Inequality and social prejedices toward the Low Socio-Economic Class in Western Sydney

The matter of Nature and Nurture in child’s development has long been debated.

Without a doubt, children have different abilities since birth. However, the environment where

they grow up would also affect their learning process, reflects in the saying “geography is

destiny”. It has been found in some research that young students from low socio-economic family

in disadvantages areas often get lower living quality later in life (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff,

2012).

Western Sydney has been viewed as the land for the less fortunate. This can be

understood in either a good or a bad way. The area is growing steadily over the last decade, with

many developments and improvement. Nevertheless, in recent years, records show that the

unemployment and income rate, in average, are still in the lowest groups of Sydney Region (.id,

2016). Crime rate and school-leaving are at concerning level. There are many disadvantages in

many social aspects within the area. In can be observed that inequality exists through the

distribution of power and economic advantages toward the different groups, based on their

social class and income. The essay would discuss the Social Economical Status (SES) issues within

Greater Western Sydney, including some cases which the writer has experienced herself, on how

different social class can affect a child’s education process. As a result, by understanding the

impact of power toward education, teachers can provide more supports to improve teaching

quality, and students’ learning ability.

Bourdieu (1986) classified the society’s capital into 4 relational concepts: social capital,

symbolic capital, economic capital and cultural capital. Economic capital of a person is the

amount of access one gains from any interacting with the other forms of capital, individually to

socially. In other research, there are correlations in defining such capitals to social classes.

Scholars and researchers carry different approach in grouping the society, and those methods
can be defined base on the four capital concepts of Bourdieu. For example, Marx and Engels

(1998) has divided a country during the industrialization process into 2 main groups: Capitalists

and Workers. Another example is, in recent years, socialists have identified new social groups in

Australia. There is one classification model which is more suitable to the modern and diverse

lifestyle of Australians. In 2016, Jason Murphy, an economist, has reported in an article about 6

new social classes. They are: precariat, ageing workers, new workers, established middle class,

emerging affluent, and established affluent (Murphy, 2017)

Low economical capital, or the less advantage economical group, can be viewed as people

with low income, or having negative gap between earning ability and essential spending needs.

However, this amount can be relative. In Australia, the Australian Tax Office recognizes people

with yearly income which is less than AUD 37,000 as low income earner (Australian Tax Office,

2016). Social relations, or class relation, also depends on one’s social, symbolic, and cultural

access. Depend on various elements, including: inherited wealth, income, occupation,

educational background, or dialect and accent,… one can be listed in working class, middle class,

or upper class (Huppatz, 2015). For low socio-economic individual, the person is usually

unemployed, or employed with a low paid and temporary job. He or she might not take part in

neither a higher education degree, nor a vocational institute. In some area, these usually includes

new or existing immigrant community.

Western Sydney includes 8 locations of West of Sydney: Blacktown, Blue Mountain,

Cumberland, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta and Penrith. According to national

standard, Western Sydney has one of the highest poverty rate in New South Wales, with 12% of

its population earn less than nothing every week (.id, 2016). In order to actively understand the

social backgrounds, cultural and educational value of this area, the author implements place-

based approach; by looking into the different capital factors such as occupation, cultural and
educational habitus within this area (Gruenewald, 2003), we can understand better about the

conditions, causes and effects of unequal treatments toward different classes, and the power it

has over schools, as a place of community identification.

In Greater Western Sydney (GWS), the unemployment rate takes up 6% of the total

residents. Although professionals is at 19.9% of employment, and is the biggest occupational

group in the area, when made into comparison, this static stands humbly toward the 37.7% of

Sydney City. The second and third popular jobs in Western Sydney are Clerical and Administrative

workers (15.5%) and Technician and Trade Worker (13.7%) (.id, 2016). Nonetheless, it should be

noted that, even with the same job title, employees in the “rich area” (Bondi and Inner Sydney

etc.) are being paid more than those in Parramatta, Blacktown or Penrith area... For example, a

barista in Town Hall can earn AUD25-40/ hour making coffee, and one in Saint Mary would be

paid AUD17-20 every hour for doing similar work.

Additionally, a person’s cultural backgrounds can also affect his/her socio-economic

status, along with its stereotyping and disadvantages. GWS has one of the most diverse cultures,

with many immigrants from different countries settling in its new cities every year. In 2016, there

are 615,133 immigrants, 39% of total population, in 8 cities/districts of Western Sydney, account

for 9% of Australia’s total oversea arrival residents (ABS, 2017). There are few statistics on earlier

educational background of these immigrants. Ironically, there are many research on how well (or

bad) they speak English. It is an underlining fact that immigrants normally have to complete

further study for their qualifications, to do the same job they had done in their home countries,

and often receive less chances in their professional path. However, this group is the majority of

sales and labour workforce (builders, cleaners, salesman, cook…) as well as machinery operators

and drivers. This occupational group build up almost 30% of the population in Western Sydney

(.id, 2016), contributing more credit than what the society gives them. They usually receive
discrimination despite of their occupation and income: if they were to do labour jobs, they would

be viewed as having no educational access; if they got the chance to contribute their knowledge

in the professional work, they are stereotyped to “have taken away jobs from true Australian”.

Within the area, the percentage of attended school-age children are 17.4% of total

residents, while this group populated up to 27.3% of the population (.id, 2016). Comparing this

figure to Inner Sydney City, their ratio is 45% student of 0-19 age population go to school. In

addition, the portion of public school and private school attendees in these 2 are at great gap:

most children in GWS are going to government funded school while more Sydney City’s kids are

sent to private schools. This can be explained by the different habitus of upper and lower social

class. School is a mean for educational capital to gain better economical capital, thus upper class

usually invests more in their study. A-list schools cost more to attend, in exchange for better

infrastructure, facilities, and supposedly better teaching quality and learning environment. It is a

worldwide common practice (including Australia) that students from more prestigious

institutions often get offered to better jobs and salary (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2012). They

outperform others with academic result and social capitals, not only because of which school

they are going to, but also who they are going with. This could mean kids whose have higher

class parents, together, strive better later in life, almost by default.

More often, children from low SES area receive more disadvantages due to their financial

circumstances. In a possession-based research, sociologists found that children who has access to

better resources, such as having own desktop and Internet connection, own bedroom, dictionary

or even having a dishwasher in their household… would help them achieve better academically

(Lim, Gemici, Rice, & Karmel, 2011). In the same research, it is also found that students whose

parents are in the lower SES group usually settle with Vocational Education and Training (VET)
rather than doing higher education, not because of their academic ability, but due to the injustice

social.

School is both an individual and community identification. School can be viewed as its

own society, with different “social classes” and distributed power. There are many groups of

power within the unit; Teachers with different (years of) teaching experience, staff with different

roles, students with different backgrounds..., all of which can be considered as social values. As a

pre-teacher, it is important to understand how power in each “society” works, as this will

benefits the profession in the future, in delivering equality and justice in education environment.

The following paragraph is about an observation case of how young students view social

classes, which the writer had experienced while working as an Educator in before and after

school care program. In Rydalmere, a suburb in Western Sydney, there is a number of schools

which have special programs for students whose parents are from the military. In one of said

schools, Rydalmere East Public School has a number of military children, as there is a military

accommodation in the area. The Defense Club is introduced specifically for those kids. Even

though this State and School Policy helps students to get used to new school setting, the program

also separates them from the rest of the students. Children experience different “ranks” on their

first day at school by their peers. The power between different groups are strongly highlighted;

depend on their parents’ professions, income and backgrounds. Within the military group, kids

would get more respects and get listen to if their parents are in the Air force, Navy, and Military

respectively. However, there would be exceptions, kids who have high income parents would be

in the same group as their Navy friends. The area also has plenty of second generation immigrant

kids, which often come last in the “power rank” group; despite being born and grow up in

Australia. This observation fits the description of personal fields and the power it distributes, in

the context of military sphere, as it provides a unique level of society within Rydalmere East
Public School. As an effect of this, teachers in the school choose to approach air force or navy

kids first (if any) in their classes, as models for other students to follow. To the writer, this can be

an effective way to manage classroom, yet risky as it may emphasize on the inequality between

social classes, and could result in a lot of bullying.

Other observations

Despite all the above-mentioned injustice and unfair treatments, as well as social

prejudices toward lower socioeconomic class in Western Sydney, the area is developing rapidly in

the last decade. This is thanks to government policies in attracting both private national funding

and global investment, to build more infrastructure, and create more job opportunities. In

education, many public schools and universities have received better funding programs to

develop better methods and approaches toward a wider range of students. Western Sydney

University has promoted and supported many community programs and academic research to

improve teaching and learning quality in not only its campuses, but also for all students in GWS.

This reflects in an increasing number of first generation students who enter higher education

degree in Western Sydney, rising to 5% in 2016, and a decreasing in vocational schools

participants (.id, 2016). Public primary and high schools in the west implement better community

engagement policies, resulting in them getting more attention within the GWS society, and better

connection between educators and families, in the effort to slow down school-dropping rate

(Gannon, 2009). For example, Fairfield Public School has started a sustainable green community

garden for its students and parents, connecting teachers and school staff to students’ family, and

to the rest of the general public. In a long run, this would help prevent crime, drug users, and

even homelessness in the area.

Teaching is a challenging profession. It is well understood that different students have

different needs, as they can come from many diverse cultures and social backgrounds. As an
education, teacher has to identify the difficulties and disadvantages of which their student are

encountering to make give appropriate approaches. Teacher can achieve this by understanding

their student’ habitus and social background, as well as updating in pedagogy approach and

government’ schooling policy, to form a set of skills and ability to re-distribute unequal power as

well as deliver a fair and justice educational system, and to break the ultimate “vicious circle”.
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