Education: A personal reflection

This first blog asks for a reflection of my experiences with culture and identity in relation to education. Using the Hall, Neitz and Battani reading I hope that I will be able to discover for myself how education really influenced my personal development. Firstly my education has always been at my local public schools. I went to East Blaxland Primary School and then Blaxland High School. Both these places carry very positive memories for me. I met the majority of my friends there, I found out about different styles of music there, I discovered a passion for English there and ultimately I’ve chosen my career from because of my experiences at school.

Looking through the Hall et al reading there are a few things that strike me as relevant in answering why school has the ability to influence so heavily. In a society that is very much a part of individualism the idea that ‘individualism emphasize[s] self reliance’ (Hall, Neitz and Battani, 22) is very significant. School is perhaps the place where this individualistic culture is really cultivated. There is certainly a collective feel to various aspects to school, for example your year group are one and the same, and your school uniform identifies you as a member of that school even having a school motto gives members of that community something to relate to. However in terms of results, that is solely dependent on the student. One must be self reliant if they are to achieve their goals. Certainly for me I had to turn a corner in year 10 in order to start achieving my academic potential in senior school, I had to be self reliant.

Another area in the reading that really struck me was the quote about the characteristics of a narcissist. Without going as far as labelling myself a narcissist, the line ‘heightened self esteem coming only through attachment to a strong admired figure from whom acceptance is craved’ (Hall et al, 28) really resonated with my final years of school. My 2 unit and 3 unit English teacher was a massive influence on me and there certainly was a real desire to achieve the very best I could in order to heighten my self confidence in the subject. Education really has the ability to create such strong role models that make students feel a certain attachment to strong teachers. Positive marks from those teachers really can heighten one’s self esteem. So is school creating individualistic narcissists? Probably not but it could be an interesting topic for discussion.

http://www.blaxlandhigh.com.au/ourschool.php?id=20 – The topic asked for a reflection of your own experience, as a result there’s no news article in this blog, however there is a link to my old high school.

Commodifying Culture - Schools Are A Marketer's Dream Venue

How can parents say no when the school says, "Do you want fries with that?"

In the article 'Schools Are a Marketer's Dream Venue', Paul Harrison emphasises his opposing views to the idea of commodification in schools. He specifically expresses how the advertising and sponsorship of commercial brands, businesses, and food companies such as McDonald's, are interfering with the behaviours and choices that are being made over the long term by children and young adolescents who are being exposed to the sponsorship of fast food and soft drink brands at schools.

By advertising in schools, brands and businesses are smartly increasing their sales, popularity and brand loyalty, primarily because they are appealing to large numbers of vulnerable children and adolescents. Marketing strategies such as sponsoring and funding for schools are seen as beneficial to the schools as corporations are funding to 'help out the schools' with literacy and numeracy programs that will in turn benefit the education of the nations youth. Because of this supreme funding, a cycle is formed where the schools become vulnerable and dependent on the sponsorship of these brands, and allow the brands to continue advertising in their schools, which then leads to bad choices made by the students.

Kenway and Bullen (2001) support this idea through their argument that "advertising is not only a key element of a market culture, it is also pivotal to the growth of such cultures". Thus, the more schools advertise, the more they become absorbed within a market culture and the more they have to advertise. A major problem is that the increasing amount of focus and school budgets has been diverted to advertising and away from educational matters.

"What starts out as a simple poster thanking the brand for their sponsorship, may lead to preference of that brand's products over others at the schools" - Paul Harrison.

The picture to the left is an example of McDonald's' interference in schools from Seminole County, Florida. The picture encourages the students to check their report card grades and then present their report card to a McDonald's Restaurant to claim a food prize. 

Because of the exposure and vulnerability of children and adolescents in schools, the defences made by parents to control aspects such as healthy eating are circumvented. A major issue is the idea of how parents are meant to productively educate their children on healthy living and eating, if their children are being exposed to McDonald's advertising every day in their school grounds.


It seems selfish of schools to be making the wrong decisions in regards to the behaviours and choices that are being made by their students due to the marketisation that is being allowed in their schools. The problem with this is that the schools become too reliant on the funding from businesses and corporations that they are promoting, and in turn they reap the benefits of the funding to make their schools look appealing through their own promotional activities. For example, Kenway and Bullen (2001) infer that schools are "seeking to promote themselves on the basis of their use of such technologies in their curriculum". Thus, schools re-shape their identities by purchasing up-to-date computers and technology, and then announce that this modern technology will assist and prepare their students for future employment opportunities.

In conclusion, it is clear that marketisation in schools provides benefits for the businesses and corporations that are being advertised, and also the schools themselves that receive funding and sponsorship in return. However the main concern is the behaviour and decisions that are being developed from all of this advertising, and the influence it has on young children and adolescents due to the mass persuasion that advertising seeks to gain. The emergence of this culture, where schools are becoming markets themselves, results in a shift from students being learners or school citizens, to instead being commodities that schools 'consume'.



References:

Paul Harrison: 'Schools Are a Marketer's Dream Venue', (2009)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/schools-are-a-marketers-dream-venue-20091021-h8xj.html

Kenway, J. & Bullen, E.: Consuming Children: Education-Advertising-Entertainment, (Open University Press, 2001). Chapter 5, p:121-150.

Image extracted from: http://www.adventuredad.com/archives/is-mcdonalds-sponsoring-your-childrens-grades/

Multiculturalism, Identity and Education

In Australia there is a vast and highly multicultural learning environment for tertiary students as many universities play host to international students. In the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday 30^th July 2012 an article “Repairing the Road to Oz” by Jen Rosenberg and Matt Wade holds discussion of the effects of racist attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2009 and 2010. There were highly influential repercussions on the reputation of Australian learning institution.  From this article, it becomes clear that there has been depreciation in the number of international students coming to Australia to study, fuelled by the fear of racism and intolerance. In the” Indian student bashings on the rise in Sydney: community leader” by Arjun Ramachandran 2009, Violent acts on international student have been occurring and in this month 20 of students have been bashed in racial disputes in a month, over a 100 in a year. 

                From these events it can be concluded that there is a high level of intolerance and racism expressed in some communities in Australia. This in turn means that a small population reflects badly upon the larger Australian culture and identity. One needs to consider is this “culture” of intolerance something which is reflected by the greater community; or merely is accentuated by small populations of passionately anti-multi-cultural groups. Comaroff, J. L. & Cormaroff, J. (2009) discuss how groups brand themselves as different, to make themselves stand out and accentuate themselves unique. This could have implications for the way in which Indian students are perceived by other Australian students, it could be seen as threatening to their “Australian culture”.

                Issues regarding culture and identity should be handled in a way which encourages understanding. With regards to education there must be a lapsed in Australian schools and communities to what is culture and identity, and the way it impacts on communities. Does this mean that in the Australian curriculum there should be a greater increase in education regarding different cultures? Or that this is an ingrained problem built into the socio-cultural constructs of our Australian identity to have a need to pick “who” belongs and whose values/beliefs we align to.

                Friction between different cultures is highlighted when an introduction of a new minority occurs. For example in the 1940-60’s, Italian’s immigrated to Australia. “Australian” groups isolated these communities due to their differing culture and identity to the typical Australian values. Again in the 1970-80’s Asian groups immigrated to Australia and were also met by hostility due to the inequalities in culture and identity. Therefore when considering the events regarding Indian tertiary students and the intolerance to them, Australian culture appears to have a deep need to isolate groups of different culture. Yet, being a multi-cultural society culture is broadened to accepting different beliefs and values even though at first it is hostile to change.

References

Rosenberg, J. & Wade, M. “Repairing the road back to Oz” (2012) Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/repairing-the-road-to-oz-20120729-2365d.html

Ramachandran, A. “Indian student bashings on the rise in Sydney: community leader” (2009) Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/national/indian-student-bashings-on-the-rise-in-sydney-community-leader-20090529-bpxy.html

Comaroff, J. L. & Cormaroff, J. (2009). Ethnicity, Inc. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 3: Questions of theory.