse of culture and education.

As you can see, the ongoing public debate over the History Wars continues to this day. This is just the latest in a clash of cultures that came about due to the increased prevalence of globalization. As Australian culture becomes less homogenized, nation building became more displaced as a goal and different interpretations of history have to be brought into question.

Previous debates over the colonial history of Australia and its Federation had taken a focus on controversial topics like The White Australia Policy and the treatment of the Indigenous population. There was an emphasis on the racial characteristics of culture and identity politics. Recently, the clash of cultures isn't about race but more about another significant influence of culture: political and economic ideologies. Should we celebrate renegades, reformers and revolutionaries over explorers, pioneers and entrepreneurs? Unions or business?

There is no doubt that somehow politics, education and history are intertwined. Education is ultimately a political tool and politics ultimately dictate and create history. "Of all subjects in our school curriculum, it is history that causes most angst amongst conservative politicians. In contrast, there rarely, if ever, seems any political interest in intervening in maths or physical education." History taught to school students go deep to the concept of us as a nation. A national  government only survives and gains legitimacy out of a certain degree of nationalism. For as long as the government regulates what is taught in classrooms, curriculum will be a legitimate subject of debate. The history curriculum cannot escape politicization.

Underpinning all this is an attempt to create a single unitary Australian identity, hegemonic in nature. Through education, this identity is not imposed in the usual sense but as Apple (2005) would describe it "put forward by an alliance of dominant groups in a way that the alliance hopes will enable all the other groups it wants under its ideological umbrella to find something in it for themselves."

Despite the sensationalism in the articles over Abbott "reigniting" the culture wars, I do not believe this is necessarily a bad thing. Debates are a good thing.  Culture is one of the most contested and complex notions in existence. How can we truly understand it if we don't keep debating it? How can we learn from history if we don't challenge it? The debate cannot and should not be concluded. History is built on class and cultural warfare. Great truths come out of adversity not complacency.

Apple, M. W. (1996). Cultural politics and education. New York: Teachers College

Press. Chapter 1

Beams, N. (2004) What is at stake in Australia's History Wars. from World Socialist Website http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2004/07/hiw1-j12.html?view=print

What does a Western Education mean for minority students?

We like to believe in Western society that we are individuals in nature. That we have free choice and all our decisions are our own. Whatever truth there may behind this, it can only be part of the story. The truth is whatever freedom we have is still constrained from societal pressures. We have choice, but what determines our choices? These questions about the nature of culture in our university readings of Wadham, Pudsy and Boyd (2007) resonated with me particularly because of my experiences with culture within the educational system.

I am a Filipino-Australian. I grew up and attended Primary and Secondary school in a city known as Darwin in the Northern Territory. Darwin houses a population of just over 100 000 people. Darwin's population is notable for the highest proportional population of Aborigines of any Australian capital city. In the 2006 census 10,259 (9.7 per cent) of Darwin's population was Aboriginal. I had not realised seeing indigenous people on every street corner was not a normal thing until I had moved to Sydney. In school, there was a lot of focus on indigenous education and aboriginal history and culture.

There aren’t a relative lot of Asians in the Northern Territory and because of that different cultural practices and features between Asian nations were distilled. It didn’t matter if you were Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian or whatever: if you looked Asian you were merely grouped as “Asian”. Everyone lives next to everyone and knows everyone. There are no culturally homogenous neighbourhoods or ghettoes. Filipinos were a minority that received little recognition in both Western media and academia.

I remember back in primary school, I quickly learned that I was different than the other kids, I was not exactly ashamed of who I was but I sure knew I was different. If I excelled at a subject, it was quickly noted that I was smart “because I was Asian”. When I played AFL, people were taken back from the fact that it wasn’t a stereotypically Asian thing to do. When I got a bit older and I started running into trouble or dabbling in things I shouldn’t have, people found it odd that I didn’t conform to some “model minority” stereotype. When schools would celebrate multiculturalism and how ethnically diverse they were, I couldn’t help but cringe sometimes. I’ve always felt that by exaggerating the effect of someone’s race you may only reinforce their feelings of otherness. Like every kid does, I wanted to fit in.

Filipino history was not taught in schools, I knew nothing about my cultural history outside of what my parents taught me but this seemed irrelevant and almost alien to me due to the fact that we live in Australia. As a result I grew up only learning English, most of my friends were not other Asians and I knew little of Filipino history. It wasn’t until my late high school years when I did my research. What I found was that Filipino culture was not something that was always homogenous. It is in fact a very contested notion. The Philippines only grew a true national identity relatively recently and the idea of a single nation amongst the thousands upon thousands of islands there was a preposterous ideal at one point. They united essentially to fight off the Spanish only to later face the Americans. America promised them self-determinism and independence. This wasn’t exactly the case. Keep in mind this is a horribly short summation of decades of politics and war but the point is after further reading I stumbled onto the works of Renato Constantino and I learned a new term. Cultural Imperialism.

In his essay “the Miseducation of the Filipino” Constantino (1970) argues that “The American military authorities had a job to do. They had to employ all means to pacify a people whose hopes for independence were being frustrated by the presence of another conqueror. The primary reason for the rapid introduction, on a large scale, of the American public school system in the Philippines was the conviction of the military leaders that no measure could so quickly promote the pacification of the islands as education.” 

The education of the Filipino under American sovereignty was an instrument of colonial policy in order to transform Filipino citizens into “good” colonials. Young minds had to be shaped to conform to American ideas. Indigenous Filipino ideals were slowly eroded in order to quell any resistance. “The ideal colonial was the carbon copy of his conqueror, the conformist follower of the new dispensation. He had to forget his past and unlearn the nationalist virtues in order to live peacefully, if not comfortably, under the colonial order.” (Constantino, 1970 p.21 )I can draw many parallels here to Assimilation era strategies of the Indigenous people in Australia.

Education in the Philippines much like it was in Australia during the Assimilation policy era stressed the use of English as the medium of instruction. “English became the wedge that separated the Filipinos from their past and later to separate educated Filipinos from the masses of their countrymen. English introduced the Filipinos to a strange, new world. With American textbooks, Filipinos started learning not only a new language but also a new way of life, alien to their traditions and yet a caricature of their model. “ (Constantino, 1970 p.24)

This of course struck home to me. I questioned everything I was and everything I do. Are my thoughts and actions really my own? Or have I merely assimilated the discourse of the dominant culture? Are we more than the friends and tastes we have or the city we grew up in? Am I merely an animal conditioned by Western society to the point that even my conditioning has been conditioned, so caught up in cultural trappings that any way I could envision escaping from the trap would be part of the trap itself?'

And of course one question of increased significance has lingered on my mind to this day as I study to become a teacher myself.

Can education be more than a tool for cultural imperialism? Was this all it ever was? Think about it. Socrates was executed for teaching the youth things contrary to the state’s agenda. And he was not the last to be. 

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006, 2006 Census Quickstats: Darwin (Statistical Division). from Australian Bureau of Statistics
http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/LocationSearch?collection=Census&period=2006&areacode=705&producttype=QuickStats&breadcrumb=PL&action=401

Constantino, R. 1970, The Mis-Education of the Filipino , Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1:1
pp.20-36

Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney:
Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?

Education Board Game

If life is like a box of chocolates, then Australian education is like a game of monopoly. It’s all about Location, Location, Location.

Parents have always wanted to send their children to the best possible school they can. However the definitions of the ‘best’ have somewhat changed over the years. Gone are the reigning Kings of private school education as the front-runners of exemplary education, and in comes the scramble for placement in government selective schools, especially those located in elite Sydney suburbs. However there are concerns on whether this is a fair game.  In the game of monopoly, the Car is said to take you places, but what is said about the person stuck being the Iron?

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald discussed the trend of public schools in Sydney. More and more parents are choosing to be more frugal with their children’s education, particularly in terms of shelling out the dough for elitist private education. They have become more aware that it is not the ownership of a school that makes a difference, but it is the socio-economic status of its pupils.  With the release of the My School website, middle-class parents know that local public (selective) schools are getting just as good results as nearby public schools such as James Ruse Agricultural High School, Fort Street, Hornsby Girls, as well as Sydney Boys and Girls High’s.

Given the choice, parents are increasingly enrolling their children into schools that are higher up on the social ladder, but at what cost? August Raine, CEO of Raine and Horne has said in this article that his network is noticing a correlation between families aspiring to Sydney’s popular schools and home buyer behaviour in suburbs with strict enrolment catchment areas. While this is not a new trend, the ability for parents to compare the performance and progress of 10,000 schools in Australia is certainly aided by the My School website.  This association of an academically elite school and the idea of social betterment stems from the idea of symbolic ‘currency’ that is explored in Wadham, Pudsey and Boyd’s ‘Culture and Education’, in which this ‘currency’ is exchanged for social stability and personal identity. Many students and parents of high ranking selective schools alike pride themselves in the name of their child’s school, believing it give both status and recognition. ‘Oh, all of my children go to selective schools; Sydney boys and Hornsby Girls.’ Much like Monopoly, culture can be seen as a ‘game’ where players use ‘strategies’ (which in this case is attending the right school) to get possession of the prize- which in this case can be seen as cultural capital that will aid towards getting children a successful career.

Social betterment is seen as something to strive for, but what about those students with lower socio-economic backgrounds? When education is turned into a market competition, there will always be winners and losers. The tragedy is that the ‘loosing’ non-selective schools are struggling with children whom society had decided are losers. Just as My School demonstrates the public boom on the North Shore, it also shows how location and economic status are affecting the achievements of schools and students everywhere. Students whose parents can’t afford to move to more expensive suburbs or commute due to distance are relegated to attending local schools that may be in a lower socio-economic area. But the truth of the matter is that almost 60% of disadvantaged students attend equally disadvantaged schools. We seem to be creating social niches of the privilege and underprivileged, with the winning fortunate ‘players’ banding together, leaving the ‘losers’ to struggle for themselves. When you group disadvantaged children in the same schools, it compounds their disadvantage, which will in turn, make it harder and harder to improve the achievements of low achieving students.  

References:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/rush-to-schools-in-wealthy-suburbs-skews-the-system-20130825-2sjrp.html 

http://www.realestate.com.au/blog/school-wishlists-driving-sydney-demand/

p://www.smh.com.au/comment/rush-to-schools-in-wealthy-suburbs-skews-the-system-20130825-2sjrp.html 

·      Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education . Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?

Racism and Education

Australia prides itself on being a tolerant, multicultural nation. This can be argued to be mostly true, as when put into comparison against other countries; there are few cases of racial fuelled violence or civil unrest. The key to Australia’s multicultural success is often attributed its public education system, which acts as a melting pot for the wide varieties of cultures that make up the Australian people. 

However earlier this year there was much hype over what is being done about racism in schools after Sydney Swan player Adam Goodes was called an ‘ape’ by a 13 year old girl at an AFL game.  As videos circled the news waves and social networks, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell intervened to stamp out racism among school students by ordering the NSW Education Department to recirculate anti-racism policies and support materials to schools and teachers to curtail such ‘concerning events’.

Shane Houston, the University of Sydney's deputy vice-chancellor (for indigenous strategy and services) criticized that there was too little debate about how to move forward to make sure that such remarks were corrected and how to make sure they are not made in the first place.

''It's possible to make a statement out of ignorance, and not be racist,'' he said. ''That's why education is such an important element in the process of building a more inclusive society in Australia.''

Culture and education go hand in hand. Our identity (and culture) is shaped greatly by the education we receive. The current curriculum has been shaped to introduce students to a broad range of topics surrounding culture, such as Aboriginal studies alongside Australian history. Outside of the curriculum schools often host multicultural days, which celebrate the differences between cultures. The current education system is aiming towards creating a culture of tolerance and multiculturalism, but then what explains the outburst of racial slur against Goodes?

Ho raises the point that schools are important micropublics as students spend large amounts of their day at school, and therefore are in contact with other students of different cultures (Ho, 2011). This is the case in the majority of Australian metropolitan public schools, (but decreases as location moves further from cities). Students at school have little choice but to interact with each other and as a result learn that they share a lot in common and can get along (for the most part), regardless of their appearance, culture, or religion.

Ho’s article cites the Vinson report, which states that public education has ‘‘aspired to be a force for social cohesion, for building mutual understanding between people of different ethnic, religious, vocational and socioeconomic backgrounds’’ and has made the claim that this has contributed to the ‘‘peaceful coexistence of different groups and the maintenance of social arrangements and communal services that help to preserve the dignity of all Australians’’ (Vinson cited, 2011).

Wadham, Pudsey and Boyd have stated that “culture is the ‘toolbox’ that allows us to understand the world we live in and its mechanics. This is done through tradition, religion, etc. It allows us to interpret our reality. Culture acts as the basis for how we interpret the world, two people of different cultures will perceive objects and actions differently to each other in most cases” (Wadham, Pudsey, Boyd, 2007).  

Based on that statement we can conclude that culture shapes our perceptions, and as a result learning about other cultures becomes a really important part of everyday life. The basis of tolerance is understanding the other person, and the easiest way to understand a person is to examine their life. Learning about a culture allows us to draw generalisations about people who are a part of that culture; this gives us a grasp on how to deal with certain groups of people. For example, in Thai culture, finishing or ‘clearing’ a plate of food is considered a ‘no no’. If you finish all the food on your plate, you are insulting the cook or host. You are telling them that they didn't feed you enough, and that they are poor cooks.

So my question to you, dear reader is simply; do you believe racial events such as the one discussed above a sign that the Australian Education system is failing to foster a healthy respect amongst the many cultures of our nation?

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http://www.smh.com.au/national/schools-to-recirculate-antiracism-material-20130526-2n5dv.html#ixzz2fgqK3rss

antiracism

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/wakeup-call-on-racism-needed-20130616-2oc2w.html#ixzz2fgqX82Uu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyrbUiJCkVw 

Ho, C. (2011). Respecting the presence of others: School micropublics and everyday multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(6), 603-619.

Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?