Childrens transition to school Voices of Bangladeshi parents in SydneyAustralia.docx

Childrens transition to school Voices of Bangladeshi parents in SydneyAustralia.docx

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ChildrenstransitiontoschoolVoicesofBangladeshiparentsinSydneyAustralia

Children’stransitiontoschool:

VoicesofBangladeshiparentsinSydney,Australia

PrathyushaSanagavarapu

UniversityofWesternSydney

ThestudyonwhichthispaperisbasedexploredBangladeshiparents’perceptionsofchildren’stransitiontoschool.Thepaperreportsonthedataobtainedfrominterviewswith10parentslivinginSydney,Australia,ontheirchildren’sexperienceswhenbeginningschool.Accordingtotheparents,friendshipswithpeerswhoshareasimilarculturalorlinguisticbackgroundandsupportfromschoolteachersfacilitatedtheirchildren’spositiveadjustmentstoschool,whereaslimitedorlackofproficiencyinEnglishconversationalskillshamperedafewoftheirchildren’sadjustmentstoschool.Parentsalsooutlinedtheroleoffamilies,schoolteachers,andeducatorsinchildcaresettingsinenablingBangladeshichildren’ssmoothtransitiontoschool.

AnoteworthyfindingofthisstudywasthatlanguagebarriersprecludedmanyBangladeshiparentsfromaccessinginformationonschoolcurriculumandtransitiontoschoolandfromcollaboratingwithschoolteachers.Thelanguagebarriersalsohinderedafewchildren’ssmoothtransitiontoschool.TheimplicationsofthisstudyarethateducatorsneedtobesensitivetoandaddressthelinguisticissuesthatimpactonBangladeshichildrenandtheirfamiliesinmakingasmoothtransitiontoschool.

Introduction

Transitiontoschoolisamajoreventinthelivesofchildrenandtheirfamilies.Itisoneofthelife-changingexperiencesforchildren,withsignificantimplicationsfortheiridentitydevelopment（Ecclestone,Biesta&Hughes,2010;Woods,Boyle&Hubbard,1999,ascitedinBrooker,2002）.Further,children’sfirstexperienceswithformalschoolinghaveimplicationsfortheirwellbeing,lifelonglearningandeducationalachievements（Alexander&Entwisle,1988;Brooker,2008;Hamre&Pianta,2001;McClelland,Morrison&Holmes,2000;West,Sweeting&Young,2008）.Therefore,itisimportanttoexploreandunderstandthetransitionalexperiencesofchildrenandtheirfamiliesifwearetoprovidefortheirpresentandfuturewellbeing.

Transitiontoschoolinvolvesmanyadjustmentsonthepartofchildrenandtheirfamilies（Briggs&Potter,1999）.Theseareemphasisedintheliteratureontransitiontoschool（forexample,Chun,2003;Ecclestoneetal.,2010;Margetts,2007）.Theforemostadjustmentsthatchildrenneedtomakerelatetoseparationfromparentsandadaptationstoschoolandclassroomprograms（Woodsetal.,1999,citedinBrooker,2002）.Childrenalsoneedtogettoknowpeopleandplacesatschool,suchasclassroomsandteachers,peersandplayground,andschoolfacilitieslikethecanteen,libraryandsoon.Anawarenessandunderstandingofpeopleandplacesisneededtosettleintoschoolandtoengageinlearning—inotherwords,tobecome‘pupils’inclassrooms（Brooker,2002）.Theotheradjustmentsthatchildrenneedtomakeuponbeginningschoolinvolvelearninghowtooperateasindividualsingroupcontexts,communicatingtheirneedsandrequirementsinsociallyappropriateways,understandingrulesandmakingnewfriendshipswithpeers（Perry,Dockett&Howard,2000）.

Thecontextualmodeloftransitiontoschool（Rimm-Kaufman&Pianta,1999）emphasisestheroleofvariouscontextsinchildren’stransitiontoschool.Accordingtothismodel,children’sandfamilies’adjustmentstoschoolarecontingentuponthesituationalandculturalfactorsofhome,communityandschool.Bronfenbrenner’s（1979）ecologicaltheorysuggeststheneedforcontinuitybetweenhomeandschoolsettingsaschildrenmakeeducationaltransitions.Alackofcontinuitybetweenhomesandschoolscanimpactonchildren’sadjustmenttoschool（Vidali&Adams,2007）.Transitiontoschoolisaverycomplexprocessforchildreningeneral.Itcanbeevenmorecomplexforculturallyandlinguisticallydiverse（CALD）childrenas,inmostcases,itinvolves‘adoptingtheroleofastudentbasedonananglicizedmodelwhichfailstotaketheirownbackgroundculturesfullyintoaccount’（Woodsetal.,1999,p.11,citedinBrooker,2002）.Childrencanfacedifficultiesinadjustingtoschooliftheydonothavethe‘knowledgeoflanguage,others’culturesandcommunicationcodes’neededtooperateinmicrosystemsorearlychildhoodcontexts（Vidali&Adams,2007,p.124）.Theycanalsobeanxiousandconfusediftheyperceiveschooltobedifferentfromtheirhomeculturalcontext（Perry,Dockett&Nicholson,2002）.Inbrief,languageorculturaldifferencesbetweenhomeandeducationalsettingscancompoundchildren’sdifficultieswithadjustingtoschool（forexample,Woodsetal.,1999,citedinVidali&Adams,2007）.GaininganinsightintoCALDchildren’sandtheirfamilies’experienceswithtransitiontoschoolmayhelpusprovidebettersupportforchildreninthissituation.

HomeandculturalcontextsofchildrenattendingAustralianschoolsarevaried,withnearly25percentofschoolchildrenrepresentingalanguageotherthanEnglish（Hoddinott,2006）.CALDchildrenandtheirfamilieshaveaddedculturalandlinguisticconcernsandneeds,includingthoserelatedtotransitiontoschool（Sanagavarapu&Perry,2005）.Asschoolchildrenbecomemorediverse,educatorsneedtodeviseindividualisedandculturallyandlinguisticallyappropriatetransitionprogramsforpromotingacademicsuccessinallstudents.Tothisend,itisbelievedthatthisstudyonBangladeshichildren’stransitiontoschool,aselectedCALDgroup,providesvaluableinsightsintoCALDchildren’sandtheirfamilies’experienceswithtransitiontoschool.

Attendanceinformalchildcaresettings,suchaslongdaycareorpreschool,isbelievedtopreparechildrenadequatelyforschoolbyprovidingthemwithknowledgerelatingtodiscourses,rulesandexpectationsinschoolcontexts（Brooker,2002;Brooker,2008）.Theimportanceofchildcareattendanceinchildren’stransitiontoschoolisalsodocumentedintheliteratureontransitiontoschool（forexample,Kreider,2002）.Forthisreason,IwasinterestedinexploringthetransitionalexperiencesandadjustmentsofBangladeshichildrenandtheirfamilieswhoattendedformalcaresettingsbeforestartingschool.Thefocusinthisstudyonunderstandingparents’perceptionsofchildren’stransitionstoschoolisjustified,asparentstendtoinfluencechildren’sattitudestoschoolandtheirtransitions（Vidali&Adams,2007）.

Bengali-speakingBangladeshifamiliesandtheirchildrenlivinginthesuburbsofSydney,Australia,wereselectedforthisstudy.BengaliisoneofthelanguagesspokeninIndiaandtheIndiansub-continent,suchasBangladesh.Bengali-speakingfamiliesareanewlyemergingminoritygroup,with0.2percentofpopulationinNewSouthWales（NSW）representingpeopleofBangladeshidescent（CommunityRelationsCommissionforaMulticulturalNSW,2006）.TheculturalorlanguageneedsofthisgroupoffamiliesandtheirchildreninrelationtotransitiontoschoolhavenotbeenextensivelystudiedinAustralia（Sanagavarapu&Perry,2005）.

Thespecificquestionsthatwereaddressedintheresearchwere:

1.WhataretheviewsofBangladeshiparentsontheirchildren’sadjustmentstobeginningschool?

Specifically,whatfactorsdotheyperceivehavecontributedtoorhinderedtheirchildren’sadjustmentstoschool?

2.WhatdoBangladeshiparentsbelieveistheroleofadultstakeholders（forexampel,parents,schoolteachers,andeducatorsinformalcaresettings）inchildren’stransitiontoschool?

ThispaperreportsonthedataobtainedfrominterviewswithBangladeshiparentsontheirchildren’sexperiencesandadjustmentstobeginningschool.Giventheimportanceofincludingchildren’svoicesinstudiesonschooltransition（forexample,Dockett&Perry,2004）,thisstudyalsoattemptedtocollectchildren’sperspectivesoftransitiontoschool.However,thedatacollectedonchildren’stransitionalexperienceswaslimited.Hence,thedatafromchildrenwasnotconsideredforanalysis.

Methodology

Thestudyutilisedaphenomenological（qualitative）approach,withafocusonexploringparents’experiencesandperspectivesoftheirchildren’stransitiontoschool（Cohen,Manion&Morrison,2000;Gay,Mills&Airasian,2009）.Interviewswithparentswereusedasthemaindatacollectionmethodforthisstudy.Thebenefitofinterviewsistheyenabletheresearchertogetaninsightintoparticipants’personalviewsandexperiencesonanychosentopic（Cohenetal.,2000;Freebody,2003;Willis,2008）.

Sampledescription

Thesampleforthisstudycomprised10Bangladeshiparents.AlloftheirchildrenwereborninSydney,Australia,andattendedformalchildcaresettingsbeforestartingschool.Thechildren’sageatthetimeofstartingschoolrangedbetweenfour-and-a-halftosixyears.Sevenmothersandthreefathersparticipatedintheinterviews.ThemajorityoftheselectedparentshadbeenlivinginSydneyaspermanentresidentsformorethanfiveyears.

Bangladeshiparentsandtheirchildrenwererecruitedinthestudyusingpurposiveand‘snowball’（word-of-mouth）samplingtechniques（Cohenetal.,2000）.ThefamilieswererecruitedinitiallythroughaselectedMigrantResourceCentre（MRC—inNSW,MRCsofferadvice,supportandreferralservicesrelatingtoeducation,employmentandsoontoCALDandallcommunitymembersinlocalgovernmentareas）.TheywerethenusedassourcestoidentifyotherBangladeshifamilies.

Datacollectionandanalysis

Letterssolicitingvoluntaryparticipationoffamiliesinthestudyandinterviews,alongwithtranslatedinformationabouttheprojectandconsentforms,weremailedtofamiliesthroughtheselectedMRC.Arrangementsforparentintervie