Culture, Identity, and Education - Annotated Bibliography Example

Name: Course: College: Instructor: Date: Culture, Identity and Education: An Annotated Bibliography Purdie, N. & Wilss, L. (2007). Australian national identity: Young people’s conceptions of what it means to be Australian. National Identities 9(1): pp.67-82. Data from sample essays of 242 students was used to examine notions of Australian teenagers about the issue of national identity. Using constant comparison and analytic induction, the authors explored how the teenagers envisaged national welfare, personal welfare, democracy, agreeable nature, diversity, sport, way of life and rules of nationality. The findings show that many teenagers feel that Australia is a prosperous, harmless, and secure nation to reside. They also believe in equality of opportunities to access education and health in the country. In regard to democracy, Australian adolescents feel that they have freedom of expression, religion and to decide lifestyle to ascribe to. In addition, the findings point out that young Australians associate their society with friendlessness, kindness and humor. They believe that their nation is endowed with diverse geographical features (beaches, mountains, forests and deserts), wildlife and favorable weather conditions (especially elevated temperatures). Young Australians perceive sport as a recreational event that contributes toward national identity. In regard to citizenship, the teenagers seem to believe that a person can become an Australian by virtue of birth, obtaining the nation’s citizenship, staying in the nation for a long time, virtue of language-related characteristics and satisfaction in being an Australian. Moreover, they hold conception that the society is culturally diverse in terms of background, religion, social wellbeing, beliefs, and language. Although some of them cite this diversity as a potential source of racial discrimination, majority of the teenagers believe that diversity makes them develop virtues of respect and tolerance for each other. Many young Australians believe that to live in Australia means having chance to enjoy assortment of recreational activities and freedom to participate in any activity. This article comprehensively addresses the issues of culture, identity and education in an Australian context and as such, it’s a good source of information for this paper. It provides essential information that can be used to design educational materials or instruction curriculum that integrates values of national identity and cultural diversity held by adolescents. In this sense, instructors can help students to grow embracing virtues and values of Australian culture and identity. Therefore, the article is significant in providing wealth of information regarding conceptions of Australian teenagers to educational stakeholders. Although the ideas in this article were presented in an Australian context, their significance is only limited to only one of the eight states of the nation. This is because the respondents were drawn from a single state and as such, not representative of the other states. This argument is based from the fact that the views of students from the other states may differ from views in this paper because of differences in demographic characteristics, geographical factors and way of life etc. However, the ideas are important in providing information about values and beliefs held by teenagers in that state. In addition, there is some statistical significance that can be associated with these concepts. The pooled sample was representative of the state’s multicultural community and as such, the concepts significantly represent views of Australian adolescents in the state. Winch-Dummett, C. (2006). Successful pedagogies for an Australian multicultural classroom. International Education Journal 7(5): pp.778-789. Information from three elementary educational institutions in New South Wales was used to explore pedagogical methods that focus on appreciation, significance and sharing of cultural diversity in Australian cross-cultural class environment. Making use of categorical and synchronic analytic approaches, the author examined suitability of different teaching methods in addressing diversity and inclusion in a multicultural teaching environment. The findings from the research are summarized into two subjects namely studying environment and communication between student and teacher. The article points out that for teaching to be successful in a multicultural learning environment, it should encompass: exchange of knowledge and scaffolding as processes of training; holistic education; and instruction curriculum designed to attend to multiple intelligences. The author gives thematic teaching strategies as examples of scaffolding and knowledge exchange that teachers use to administer instruction to a culturally diverse classroom. Holistic education regards instruction organization that considers flexibility in time and location and instruction outcomes that are knowledgeable of curriculum course of actions. The author goes on to assert that the instruction curriculum should be culturally inclusive in order to address diverse cultural norms and practices as well as promote culturally accepted values among students. The findings points out holistic learning and scaffolding need to be structured to serve multi-intelligent students. They need to address individual abilities, acumen and endowment of every student. The author goes further to provide a variety of intelligences and best teaching methods that can address them. These intelligences include: linguistic (suitable methods include recall writing and making of video); spatial (encouraging creativity through abstract reasoning); naturalistic (expeditions to wildlife conservation parks etc); interpersonal (teamwork and sharing among peers etc); intrapersonal (talking about past works and recitation etc); mathematical (counting and grouping etc); musical (exploring variety of instruments from different cultures); and kinaesthetic (exploring and practicing various sporting events). Successful means of communication between student and teacher included in the article’s findings include non-verbal (proxemics, stare, signal and voice cadence) and verbal (feedback, already known language, querying, deduction and indistinctness etc). Although the article fails to address the issue of identity, it is a good source of information for teachers in a multicultural teaching environment. It provides examples of teaching methods useful in addressing special needs of students brought about by cultural diversity. It also offers insights on how to design instruction plans that acknowledge values and norms of such students and useful communication strategies to ensure that all students understand what is being taught regardless of their cultural dialect. In summary, the findings suggest that teaching practices and methods in a multicultural classroom should focus on learners. The ideas presented in this article are important not only for educational institutions in New South Wales, but also in the wider Australian educational fraternity. This is because these ideas can be replicated and produce similar results in other areas regardless of the cultural diversity of the students. Ideas such as thematic teaching, holistic learning, verbal and non-verbal communications are all significant teaching strategies that instructors can use to improve learning in any multicultural classroom. However, the concepts lack any statistical significance as the author relies on ideas of other scholars to develop his arguments. Clyne, I.D. (2001). Educating children in Australia. In S. Akbarzadeh & A. Saeed (Eds.), Muslim communities in Australia (pp.116-137), Sydney: UNSW Press. Data collected through community-based techniques of data collection was used to explore efforts of Muslim community in Australia to get a culturally suitable education for their children. Using interviews and questionnaires, the author examined the experience and expectations of Muslim community regarding schooling of their children in Australia. The findings indicate that Muslim parents in the country hold varied educational viewpoints that reflect diversity of culture, individual encounters and education. The chapter classifies the educational perspectives into “sub-cultural, counter-cultural, accommodationist and assimilationist” (Clyne, 2001, p.117). Parents for sub-cultural education of their children establish educational institutions separate from the existing state-controlled institutions. They normally believe that this is the only way to give their children an education that replicates Islamic cultural practices and values. Those for counter-cultural perspective take their children to the secular mainstream institutions. However, they request the institutions to adopt a curriculum that integrates Islamic culture and identity. In addition, they take accountability for religious education (Arabic language) of their children. Accommodationist Muslims believe that although cultural education is the liability of the home, learning to live in a multicultural community is essential for their children to interact with Australians from other cultures. As such, they take their children to mainstream educational institutions and administer cultural education at their homes. On the other hand, assimilationists believe that education forms the gateway for getting assimilated into the mainstream society. Therefore, they take their children to state-controlled schools and do not value cultural education at home. This chapter has profound educational implications especially for educational institutions that admit students from the Muslim community. It addresses the relationship among Islamic culture, identity and education in a more comprehensive way, which makes it a good source of information for this paper. Therefore, the chapter provides insights to instructors on how they can address difficulties or concerns faced by Muslim learners in the Australian mainstream educational system. The ideas presented in this chapter are important because they provide educational institutions with essential information on how to design instruction curricula that integrates Islamic culture and identity. They provide a variety of standpoints from the Muslim community. Therefore, if mainstream educational institutions in Australia can integrate these ideas into their instruction curricula, they stand a chance of facilitating learning in a multicultural environment. The ideas are concrete and reliable as they were developed from data collected through direct interviews and questionnaires from the Muslim community in Australia. Read More