Inequalities in Australian Schooling

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Inequalities in Australian Schooling: Sociocultural Factors in terms of Cultural Capital, Habitus and Social Reproduction
There is a common, underlying perception that students from particular cultural and linguistic backgrounds – what is generally referred to as ethnicity - have a predisposition towards educational success in Australian schools (Watkins, 2013). Students from Anglo backgrounds, for example, are often seen as having a cultural advantage whilst others, such as Middle Eastern students, are perceived as culturally prone to underachievement. These claims confine ethnicity to fixed and bound stereotypes, and see educational achievement as a result of the inherent qualities of these groups (Watkins, 2013). However, ethnicity cannot be held solely responsible for the inequalities in Australian education. A densely interwoven fabric of socio-cultural factors, for instance, geographical location and socioeconomic status, is evident in the disparities between students' academic achievements. It is within fabric that it can be established that students from minority groups are educationally disadvantaged due to their ethnicities, geographical locations and socioeconomic statuses, incidentally influencing their chances of educational success in Australian schools (Groundwater-Smith, 2009).
Bourdieu (1997) develops his notion of cultural capital, the learned competence in the valued way of doing things, as a way of explaining this unequal educational performance of students. Those with cultural capital not suited to Australia’s Western educational approaches are less likely to succeed than students with a predetermined skill set ideally suited to Australian education systems. That is to say, the students from minority groups a...

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