A symposium compared the nature and experiences of schooling for Aboriginal Australians and Vietnamese immigrants to Australia. An introduction draws on John Ogbu’s distinction between voluntary and involuntary minorities, provides background on the situations of indigenous peoples and Vietnamese immigrants in Australia, and suggests that cultural differences and the different relationships among these groups and the dominant population have implications for the pedagogical strategies used with these groups. “The Polarisation of Academic Achievement and Behaviour among Vietnamese Australian Students” (Karen Faulkner) looks at a striking contrast: Vietnamese youth in Australia are overrepresented among university, medical, law, and engineering students and also among prison inmates and the unemployed. Four waves of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants since 1975 had different settlement experiences with differing impacts on their educational, occupational, and social mobility. In addition, different ethnic groups within the Vietnamese immigrant group may have responded in different ways to their minority status and experiences. “The Battle To Remain on Higher Ground: School Curriculum and Pedagogy versus Culturally Supported School Resistance” (Mark G. McFadden, Geoff Munns, Lee Simpson) discusses school rejection among indigenous Australian boys as a culturally supported masculine response embedded within a complex community and educational context. A study of Aboriginal high school boys who remained in postcompulsory education against seemingly overwhelming odds examined the complex social and cultural processes that supported their academic persistence and caused them to reject their peers’ resistance to school. (Description from source)
