Racism in Sydney schools is leaving many students feeling helpless and doubting their abilities, research presented at a national education conference on Monday has revealed.
In a survey of more than 500 high school students, more than half the indigenous and Asian students reported experiencing racism, as did one in three students from Anglo-Saxon backgrounds.
Those experiences are said to heighten students' feelings of helplessness and lower their confidence in their maths and English abilities. But, for students from Anglo backgrounds, a strong sense of cultural identity and a perceived cultural respect seems to buffer them from the negative effects of racism.
Macquarie University researcher Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews worries resistance to correcting or acknowledging racism in Australia has grown and threatens to exacerbate the disadvantage of the students most at risk.
“If we ignore racism, we ignore the way racism is contributing to many of the inequities we see across society,” he said.
In NSW public schools, the average Aboriginal high school student misses 40 days of school a year, or one day every week, the Education Department’s 2013 attendance records show.
Results from the OECD’s most recent test of 15-year-olds found indigenous Australians remain about 2½ years behind their non-indigenous peers in schooling.
In a previous study, Dr Bodkin-Andrews found racism could have a direct impact on a student’s test results, bringing down their grades by between 5 and 10 per cent.
At the Australian Council for Educational Research’s annual conference in Adelaide on Monday, he spoke about making indigenous students stronger so the impact of racism was not as harsh or disempowering.
“There’s not one grand answer,” he said ahead of the presentation. “It’s not just about feeling good about yourself or denying that racism exists or being motivated. Racism is affecting students in different ways and how these students become resilient against racism is also quite diverse.”
His recommendations were shaped by the advice expressed by more than 20 respected and high-profile indigenous Australians during in-depth interviews.
They emphasised the need to acknowledge racism, to stay calm in the face of racist insults, to distance themselves emotionally from the racism and to challenge discrimination by proving the racists wrong.
In one interview, Aboriginal elder Aunty Mae Robinson said: “When someone makes a remark to you, they’re trying to put you down, don’t take it on. As soon as you take that on, you’ve given power to that person.”
The advice of NSW Labor deputy leader Linda Burney was: “Count to 10 and take a big breath. Your response is going to be important to you for the rest of your life. And acting in anger is not always the best way to conduct yourself.”
