With partners:
Student Snapshots around being able to count on teachers
Here students of both Arabic and non-Arabic background give clear articulation of the importance of being able to establish communication with their teachers.
FEMALE STUDENT: I can count on her as a teacher. She is not just a teacher, I see her as a friend. (Arabic background).
FEMALE STUDENT: He is so understanding. And he relates to himself, like us now to what he was back then. We are very similar. (Non-Arabic background).
FEMALE STUDENT: Most of these teachers, not all of them but a lot of these teachers, have had like multicultural experiences. They have either backgrounds or their parents are a different nationality, you know? So, like when you go talk to them, they understand what you're talking about and you know like the problems and they are easy to deal with. They are easy to get along with. . . . I think that the teachers, they teach well but sometimes students also need to, like, sit down to hear stories of their life experience, you know? The values of how their lives have been and the stories actually teach us more than what they do on the Maths board, you know? Like they, they tell us about life experiences and like what they've done to fix problems that they've had in life or how they've had problems with other people. They teach us how to fix things and they teach us that violence is wrong and to talk to people is better. So even though they do teach us a lot, and what they teach us is excellent, you need to hear stories as well, you know? To understand what life is really (Non-Arabic background).
MALE STUDENT: They've been there and they've done all types of stuff that I've done, right? And they've got an understanding, you know? They . . .give you the time and a place to talk to you and that whereas teachers that have gone to university, been straight all their lives and that, I don't know. They know all their school stuff but they don't know how to talk to or relate to people about what they're describing. . . . If teachers and that keep suspending you and shit because you're bad, well, what are you going to do? You just, 'Oh well, I'm going to get suspended.' Just do it. Whereas the teachers that you get along with and that, you can sit down and talk to them and then work through it. (Non-Arabic background).
FEMALE STUDENT: Well, when we talk together we work on the same age so they make themselves like as my age. So then I feel like they can really understand me and they give me time. (Arabic background).
MALE STUDENT: My home group teacher for example, he's got something. He says for example, 'If I've got a class and you've got an important issue to take up with me, just knock on the door and I will try to help you as soon as I can.' And that is for most of our teachers, actually 90% of them. (Arabic background).
Student Snapshot 1
FEMALE STUDENT: …when you talk to a teacher and you tell them secrets that no-one else knows, some teachers keep it secret, some don’t.
FEMALE STUDENT: It depends what teachers. Not all of them, yeah, like some teachers are good, some you could…
FEMALE STUDENT: I can talk to my teacher but most, some of them, you can’t.
Student Snapshot 2
FEMALE STUDENT: The best is the Arabic teacher…
FEMALE STUDENT: He’s like a second father.
FEMALE STUDENT: He understands us.
FEMALE STUDENT: Because he’s like from the same background of us, and the way we explain things, the way we are, he’s like that too.
FEMALE STUDENT: Some teachers do understand. Like X is the best.
INTERVIEWER: And she’s not of Arabic background?
FEMALE STUDENT: Nah, she’s Greek.
FEMALE STUDENT: She’s a wog.
FEMALE STUDENT: She’s a wog like us.
FEMALE STUDENT: Yeah, like they understand us, they give us like, you know, they understand us and they talk to us and that.
Student Snapshot 3
MALE STUDENT: [Good teachers] They listen to you.
MALE STUDENT: They understand you.
MALE STUDENT: We can muck around with them.
MALE STUDENT: They come from a different religion too, and they understand, like, you know what I mean?
MALE STUDENT: Yeah, they do.
MALE STUDENT: ‘Cause you know like the Australians, they don’t know what we’ve been through, and what we are going through, so I don’t know man.