Contemporary trend in NZ and Internationally - Globalisation

Week 27:    Activity 3: Contemporary trend in New Zealand or internationally

Globalisation  - Migration - has captured my attention.

What responsibility do I have towards my students when dealing with the trends and challenges of Globalisation in my Professional practice?

Multiculturalism is increasingly relevant in my teaching practice.

In my personal primary schooling I attended a small 2 teacher Country school. In the eight years from Primer one to Form two there were two Maori families on the school roll. Both families were my neighbours but neither families made ethnicity a point of difference.  In fact it wasn’t until I was in Form one at the ripe old age of 12 I overheard a playground discussion where one 13 year friend called another 13 year friend a ‘Parking Car’ during a disagreement.  I had to be enlightened by my parents that in fact the child had meant ‘Pakeha’ and what the context of the discussion might have been.

So, although our beautiful country is bi-cultural this had no impact what so ever on my Formative years.  I realise that this was due to living in a southern country province.  But technology made no impact on my childhood outside of TVNZ One 6pm News and the Goodnight Kiwi! 

Fast Forward to the classroom of 2017 in the same Southern Rural province this time an Urban setting in a 10 teacher school.

Within my classroom I have a small number of ethnicities but they have a tremendously high impact on my teaching practice.

Currently I have Indian, Tongan, English, Indonesian and Filipino. Our school has 70 children out of 200 that identify with ethnicities other than NZ European enrolled, and in our local town there are over 52 different Ethnicities as indicated by our very active Waitaki Multicultural Council.

These statistics support the Global trend outlined in the OECD (2016) publication where People are on the Move across the Globe in search of a better life. Improved technologies and transport enable migrants to travel easily whilst governments enabling new immigrants to hold dual/multi citizenships is an attractive factor.

As a teacher the most common issues I meet with migrant students are:

•       Non English speakers – both students and parents/caregivers
•       Cultural differences, understandings, expectations and behaviours

New Zealand schools are very good at welcoming migrants onto their school rolls and enabling them to receive an equitable education. 

I know this because our school has implemented an excellent support process for our English Language Learners and their families, enabling and encouraging them to retain their culture and language whilst extending English Language Learning to our students within classroom settings.

We have a wonderful ELL co-ordinator, excellent PD and support for staff and students, a strong school Culture which welcomes and appreciates the dignity and diversity of all people and specific and individual support programmes for our students.

Even 20 years ago when I first started teaching there were only a few students from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds.  But the Globalisation trend is surely very obvious and visible in all our classrooms today.

References

OECD (2016), Trends shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_education

https://multiculturalnz.org.nz/Waitaki+Multicultural+Council