.. and Notes on Terminology in the Sector

YANQ is currently conducting research into the issue of young people's disengagement and reengagement with education and training in Queensland.  As part of this project, attendees at the March meeting for the Multicultural Youth Network of Queensland (MYNQ) were presented with draft copies of a survey tool designed to collect data from and about the multicultural sector to gauge need and opinion on reengagement research and advocacy. While the main purpose of disseminating the draft survey through the MYNQ group was to obtain feedback from the attendees on the tool itself, the MYNQ group also discussed YANQ's reengagement project in general. The following is an outline of the MYNQ group's comments, relating both to the survey tool, and to the topic in general.

For the Multicultural Sector (in no particular order): 

• Engagement (rather than disengagement or reengagement) is an issue particularly for newly arrived migrants and refugees, and so is the maintenance of an adequate level of educational support.
• Accessing educational or training services (either direct skills acquisition or information about support services) can be achieved through different mediums (eg. Sports clubs, drama, fashion, art). This is a multifaceted recommendation:
• By changing the ways things are offered in schools (as in: including more of the kinds of activities listed above as part of every school day or lesson), or
• By bringing educational skills into extra curricular activities.
• This may also have the benefit of providing people with the opportunity to practice English in a less formal setting, and acceptance in one area of social life that will meld into the others. 
• Support at all stages of education and training (eg. Particularised English assistance, especially related to textbooks and classroom English; homework clubs; discussion of career pathways; inclusion of communities and families especially in relation to expectations and pressure put on young people etc.)
• The flexibility of mainstream schools (eg. In deadlines, discipline etc); while this does not necessarily have to be altered, it would be good if at least in the transition period for students (eg. From Milpera to mainstream) students are eased into the rigidity of the mainstream (eg. For two days a week).
• Career pathways: should be informed, realistic, and should also be explained to families and communities, not just the young people.
• Bringing families and communities in, to understand the pressures on the young people.

It should be noted that sports, drama, art and music are often used in educational endeavours for people of non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) as an English as a second language (ESL) specific method of teaching - and may be suitable for any person attempting to learn subjects being taught in a language that is not among their native tongues. These are also different methods of learning as recognised by Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, and are suitable for all people, not just those who are trying to learn via a non-native tongue.

The multiple intelligences are well known to teachers and include:

• Linguistics
• Aural - learn by hearing
• Oral - learn by speaking
• Written - learn by writing
  
• Logical / Mathematical - learn by numbers or thinking
• Spatial - learn by seeing
• Kinaesthetic - learn by doing
• Musical - learn with music and rhythm
• Interpersonal - learn by themselves
• Intrapersonal - learn by interacting with others

This is not an exhaustive list, and the intelligences have fluctuated over time with each new theorist.

People should take heed that there is potential for workers in the sector to confuse the Multiple Intelligences with ESL-specific methods of teaching, and as such, there is a danger that some might neglect to acknowledge that while some people might be learning via a non-native tongue, they might also learn best via methods that do not involve sport, dram, art and music etc. For example, person x works in the sector and the minute they want to develop an educational project aimed at young NESB migrants, x immediately thinks sport or music is needed to engage them because of their ESL needs. However, all learning styles should be acknowledged in any program to achieve the best result. So, while sport, drama etc is a method of engaging people who are learning via a non-native tongue, it is not necessarily related to someone's preferred or best method of learning. (Indeed, the same can be said of young people in general.) This may also apply to those coming from ‘oral cultures' where, although traditionally, knowledge was passed down orally, not everyone has the (cultural) right to speak or to tell such stories. As a result, someone may come from an oral culture, but be reluctant to engage in interpersonal activity, even in an educational setting.

In addition, researchers and members of the community services and multicultural sectors should neither dismiss nor neglect to consider the needs of first and second generation Australians; these groups have needs too that might not be addressed if a ‘multicultural' perspective focuses only on the needs of recent migrants and refugees. Likewise, important insight and input can be accessed through the recognition of opinions of and issues faced by Indigenous Australians, Australian South Sea Islanders, and Anglo-Australians; groups that are often ‘forgotten' when it comes to multicultural discussion because of the skewed perception that the term ‘multicultural' refers only to new migrants and people with refugee backgrounds.

Furthermore, the term ‘community' should not necessarily refer only to someone's ethnic community, but also refers to community in general i.e. Our local portion of society. Further to this point, referring to someone as ‘ethnic' because they do not fit the mould of the dominant group in Australia is further reinforcing the incorrect notion that ‘white' people have no ethnicity, and therefore are the generic, ‘normal' prototype from which all others deviate. These are important factors to consider because YANQ's MDO has noticed some workers in the sector referring to others or themselves as ‘ethnic', but using the term to mean ‘non-white', and using the term ‘community' to refer collectively to any and all non-white, mono-ethnic communities. In doing so, these people are inadvertently reinforcing notions of the dominant ‘white' population groups as described above.

In being mindful about the way we use certain terminology, this does not mean we are blindly constricting ourselves to political correctness, but rather, as per the language theory of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, we are instead actively reinforcing and shaping how our world is constructed and interpreted. How would you prefer construct and interpret the world? As advocates, it is vital that we are aware of how we ourselves use such terminology.

In a like way, we cannot allow terms like ‘multiculturalism' to be subverted. Instead we should use this term for its true encompassing meaning, not just as another word to describe non-Indigenous, non-white, migrants and refugees from non-English speaking backgrounds. Multiculturalism: the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation (source: www.dictionary.com).

I am reminded of a speaker on the final day of the Racisms and the New World Order: Realities of Colour, Culture and Identity Conference in late 2007, who explained how in our increasingly politically correct world, new and elaborate terms are being used to mean exactly the same thing as they did before. This means that while the terms might be changing (and superficially seeming to be less offensive, less constricting) the meaning is staying exactly the same and, rather than serving to construct and interpret the world in more encompassing and inclusive ways, this instead serves to reinforce the old boundaries and perceptions that ‘multiculturalism' and ‘political correctness' aim to break down. Indeed, there is no use in attempting to be politically correct if the ways you are using these new terms reflect old, ignorant or confined points of view and interpretations.

YANQ has published its model of multiculturalism on its website and the MYNQ survey will be released in the coming weeks. 

Please contact Kirsten on 07 3844 7713 or e-mail cald@yanq.org.au if you have any ideas or opinions about these or the issues discussed above, as we welcome your feedback.

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