Overseas Program

Shannon Krebs
EDUC-T550
Country Profile
Just recently I have decided that I want to do my student teaching in
Australia. I could not be happier with this choice and I am so excited to go
over there. Unfortunately though, I do not know that much about Australia
and their culture. After doing the reading I feel like I have a much better
understanding of background information about Australia, their school
systems, and also their culture. Throughout these reading I kept thinking how
similar Australia seemed to the United States, which I would not have even
thought before the readings. After doing the readings I am even more excited
to travel to this country and see their school systems first hand and truly
experience their culture.
To start off, I learned a lot of important background information while
doing my research on Australia. I was able to find information on the
government, population demographics, languages spoken, and the culture of
Australia. According to the article, School Dropout and Completion in
Australia, In Australia, as in other federal systems, the states and
territories have constitutional responsibility for school education, (Lamb,
2010, p. 322). This quote shows that Australia has a federal system that is in
charge of education for the students. Since the quote also states that they
have a constitutional responsibility, that means that Australia also has its

own constitution that it follows. Also, in the article, Multiculturalism as

nation-building in Australia, it states, Australians were British white, and/ or
Anglo-Saxon and Christian, (Moran, 2011, p. 2156). The main religions in
Australia then are either Christian or Anglo-Saxon. Australia also has many
other races of people besides just white people with British origins. According
to the same article, Australia took in large numbers of immigrants from
Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Grace, Turkey, and other non-British source
countries in the three decades after the war, (Moran, 2011, p. 2158). Many
immigrants from other countries live in Australia and so do the Native people
to Australia, the Aboriginals. In Australia it is much like here where women
still have some issues with negativity in the work place, but like the United
States that is trying to change. In the article, Babies, Budgets, and
Birthrates, it states, Australian Womens Employment Strategy, passed
antidiscrimination, and affirmative action laws that brought formal equality
between men and women into the social security system, (Brannan, 2007,
p. 32). Gender equality is pushing forward in Australia. Since the British had
Australia as a colony, the main language of it is English. The culture of
Australia is also important to this country. In the article, Events and
Holidays, which is an online article on the Destination 360 website, it
states, The modern culture of Australia combines both European tradition
and Aboriginal legacy, (Events and Holidays, p. 1). The combination of
these two elements makes Australia culturally unique.

Not only is the background information important to Australia, but

Australia has also had many historical events happen. The article, Histories
of Australia, talked about many different events that have happened in
Australias history that have made it the country that it is today. One event
that the article talks about is the depression that hit Australia and the labor
strikes because of it. The article states, The Depression of the 1890s, felt
first as the end of the land boom in Melbourne, spread with drought and
falling wool prices across the country and was capped in 1893 with the
collapse of the financial system, and also from the same page, Labor
bureaus were established, but often forced men to travel up country for work
or as strike breakers, for example against the 700 men locked out of the
Broken Hill mines in 1892, (Belbeck, 1988, p. 26). Australia was involved in
a huge depression, which lead to many strikes and also a lot of financial
difficulty for many citizens. The article also talks about some wars that
Australia was involved in. It discusses how Australia was involved in parts of
the Second World War and also the Korean War (Belbeck, 1988). Even though
these wars did not happen in Australia, Australia still took part in them.
Another historical battle that the Australians took part in was when the first
European settlers first came to Australia and fought the Aboriginals for their
land. According to the article, From the 1970s, historians of Aboriginal
history began to redefine the settlement of Australia as a conquest, and a
bloody one at that, (Belbeck, 1988, p. 41). This quote makes me think of
when the first European settlers came to the United States and took the

Native Americans land. Both of these battles involved the native people of
the country fighting over land with the European settlers. The final piece of
history that this article discussed was about women in Australia. The article
states, Many of these rights came later for Australian than British women,
despite the fact that Australian women were among the first in the world to
gain the right to vote, (Belbeck, 1988, p. 64). This quote suggests that there
were fights for womens rights in Australia and that women were eventually
able to make history and gain equal rights.
Next, Australia has a really rich culture. Three elements of their culture
that are very interesting are their holidays, their sports and their music. The
online article, Events and Holidays, discusses some holidays that Australia
has. Since Australia has a huge Christian base, they celebrate the Christian
holidays, like Christmas and Easter, but they also celebrate the Queens
Birthday on June 8th, Australia day on January 26th, which celebrates the first
British settlement in Australia and they have parades on this day, and they
also celebrate ANZAC on April 25th, which is a day that honors those who
died in war (Events and Holidays). On the Topend Sports Website there is
an article called Most Popular Sports in Australia, which shows the top
ranking sports for this country. The top sports that this country is involved in
is soccer, rugby, cricket, and tennis (Most Popular Sports in Australia). On
the Australian Government website, there is an article called Australian
Music, which discusses popular music in Australia. The article talks about
the indigenous people having their own music, which incorporates

environmental sounds. They also have pop, rock, folk, jazz, indie, rap, punk,
opera, and classical music in Australia (Australian Music). Even though
some aspects of the Australian culture are very different from the United
States culture, it is still interesting to see so many similar cultural elements.
Another important aspect to Australia is its educational system. The
Australian school system has many goals, but one really important one,
according to the Lamb article is that, Australia announced a national target
of a 90% Year 12 (final school year) completion rate to be achieved by the
year 2020, later brought forward to 2015, (Lamb, 2010, p. 321). Australia
wants to get its graduation rates of students graduating high school up.
Another goal of the educational systems is to integrate intercultural and
multicultural education into the educational systems. According to the
article, New Directions in Intercultural Early Education in Australia, (this
education) share goals of equity and social justice in education yet differ in
their emphasis, (Miller, 2013, p. 253). This quote helps emphasize how
important it is to have these types of education integrated in the systems
and the benefits it can have for students. The structure of the school system
is also important. According to the Lamb article, most students will attend
primary school from years one through seven, then they will attend
secondary school from years eight through twelve. Only up to year ten is
mandatory though. From there students can go to universities, go into
tertiary education, or go right to work after year twelve, (Lamb, 2010).
Another important aspect of the Australian school system is that their

curriculum has come to adapt national standardized testing for the students
(Cranston, 2010), which is discussed in the article, Politics and School
Education in Australia. Also, according to the Lamb article, girls completed
school more frequently than boys did in 2008 with having 80.5% completion,
where boys had 68.8% completion (Lamb, 2010). Also, in that same article it
discussed the completion rates of non-Catholic private schools have 93.9%
completion rates, Catholic schools having 78.3% completion rates, and
government schools having 68.3% completion rates (Lamb, 2010).
Something that really stood out to me while I was reading the articles
was the amount of emphasis that was put on bullying in school. In the article,
National Safe Schools Framework, it discusses the actions that Australia is
taking towards bulling in schools. The article discusses that Australia was one
of the first countries to integrate a national bullying policy into their schools,
called the National Safe Schools Framework. Unfortunately though, even
though this policy is in place, some teachers are still not receiving the
training needed to help implement this policy into the schools. Something
else that the article brings up is that funded schools are able to better
implement this framework into their schools (Cross, 2011). I thought that this
was really interesting to see because funding can do so much for a school. If
the other schools are able to get money to help implement this program than
they will be more effective. I really liked this educational system topic
because bullying is discussed all the time in the United States, so it was
interesting to me see similarities between the two school systems.

After looking at some key components of the Australian school system,

it can be seen that there are many similarities and differences between the
educational system in Australia and also the educational system here in the
United States. To start off, the similarities of the educational systems are that
parts of the structural organization of the school systems are similar, the
integration of other races and genders are similar, and the want for parental
involvement in the school systems are similar. From the Lamb article it was
shown that after year twelve students can go off to universities, or they can
go into the work force (Lamb, 2010). This is similar to the educational system
in the United States because after senior year of high school (year twelve),
students can also choose to go to a University, or go into the work force right
after school. Another similarity to the United States school system is that the
Australian school system is putting programs into place to help integrate
bilingual students into the school systems. According to the article, Learning
Difficulties, or Learning English Difficulties, it says, A variety of approaches
to bilingual or multilingual education have been formulated and
implemented, (Clifford, 2013, p. 177). In the United States school systems
there are many bilingual programs, so this is very similar for the educational
systems. Also, in the article, Politics and School Education in Australia, it
says, It was argued that leadership in schools should be distributive and
parents were to be actively involved in decision making, (Cranston, 2010, p.
185). In the United States parent involvement in the school system in huge
and it is interesting that this same idea is also being integrated into the

Australian education system as well. Even though there are many similarities
to the Australian and United States education systems, there are also many
differences. Not only is the organizational structure of the schools in Australia
similar to the organizational set up in the United States, but the structures
are also different. In the Lamb article, it also discussed how primary school
goes all the way to year seven or eight in Australia (Lamb, 2010, p. 324). In
the U.S. secondary school starts in fifth or sixth grade, so there is a few years
difference for when secondary school starts for these two countries. Also, in
the article, Gender, Culture, and Intervention, it discusses how the
Aboriginals are being integrated into the school systems in Australia and how
the Australian government is trying to reduce their disadvantage. The article
states, Framed by national policies to reduce Aboriginal disadvantage, the
development of services and interventions in early childhood is now the
subject of comprehensive joint agreements between Australian and State
and Territory governments, (Robinson, p. 459). Even though in the United
States some schools try to integrate Native American students into schools,
usually the Native American students who still live on the reservations have
their own schools. Here in the United States there is less of a push to
integrate the native students into the school system than there is in
Australia. I think that these differences in the educational systems exist for
many reasons. I think that the primary grade schools go up to year seven or
eight because there are many private schools in Australia and also the
private schools have the highest graduation rates. I am from the Chicago

area and the private primary schools by me also go up to year eight. I

believe that this is part of the program that is incorporated in these schools
and it is working well because of how high the graduation rates are. Also, I
think that Australia tries to incorporate the aboriginals more into their school
systems, instead of having them have most of their own school systems, like
the United States because Australia is much smaller than the United States
and has many less schools. So since they have less schools that could be the
reason why they try to integrate these students more.
After reviewing all of this information and learning about this culture
through these readings, I realized there are so many implications for all that I
learned from the articles for my pre-work for going abroad and also for when
I go abroad. I realized that there are many similarities and differences
between the United States and Australia and not just with their educational
systems. I think that it is comforting to know that Australia is English
speaking and that a lot of their goals of their culture and their school
systems are similar to here. I think that all of that is very comforting because
then I will be able to communicate with the people of Australia and also be
able to share with them the similar goals of the school systems in the United
States. Even though there are some similarities that can help me relate to
this culture, there are also many differences too. Even though this
overwhelms me a little bit, it makes me extremely excited because I cannot
wait to see how another culture functions and I want to learn more about
diversity of people around the world. I think that learning all of this

information will have huge benefits for my time abroad and also preparing
me to go abroad. I think I can use this information that I learned to really get
a good idea about the school systems in Australia. I think that this is the
most important aspect that I could be familiar with because I will be student
teaching in the school system and I have to be able to understand it to get
the most out of my student teaching experience. After doing these readings I
feel like their educational system is not extremely different from ours and
they have so many of the same goals. This makes me feel a lot less nervous
about being too overwhelmed on my first day of school over there. Also, I am
really glad that I was able to learn so many cultural aspects about Australia.
This is true because now I feel like I understand the external aspects of this
culture better and this can help me to understand the interests of my
students when I am in Australia. Also, I am very excited that there is quite a
bit of diversity in Australia because then I will get to learn about other
cultures while I am over there and not just the Australian culture. Even
though these readings really helped me to answer many of the basic
questions that I had concerning my time abroad in this country, I still have
many more questions. I really want to find out how long the school day is in
Australia, if they get really long breaks for every holiday like they get for the
Easter holiday break, and also how different it is going to feel going to school
on different months of the year than I am used to. I could definitely find the
answers to these questions by looking for more articles online, getting in
touch with teachers in Australia, and also just experiencing the different

feelings I have when I go over to Australia. Throughout this year and next
year, until I leave, I will probably have many more questions, but I know that
there will be ways to find the answers and I know the best way to find out
some answers will just be through the experiences that I have when I am
abroad. From these reading I learned that I can apply this knowledge in many
ways when I am overseas. Something that I think would be a really cool idea
would be to compare some cultural traits of Australia to the United States in
a class presentation. This would include the holidays that we celebrate here,
the music that we listen to, and also the sports that we watch the most. This
would give my students a quick over view of explicit United States culture
and it would help them understand the similarities and differences of the two
cultures and understand my background a little better. Also, after doing this
project I could apply the knowledge of what I learned to the way in which I
observe my class in Australia. Knowing this knowledge I will be able to better
pick out traits of the students and the classroom that I read about in the
articles and this will help me to make student profiles, even though this will
be a harder task because of the cultural differences between me and my
students.
After doing this project I have learned so much about Australia. There
is so much for me to still learn, but I feel like I have already gained so much
knowledge. I am even more excited now about going abroad and I cannot
wait to experience the Australian culture first hand.

References
Anthony Moran (2011). Multiculturalism as nation-building in Australia:
Inclusive
national identity and the embrace of diversity, Ethnic and Racial
Studies,
2153-2172.
Australian music | australia.gov.au. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2015,
from
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Belbeck, C. (1988). Histories of Australia. In The stone laurel: Of race, gender

and
class in Australian memorials, 26-64.
Brennan, D. (2007). Babies, Budgets, and Birthrates: Work/Family Policy in
Australia 19962006. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society,
31-57.
Clifford, V., Rhodes, A., & Paxton, G. (2013). Learning difficulties or learning
English
difficulties? Additional language acquisition: An update for
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Cranston, N., Kimber, M., Mulford, B., Reid, A., & Keating, J. (2010). Politics
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Educational Admin Journal of Educational Administration, 182-195.
Cross, D., Epstein, M., Hearn, L., Slee, P., Shaw, T., & Monks, H. (2011).
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Framework: Policy and practice to reduce bullying in Australian schools.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 398-404.
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Lamb, S. (2010). School Dropout and Completion in Australia. School
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Miller, M., & Petriwskyj, A. (2013). New Directions in Intercultural Early
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in Australia. International Journal of Early Childhood IJEC, 251-266.

Most Popular Sports in Australia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2015, from
http://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/popularsport/countries/australia.htm
Robinson, G., Tyler, W., Silburn, S., & Zubrick, S. Gender, Culture and
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