With partners:
Student Snapshot 1
FEMALE STUDENT: My mum, she expects me to be in university.
FEMALE STUDENT: Our parents think we should all get married and have kids…
FEMALE STUDENT: I know. Join the club!
FEMALE STUDENT: I go to school because my mum expects me to go to university…
FEMALE STUDENT: First thing my mum tells me, “At your age I had two kids…”
FEMALE STUDENT: They couldn’t go to university, why should I go to university?
FEMALE STUDENT: I’m lucky I have to go to university.
FEMALE STUDENT: I’m not going to be like my parents.
FEMALE STUDENT: My dad thinks I’m going to be a lawyer.
FEMALE STUDENT: They just don’t want us to turn out like them, because they didn’t go to school for very long and they don’t have university.
FEMALE STUDENT: My mum didn’t do university, and she didn’t do Year 12, but she expects me to do it.
FEMALE STUDENT: My mum didn’t even go to school…
FEMALE STUDENT: My mum always tells me I’m lucky I go to school…
FEMALE STUDENT: From my mum, she wants me to go to school, go to university, have kids and this and that, but what happens if… sometimes I don’t like that.
FEMALE STUDENT: For what I wanna be, I have to go to university and the police academy…
Student Snapshot 2
FEMALE STUDENT: My father wants me to be something good because he never got to be. He wants me to be better than him… but I think because I’m the oldest of five children, like it’s really hard… I have expectations at home, firstly, I have to set an example, and at school. So that’s even harder.
Student Snapshot 3
FEMALE STUDENT: Well, because our parents come from a traditional background, and they still carry with them the traditional values, they want, like, their kids to become… to carry those values as well, but like they don’t realize its hard for us ‘cause we’re living in a modern society… and we adapt to these, you know, modern values that happen every day, and they, you know, like they feel that by us living here you know like… I don’t know, they feel like we’re not adopting their traditional ways, that they’re not really pleased with us. But, you know, they think it’s easy for us to go back to the old days, like the old generation, but now we’re living in a modern society with modern values so they don’t really understand that… For example, like back in those days, it wasn’t right for a girl to play sport, as in for a girl to run around. Usually, back in those days, a girl had to settle down, learn how to become a housewife, before she reaches a certain age, get married and that, but now, these days, sport has become, you know, for women and men and parents still think that, you know, for a girl to go play a sport , like, they shouldn’t focus on that running around and stuff…
FEMALE STUDENT: And getting married at young ages.
FEMALE STUDENT: And having kids, and cooking and cleaning…
FEMALE STUDENT: Now we got choices and stuff.
Student Snapshot 4
FEMALE STUDENT: I wouldn’t mind, like, balancing out the modern values and the traditional values. I reckon that they’re perfectly fine, but like, for us to full-on follow their way and how they were and everything, like it’s hard ‘cause we’re living in a modern society now.
Student Snapshot 5
FEMALE STUDENT: Like um, see how she said that most parents now want their children to get married young and cook and clean, for example, my family are nothing like that, like they’re studying and that kind of stuff, and not getting married young. So it’s our choice when we want to get married.
Student Snapshot 6
FEMALE STUDENT: The expectations of me at home are very high; Mum and my little brother are always sick and I do a lot of the stuff besides cooking and laundry. I agree with them but not at the age that I have to start because my Mum started going into hospital when I was twelve.
Student Snapshot 7
FEMALE STUDENT: My expectations at home are to take care of my little brother and my little sister and also to respect my parents and sometimes to be like my older sister.
Watch a video of this snapshotStudent Snapshot 8
FEMALE STUDENT: The expectations of me at home are to become a successful, young, respectable, Muslim girl. These expectations are made because I’m the only girl and as an Arab in our culture the girl is always the one to go to school.
Student Snapshot 9
FEMALE STUDENT: My expectations at home are to be good at school and to be like my sister, which is an older sister, because she used to come to the same school that I did and she got so many good reports and good things from teachers that my parents are kind of hoping that I’ll get that too seeing that I’m the youngest.
Student Snapshot 10
FEMALE STUDENT: I have a sick brother at home so I have to look after my little brothers and sisters but now I’m the oldest, my sister’s overseas. It’s fair for me because I’m old enough but what’s not fair for me is that I don’t get to go out very much.
Student Snapshot 11
FEMALE STUDENT: Not to swear, you know to be nice to my brothers and sisters and that. And I reckon that is fair because you know they’re your brothers and sisters and you have to encourage them to do stuff. You know you get happy when you see them achieve something, like when you see your brothers and sisters graduate or something.