Explain and analyse the interconnections between cultural safety and community involvement in an early childhood setting and how this influences knowledge and practice. Use examples with references to support your argument. Only to use attached references
CopydohtAoency Limited (CAL) licensed copy.Further"c.opyiIl0 amI commlfnicrlUoJl probibitcd c)OCcpt on roymcnt o/p'e re r '0:,)' or 'amn"'jcatiou and otherwise In occonlonce with the licence/rom CAL to ACER.For more In/ormotiOlJ contact CAL on (02) 9394-7600 or in!o@copyrinht,com,au By Amanda Keddie, Griffith Institute for Educational Research at Griffith University. quity doesn't mean treating all the kids the same ... it's an expectation that their background and everything about their past life doesn't equal being a barrier, you know, everybody's job is to remove all those barriers.,. there's a full range of abilities and so on but what we would be against is haying any of those barriers prevent them being alJ they can be (Anna). Anna has been the principal of 'Peppermint Grove' High School for around 25 years. She is committed [Q just and equitable schooling. The view of equity that she expresses - to remove the barriers in students' lives that prevent them being all they can be - has been a central focus of my research fellowship at Griffith University. My research has involved examining issues of culture, equity and diversity at three schools: Peppermint Grove (a secondary school catering to immigrant and refugee students), 'Gamarada' High School (a secondary school catering predominantly [Q indigenous girls) and 'Blackberry' Primary School (a multicultural school where 30 per cent of students are from refugee or immigrant backgrounds), All of these schools (located in urbani suburban Queensland) are recognised as exemplary in supporting equity for marginalised students. The research has taken an ethnographic approach [Q the investigation of school-based practice that seeks to remove the barriers to which Anna refers. At --7 • ~ Peppermint Grove, for example, there was particular concern with the barriers impeding the educational experiences and success of refugee students especially those students from countries of war or political unrest with limited or no schooling expenence. Consistent with much Australian and international research in this area, removing these barriers at all of these schools was a necessary holistic task in responding to the economic, cultural and political injustices confronting these students. The key focus here was providing an inclusive and culturally respectful space that enabled students' autonomy and self- determination and positioned them the globe, multiculturalist policies and ideas have been criticised as producing racial and ethnic division. Amid such contention, schools have been a primary focus. In particular, their inclusive agendas have been under attack as uncritical and overly accommodating of cultural difference. Against the charge that these agendas are failing, there has been increased scrutiny of schools' citizenship programs and heightened surveillance around what is taught in schools and how it is taught. In Australia, and other Western contexts, these circumstances have been framed by broader public and policy debate around issues of Despite unprecedented diversity in schools, classroom practice continues to reinforce and perpetuate highly inequitable and exclusionary understandings about difference and diversity. with capacity to achieve. Creating this space is an imperative given the unprecedented levels of multicultural diversity and rapid social change characterising the present era. While such diversity and change have enabled the production of cosmopolitan identities where a generative blend of cultures enhances community relations, more commonly these trends have seen rises in social disharmony, discrimination and inequity particularly in urban communities. In western liberal democracies, the racial, religious and cultural dimensions of this polarisation have become increasingly palpable. Particularly in public discourse such polarisation has reflected reductionist understandings of culture where a privileging of western ways of knowing and being has inferiorised minority cultures as the less enlightened 'other'. Against this backdrop, especially following the events of9/11 and the subsequent terrorist attacks across nationalism and identity - raising contention around what educating for equity and justice might mean for liberal democracies in an era of unprecedented social change and diversity. Such issues have generated significant challenges for schools and teachers in relation to their important role in nurturing an appreciation of and respect for social, cultural and religious diversity. However, it remains that while policy discourse positions schools as central to building socially cohesive societies through environments that reflect and explicitly teach about the values of democracy, equity and justice, schools continue to reify the global flows that perpetuate inequitable social relations. As is well eStablished, schooling practices generally do nOt value and work with student difference in productive ways. Despite unprecedented diversity in schools, classroom practice continues to reinforce and perpetuate highly inequitable and exclusionary understandings about difference and diversity. Westernised, classed and gendered versions of autonomy and success continue to be privileged in schools and continue to circumscribe the ways in which students are constructed and supported by teachers. Teachers remain ill-equipped for addressing issues of diversity and justice. Indeed, current practice homogenises and inferiorises group difference and distorts genuine equity concerns. As important research continues to indicate, many teachers tend [0 either stereotype group difference uncritically or they avoid addressing issues of difference altogether out of fear of getting it wrong'(Hayes et al. 2006; Doherty & Singh, 2007). Amid this negative picture of schools and schooling, the research sought to present a positive thesis. As such it foregrounded the personal stories of educators productively and justly working with student difference and diversity. Undergirded by the central premise that schools and teachers can make a difference towards realising the goals of social equity and cohesion, the research provided comprehensive insight into important frames of reference and understanding for supporting cultural diversity and social justice through schooling. The research highlighted the micro- political in relation to how the dynamics within each school shaped equity priorities and approaches differently (for example, in relation to a focus on issues such as gender, race, religion and socio- economic status). However, its main emphasis was to draw out the key frames of reference and understanding about equity and justice that were consistent across each school and generalisable to broader education contexts. These frames of reference and understanding were theorised in relation to their capacity to transform the social arrangements that impede marginalised students' 'parity of participation'. Along similar lines to Anna's remarks above, Fraser (2007, p. 17) explains this view of justice as follows: .. .jllstice requires social arrangements that permit all to participate as peers in social life. On the view of justice as participatory parity, overcoming injustice means dismantling institutionalized obstacles that prevent some people from participating on a par with others, as full partners in social interaction. This view of equity was reflected in each of the study's three schools. There were particular student groups who were identified as equity priorities on the basis of being subject to obstacles preventing their participation 'on par' with others. At Peppermint Grove, as it was at Blackberry Primary School, it was refugee students, while at Gamarada High School it was indigenous girls. The identification of these groups arose in each school from a centring of students' experiences of marginality and disadvantage. Such centring highlighted the different injustices confronting students. For the educators at Gamarada, it drew attention [0 multiple injustices in relation to students' social location as Indigenous and female; for example, the girls experienced racist and gender discrimination as well as suffering significant levels of material deprivation (Fraser, 1997). Along these lines, the equity priorities within each of the schools reflected cognisance that injustice can arise from different dimensions. In making sense of this, I found the work of American philosopher Nancy Fraser (1997; 2007) helpful. She theorises injustice as arising from three dimensions: political, cultural and socio-economic. I social actors. Consistent with Anna's opening comments, the identification of the equity priority groups in each of the schools was based on these group's experiences of injustice on one or more of these dimensions. At each of the schools there were concerns with the political injustices impeding students' educational success. At Gamarada and Peppermint Grove, for instance, these concerns related to the ways in which traditional or mainstream education contexts can compromise or misrepresent the political voice of marginalised students. This was a particular concern for the principal at Gamarada who challenged the absence of Indigenous input in programs designed to support Indigenous students. In each of the schools there were also concerns abom cultural injustices - associated with the patterns of non-recognition and disrespect within dominant paradigms (generally western-informed) that position minority culture as deficit and lack. At Peppermint Grove, for example, such patterns were associated with an essentialising and inferiorising of student culture and the disempowerment of particular groups of refugee students. Injustices relating to economic maldistribution were particularly salient at Gamarada. In this comext, broader patterns of class inequality for Indigenous There were particular student groups who were identified as equity priOrities on the basis of being subject to obstacles preventing their participation 'on par' with others. For Fraser (2007), political injustices occur when some individuals or groups are not accorded equal voice in decision making about justice claims; cultural injustices are generated when institutionalized or hierarchical patterns of cultural valLIe generate misrecognition or status inequality for particular social groups; and socio-economic injustices are produced when the structures of society generate maldistribution or class inequality for particular categories of Australians - made manifest in students' high levels of financial hardship - constrained students' capacities to fully participate in their education. Such were some of the barriers associated with political representation, cultural recognition and economic distribution seen as impeding equity for marginalised srudents at these schools (Fraser, 1997; 2007). In all