Kooc, Mabor Dhuol (2024) Investigating African Australian youths’ and families’ perspectives on intercultural practices and policies impact on education outcomes. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

With increased human mobility, sociological studies have defined a category of people as occupying a third cultural space. These are individuals who have no personal experience of their parents’ original culture, but by living under the influence of their culture within a new dominant cultural context, the children neither fully identify with the new dominant culture nor feel totally dissociated from their parents’ original home culture. Personal experiences of second-generation children of refugee-background African parents reflect a life framed within an Australian cultural context. However, these children encounter educational and cultural constraints similar to first-generation refugee-background students. Evidence shows that second-generation children’s specific needs are often subsumed under those of children of refugee backgrounds. Few studies have addressed the educational and cultural challenges presented by refugee African-Australian students’ backgrounds without specific reference to the needs of students with non-refugee experiences. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach conducted in two phases. The first phase was study I, which incorporated a method of qualitative interview that focused on young African- Australians who were born in Australia and occupy third cultural spaces between their parents’ home culture and the Australian Anglo-Saxon culture. This phase entailed conducting semi- structured interviews with former high-school students in Melbourne’s western suburbs. It explored educational experiences and outcomes of the cohort in question, and the appropriateness and relevance of the Victorian (Australian) educational systems’ attention to this cultural group. In addition, incorporated in the study I were the African parents/caregivers who were of refugee backgrounds from the Sub-Saharan African region. Phenomenological and grounded-theory approaches were used in exploring the perspectives of the former high- school students regarding their educational experiences and outcomes, as well as their parents’ experiences in their children’s educational journeys in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Analysis of the semi-structured interview data yielded six core themes: education and multiculturalism; cultural identity and history; home-school connection; student-teacher relationships; student experiences of racism; and school career counselling. Overall, these six themes highlighted the point that educational and cultural barriers were homogenised or undifferentiated between the Australian-born students and their counterparts with refugee life experiences. In addition, cultural barriers constrained parents’ participation and involvement in their children’s education. Furthermore, most student participants expressed ambivalent cultural identities, in which they framed their cultural identity as either African first, Australian first, or a hybridity and blending of both cultures, leading them to identify themselves as “African-Australian”. While the majority of students identified with the concept of being African-Australian, fewer students indicated belonging to an African cultural identity, often because they experienced stereotypical rejection as Australians mostly on phenotypical bases. The smallest number of learners self-categorising as Australians. Study II used a quantitative approach that focused on the six themes generated in study I to inform and guide the construction of a Tyepform survey questions. The survey was designed in a matrix format that included main survey questions, stimulus statements, and three-level conceptual categories. A set of 10 items investigated aspects of teachers’ intercultural- awareness practices and examined their perceived competence, knowledge, and skills required for teaching within a multicultural education system. A particular emphasis was given to the impacts of teachers’ intercultural-awareness practices on African-Australian students’ motivation, engagement, and educational outcomes. Survey items specifically focused on the areas of intercultural practices, school-system practices, integration of cultural material in teaching and learning, use of school support, and the third cultural space. A set of 10 themes emerged from the inferential analyses of the Typeform survey data using SPSS one-way ANOVA. Six of these themes resulted in significant mean-scored differences: educational expectations, learner motivation, use of school support, school systems’ educational practices, teachers’ capabilities regarding student diversity, and teachers’ use of multicultural curriculum. Study II also revealed that Independent School-based factors, school supporting environment, and cultural networks were key factors related to high-school students’ educational expectations and aspirations. High educational expectations were promoted by factors including family cultural values, societal characteristics, socioeconomic status, school composition and location, and parent preference for a school type. The theme of school systems’ educational practices identified a lack of integration of African cultural resources and materials in teaching, implying lower levels of teacher intercultural awareness. Findings highlight implications for educational policy-makers regarding teachers’ intercultural-awareness practices that pertain to the education of minority and ethnic students. Evidence points to teachers’ overlooking the importance of incorporating cultural resources into classroom learning activities. This indicates that multicultural education should be considered as complementary to school-based diversity acceptance within the broader goals of learning for young people.

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