Migrant Australia Case Study

Many children of migrant families do well academically because of the pressure from families having gone through hardships of migration. I migrated to Australia ten years ago. My husband and I worked very hard, juggling studies and work, to create a financially stable living environment for our children. I place a lot of emphasis on my children to perform well at school. However, I have observed that some migrant children do not perform well at school. Chatterji (2006) suggests that due to economic hardships, limited access to good schools, language barriers and failure of schools to recognise children’s cultural strengths can lead to lower school achievements. I conclude that I should not form any beliefs biased on my own culture and ethnicity

regarding students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This will enable me to create a thriving environment in my class and provide an equal opportunistic approach for all my students. Howard (2007) states that although very few professionals discriminate against students based on ethnicity, some actions can perpetuate group differences. I will get to know my student’s cultural background, social beliefs and previous academic records to have an insight into individual student’s development. I learnt that I can boost children’s effectiveness by developing activities that relate to a student’s ethnic background, because that breeds familiarity and boosts academic success. Pritchard, Morrow and Marshall (2005) note that educators can increase children’s effectiveness by tailoring practices relating to children’s cultural backgrounds.