With partners:
Student Snapshot 7
The ability of family members to engage with the school can be readily compromised by poverty:
INTERVIEWER: So, if there's parent teacher interviews or whatever that happen, would your family come along to that?
MALE STUDENT: Um, Mum's got emphysema and we don't have a car and she doesn't like to walk.
INTERVIEWER: Is it too difficult?
MALE STUDENT: Yeah. Miss X, if we have any credit on the phone, then she will ring up. She enjoys talking to Miss X, she likes Miss X. (Non-Arabic background)
FEMALE STUDENT: Um, if she wants something, like to know anything, she asks my big sister who is in Year 12. She is on to everything, like even though she can't come to school, she has her licence but she doesn't have a car yet, like she asks my sister or she can like ask my sister to ask the teacher. (Arabic background)
Student Snapshot 3
Here students discuss the usefulness of school newsletters as a mechanism for engaging parents. These comments suggest that language barriers are not the only barriers to this being a useful approach. Firstly, an Arabic student:
FEMALE STUDENT: (Responding to a question about school newsletters) They don't read them!
INTERVIEWER: Do you think they would read it if it came out in another language?
FEMALE STUDENT: Um, I don't think so. . . . It's like, they keep on about my education but they are not really into like knowing what is really happening. You know what I mean? Like they care about me, you know?
And also a non-Arabic student:
INTERVIEWER: What about things like the school newsletters and all? Do they read those?
MALE STUDENT: No, only if it's real important.
Student Snapshot 1
MALE STUDENT: I talk to my mum, but like, my dad I’m a bit scared, not scared, like nervous, you know what I mean? [laughter] I am… ‘Cause like, I know that my dad’s the powerful one, like I respect him the most in the family, and like you know, yeah. And like my mum, I’m always open to her, could say anything to her, we like talk about anything, everything… That’s normal for me, but. That’s normal for everyone… Everyone has to listen to what the father says.
Student Snapshot 2
There can be tensions for students between the multicultural world of the school and the racist context they can encounter at home. Here a non-Arabic student explains:
Like, also why I'm not getting along with my mum and dad is because I've got an Asian friend and they always bag Asians and stuff, so I get really cut.
Student Snapshot 4
FEMALE STUDENT: My ambitions in life, it’s very simple, I just want to be a lawyer because I think that if you’re going to go to school since the age of about 5 until 20 you might as well do something decent with it not work in a little salon. I reckon my parents are very happy with what I want to be. It doesn’t bother them so long as I’m not known as some little scrag.
Student Snapshot 5
FEMALE STUDENT: I’m very privileged to have a house and have parents that you know love me and take care of me. When my parents ask me what I want to become when I’m older, I tell them I want to become a doctor and they get very happy because they want me to be happy.
Student Snapshot 6
FEMALE STUDENT: My dreams are to become a policewoman. My family thinks it’s ok. Some other people think it’s not ok, they think it’s dangerous but I want to do what I want to do. It’s fine with my parents.
Student Snapshot 8
FEMALE STUDENT: My dreams and ambitions in life are to be any type of an entertainer just as long as I’m on stage singing, dancing, acting whatever just as long as people can see me on stage doing what I love, my ambition. And the dream of what my mum and dad want me to be is a doctor. That’s kind of…I can’t stand the sight of blood so I could never be a doctor.