A Multicultural Approach to Learning

Department of Education and Training

Background information

Students of Pacific Island background were either born in the pacific island or their parents were originally from the islands. Migrants from the Pacific regions are mainly from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands. There are also a few from Nine, Tokelau, Tahiti and Tuvalu. It is also important to acknowledge that within this group there are generally two main categories: students who migrate directly from the island and those who are born overseas. Since language learning is greatly influence by the social and in general physical environment of the learner, the distinction mentioned in the context of their background should be be kept in mind.

Pacific Island student is not only a fast growing group in the NESB student population, but their share of the problems in relation to learning justify granting them special attention. While they are capable for succeeding in comparison to any group of students, the available statistics have shown that these students are struggling in their academic career. This short article is an attempt to give a much more reliable profile and highlight the cultural factors that need to be considered by the teaching staff and parents alike in any attempt to assist students of pacific island background. However, some of the issues raised, approach and views taken in this analysis can be applied to student group of other cultural background.

Language

Breaking the language barrier is still the mainstay of cross-cultural educational approach. In regards to language, it is crucial to note that Pacific island cultures are oral cultures; their history and traditions are handed down orally from generation to generation. Although the development of written form of these languages are not more than 2OO years old, the oral tendency is still very strong. In learning a second language these students would naturally response better to oral exercises rather than the written ones. Thus the discrepancies between their oral and written skills in literacy needs closer attention. Pacific island students who are New Zealand or Australian born are likely to show this type of discrepancies more than those who migrated

directly from the islands. overseas born pactfic island students may have oral skills and a natural feel for English (language) induced by their dominant environment. Their skills in their native language depends on a number of factors: exposure to it in formal education, its usage in the home, religions, educational background of parents and whether they are bilingual. However, student will maintain their oral skill much longer but in time tend to lose the ability to read and write.

As mentioned before, pacific island students that have started education or have spend at least three years in Australia, their knowledge of English is much more balanced because of its dominant place in school and the wider community. Their feel for the language is becomeing more natural. Further on in their academic career, if their oral skills is not well support by rigorous literacy program, some discrepancies between their knowledge of english and native language will be easily identified.

The first language debate in the communities: Which language is the student's first language? have caused so much confusion when the main issue which is 'learning'is confused with the community's cultural sentiment. The question is not that hard to answer if the determinant is their current physical and social environment, not what we believed it to be. The issue is not the language we aspire to but language in the context of our social environment. The community debate on the subject is marred by an emotional bend of conservatism in many communities which lead to further confusion. However, the fact remains, that if they are treated as bilingual, they have to have a good knowledge of or master one language in order to learn another well. If the confusion regarding the direction of their bilingualism ( English --> Ton-Sam etc. or Ton- Sam-etc --->Eng) is not resolved, it will drastically affect their language development.

There is also a different time frame associated with each bilingual-direction. If English is treated as their first language, they are far more advantaged by the resources available as well as their surroundings for its study. The student can choose to study another language later on in their educational career, and that can be the place of origin language . If a native language is treated as the first language and the study of English evolves in the student's knowledge of that language then there are two issues to consider: Firstly, the first language can only be effectively utilised if the teacher is bilingual in that language, if not, the students only rely on their own knowledge to make the corresponding comparison between the two languages. If as in countless occasions, the student understanding of the first language is limited to its oral form, then to proceed to the written form in the second language will be much more difficult for both teacher and student to assess the value of the native language to acquisition the second one.

It is a different issue, if the object is bilingualism, for the interrelation between the two or more languages is assumed to be in par. What should be pointed out at this stage is that raising children bilingually is not an easy task. LenoreArnberg in her book (Arnberg 1987) gives a simple and straightforward account of the process and the problem to prepare parents if they wish to persue a bilingual program for their children.

However, there seems to be a strong correlation between language profeciency and academic performances. of the 2.676 NESB students in the secondary support class, 7O.O% were enrolled at the intensive English centres. (Bulletin Report, ISSN lO3O-O4O5)

Social environment

Socially, Pacific Island cultures operate on a broader social kinship model based on the extended family system. In that context, the emotional network that children grow up in is much broader than what is normally the case in westernised countries. Children of these communities grew up trusting a broader spectrum of family and community members than what is considered safe in most industrilized countries like Australia. In that sense, pacific island students are far more emotionally sensitive and trusting than what their macho image would allow one to believe. They do things according to how they feel about them and the way that their family and wider community valued certain activity.

The emotional orientation of a Pacific Islander is an outward one, toward his family, village and lastly his country. This socialised peer pressure becomes the pacific islanders traditional support system. To do things simply for ones own self interest and satisfaction is the lowest act and this is quite common in other cultures. But in the diverse Australian society the values of self- reliance and independence are encouraged as the norm. The students, in interacting with the mainstream trend, have gained enough experience of these values and have seeked independence using different means to weaken their traditional support value-system viz. family and community, leaving their teenage peer environment dominant. This phase of student social transition involved huge confusion and that is when they are vulnerable to the negative elements of their new environment.

Without the pressure of their traditional support system they are more vulnerable to peer pressure than their counterpart. To think objectively without any subjective bend is a new skill to be learned but until then, their feelings greatly influenced their judgement. If the abundance of distracting elements and the complexity of their new environment is taken into account, it is much harder for these students to fixed a goal and follow a set procedures to achieve it. It is not that they do not want to, it is a skill that needs re-enforcement because of their cultural background.

The economic factor

In case of Pacific Islanders, it would be interesting to note some of these factors and lookout for their consequences. However, we are not dealing with an unskilled or low literacy group of people but with a highly skilled and motivated group. The issue is "appropriateness"; whether their experience and skill is appropriate and can be utilized in their new environment. If certain experince and background are relevant and applicable; What are they? If they need to aquire new ones; What are they? and How they are to be achieved?

However, the reality of their situation in a much more complicated society, there are few facts to be acknowledged: most pactfic island families can be classified at the lower margin of the low income category. Demographic information shows a low level of skilled migrants emigrating from the pacific islands.

It is typical in these families for both parents to work and still stays at the marginal range of the low income category.

Since most island economies rely heavily on remittances from their oversee communities it indicates that a major portion of the family income is diverted away from the family needs. although most families identified educational opportunities as the main motive for migrating, the allocation of resources does not indicate this ambitions.

The ritualistic character or cultural practices is most obvious in religious activities. Certain ways of conducting religious activities which was suitable in the island setting and lifestyle are costly in a more complicated social setting in terms of resources such as time and money. In certain cases, scarce resources are being diverted away from the essential needs of families toward unrealistic projects and expectations. But the fact of the matter is that, the transition is from less to a more physically complicated environment and from a more homogenous to a culturally diverse society. These guarantee that the process of migratory-transition is from the beginning an uphill struggle for most migrant communities and individual families.

It should also be acknowledged that Australia in the context of its resettlement program has done and achieved more than most countries through different forms of welfare and employment programs. It has also advanced further in the equity front with legislative changes through its multicultural and reconciliation policies in all areas of social development. The object then is to enhance the progress along the path that has been established for the purpose of achieving a diverse and socially cohesive society.

Cultures

The PacificIslands are inhabited in most part by the Polynesian race to the north and southwest and the melanesian to the southeast. Physically their physique match the demand of their seafaring life and environment. The ocean dominated region, oft referred to as Oceania is as culturally diverse as those in any continent. In its socio-politico makeup, from one extreme is the service oriented functional socialist of Samoa to the Absolute Divine Monarchy of Tonga on the other. Socially, it ranges from less to highly stratified. Language wise, it ranges from common to highly stratified such as the three tiered language of Tonga correspond to its social strata and heirachy of power. While their distinctness can be highlighted, their general characteristics of being easygoing and fun-loving people is the image that has captivate foreigners since the age of discovery. But, like any other society, both the Polynesian and the Melanesian have their share of conflicts, savagery and peaceful existence. Their heavily build phisique and physical attitude to work and generally living can be menacing to others. However, the core cultural factors discussed in this section: mentality, maturity and spontaneity from a social perspective, may assist the school community to understand this group of student better.

The most distinctive feature of Pacific island culture is the concept that is build on, the concept of "indirectness". Their way of life is like a form of 'social poetry' with imagery and metaphor everywhere. Any activity is for the actor to tune onto it mentally and once that is done, the mental state harness the physical power to act and the activity becomes spontaneous. They conduct their affairs in a round about way, where one can express huge as small and a feat as an ordinary act; this is still evident in cultural ceremonies where one party is being presented to another. But as small society which function on inter-personal and communal level, privacy is valued highly simply because it is near impossible to be realised. Thus the private domain of life is guarded by the social concept of 'tapu' or sanctity, whether it is physical environment, social in the community sense, or individual in the emotional and physical sense of the term.

A concept of time

I strongly believe that the functional mode that the concept of time played in the development of sciences in different societies and different mode of economic operation have caused cultures to embody time in different ways. It thus seems that the more complex the economy is the more refined, confine, precise and even narrow their conception of time. In the Australian situation there seems to be two distinct mode and ways of time in operation, one is prevalent in the indegeneous and non-english-speaking background cultures and another by the main-stream western oriented culture.

In fact one is the socialised of time which is so fluid and loosely linked and often manifested in sequence with no clear boundary: night, day, sunrise, sunset, dawn, dusk, early morning, afternoon, late afternoon and so on. In this socialised conception, time is seen as important only in term of an activity to be done. Time is then imposed on the quality or the outcome of the activity. In other words time is only sign)ficant in the sense that it is superimpose upon what needs to be done; time is not real, the activity is. In this sense, a waste of time really means a waste of effort not because of the time spend but the expected outcome and quality was not achieved. Time in itself does not mean anything; time is generalised in terms of the activity associated with it.

On the other hand is the mechanical conception and calibration of time embodied by the clock: seconds, minute, hour, micro dimension such as nanosecond and macro dimension such as a lightyear. Time in this sense is seen in a structural form, where in contrast to the former conception, time is seen as the structure we superimpose our social activities. Time in itself is as real as the activity.

It seems that the more commercialised societies operate on the mechanical concept of time as a necessity for transactions, transport and in general trade. It has become an instrument of "activity made easy" tool. They function with a sanctioned degree of predictability. The less commercialised societies still operate on socialised form of time, therefore very flexible. To move from one mode of time-conception to the other is one of the hardest part of adaptation needed when one becomes a migrant in either form of society. Specifically, if one migrates from a less to a more commercialised society and vice versa. The pactfic island migrants falls in this category, transit from a fluid to a rigid time concept. The incompatibility of socialised and the mechanical mode of time is quite obvious in pactfic island students. Thus the social infrastructure although highly functional is so fluid in the way it deals with time.

Taking the different cultural orientation to the concept of time into account and specifically for pactfic island students, there are two things that should be part of their training: organisation and time-management skills. organisation, because of the fluidity and unpredictability of activities at home and generally social environment; time-management drills should be part of their training at the earliest to ensure a more predictable and routine mode of operation. Especially with the latter, the drill method should be applied until the adaptation to the mechanical concept of time becomes habitual. The importance of certain time-factor such as 'deadline' and 'due date' and the implication of missing out on reward and merits has to be emphasized by drill method until it become part of their psyche.

Maturity, is not a matter of age but a state of mind. It is acquiring and understanding of values. One distinctive factor in PacificI Island students is that most of them were brought up in a cultural system which view independence and maturity as a much later development in life than what is normally the case in western type cultures. This kind of mature dependency can easily be carried over to the school environment. In most cases they hesitate do something on their own based on their best judgement without the assurance or even at time implied assurance of someone, that may be a teacher or a friend. At times they appear to be indifferent when they are asked about something simply for fear of possible deluge. Some activity may be a new experience and they do feel secure simply because they have not done it before; in other word they go by their feeling. They enter a new territory and not feeling good about it. If these are taken to be the case then it is much more advantageous for the educational career of these students to say that they need more direct coaching and attention to break them into a learning environment regardless of the year of entry, then what is normally the case in the school system.

Objectivity versus subjectivity

Crucial for the success of these students is the teacher-student relationship. As mentioned before, these students are more trusting than what they seem to be, and much of their performance in subject hinges on their attitude toward the teacher and vice versa.

In the initial encounter with their school environment Pacific island student do not look for teacher or instructor, they seek someone whom they can trust. Their view of teacher is more in line with the idea of a mentor. With this kind of sensitivity and emotional attitude toward learning, the worst thing that can happen to a pactfic islander students is to be taught by a teacher who has no emotional attachment to what he or she does. To teach with a kind of abstract objectivity will victimised these students. A trusting relation between teacher and student should be established at the earliest possible stage of the learning process. once this trust is established, the flow of information between the school, student and parents is much more enhanced.

Since these cultures is much more effective when activities are backup by an emotional urge, the time frame of the effectiveness of this mode of operation is short term. This phenomenon among pactfic islanders can be observed best in artistic performance whether it is dancing, poetry or singing.

There is a general view in the school community that pacific islanders love to sing and dance; the point is, they love to because they feel good about doing it. Singing aroused the individual emotion to participate; at the same time lift the emotional atmosphere of warmth and the artistic dimension and quality of the actively. This aspect of the culture has been effectively exploited by certain institution or I rather say that the exploitation of this aspect of the culture has been institutionalised in religion as well as other institutions for the purpose of fund raising effectively.

The issue is how to utilise this spontaneity for educational purposes. As suggested above, the key lies in their feelings toward such activity; they have to feel good about it in order to do it. It is not the case that they do it first and feel good about it later. This distinction influence their career choice. Teacher may have noticed by now that at year 10 onward, when pactfic island students are confronted with question about the career they want to pursue, it is often answered with a smile and a degree of uncertainty. It is not the case that they are lazy and indecisive. To these students, choosing a career path is related or at best closely associated to the subject they feel comfortable with, the way that it is being taught or one taught by a teacher they can relate to at school.

The learning process: learning style

The way that humans learn or the process of gaining knowledge is still very much a topic of philosophical debate. But the issue is not how the Tongans, Samoan and Fijian or any particular group learn or gain knowledge, but still 'how do humans learn'. Fortunately by convention there is a working knowledge of human process of learning; human learns by way of experience and by conceptualising over his experience. Western civilisation, since the Greeks have adopted conceptual thinking in western philosophy and the development of science have stretched experiential learning to the highest level that mankind have ever experienced before. Pacificislanders as human learn the same way but the process in the development of their civilisation is more a product of experiential learning and deductive logic more than anything else. The way they conceptualise over their experience seems to be limited by their practicality. The fact of the matter is, Cultural groups whether from pactfic islands or elsewhere have no peculiar way of learning or learning style that cannot be accounted for by the conventional theory of learning.

In case of groups with similar background to pactfic islander, a methodology or lesson plan which emphasised the experiential approach to learning, as the basis of their learning orientation is likely to be more effective. Traditionally for these students they will find mathematics and science difficult, but who does not. It does not mean they are impossible at these subject, it is solely depend on the way they are being taught. An approach which is based on an intensive explanation of theories and use the experiment to justify certain conclusion may not be effective with these students. An approach which use experiments and physical occurrences in their environment to establish why we arrive at certain theory will be much more effective.

Necessary skills

one of the most crucial distinction between societies is the differences in degree of commmercialisation.It seems that the more commercialised a society is, the more familiar are its members with the demand for efficiency in resource management including time. Migrants from lesser or not yet commercialised societies have a more loose attitude toward time. Management of resource may not be a problem because the experience of managing resources in the context of abundance-scarcity cycle is part of any society.

Pacific Islanders are known for their easy going attitude toward time. As a major portion of their society still operate at the subsistence level and the pressure of a fully mechanised money economy is a new experience and skills to learn.

Motivation and ambitions

The prevalent view in the school system is that pactfic island students are generally not motivated and ambitious enough in their pursuit of their academic career. But it is a fact that any degree of 'confusion' as well as other mode of mental state can blunt others in the similar category of similar state.

Motivation is borne out of a closely related or linked state or process mental state. It not a simple matter of instruction and acquiring as it is assumed in countless program and thinking on the issue. It invoolve clarity of objective and direction. It involved perseverance and persistence. It involved and assumed certain level of ability and skills. If a child cannot aquire certain level of competency in a cross-section of these factors in their learning process then to expect from them a state of mind which is labelled as being motivated and ambitious is unrealistic and grossly unfair.

Human have operated on a certain degree of a network of the above state of mind in any walks of life irrespective of culture since antiquity. We cannot assume that it is lacking in certain group of people and abundant in others; it is a case of whether a network of different state of mind form an infrastructure to network for the purpose of achieving certain level of operation in human activity and orientation. That is motivation. To be ambitious is simply a matter of human instinctive inclination and the path to it is motivation.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is a catch-phrase in the school community at present. It is generally assumed that if a student is not of the dominant culture then it is more than likely to suffer from low self-esteem without any qualification. The confusion on this issue can be attributed to the fact that there are two distinct aspects to self-esteem;

Feeling good about what one does and Feeling good about oneself are two separate issue even though they may be related in certain cases.

Feeling good about oneself can often be determined by these factors:

• culture and civilisation of country of origin
• family background
• attitude and personality
• Socio-economic status in relation to education and profession
• international status of country of origin

But as mentioned earlier, since the idea of racial superiority has subsided from the mind of social scientist, all cultures can stand their ground in debate about superiority. Together with the currency of nationalism as outcomes of the demise of colonialism there are fewer reason for students to have low self-esteem in this sense. Even with the socio-economic factor, the community is so diverse that it is hard to form a general opinion or to categorise a group as such simply because they fit one or all of these factors.

On the other hand, there is a lot of misconception and accusation of laziness, concentration problems, rudeness, attention getter (now a disorder) or whatever way of describing antilearning behaviour. Pacific Island students seem not to be interested in learning and their academic progress. This is where the second case of self-esteem features, feeling good about what one does, has some bearing on their academic performances. As explained earlier, Pacific island cultures operate on the subjective mode. Their performance is greatly influenced by the way they feel about the activity. In most cases, the efficiency of their performance depends on how they feel at any particular time. They have to feel good about the activity in order to do it effectively. It is not in their custom to do it and then feel good about it afterward. once it is done, it is up to others to appreciate it; it is not culturally appropriate for the performer of the feat to be directly involved in the appreciation. Thus self esteem in the educational sense depends on a number of factors:

• teacher's attitude toward their pacific islanders
• the way teachers feel about teaching in general
• whether there is trust in the student teacher relation
• how genuine is the teacher's concern about the students' progress

But since their experience is dominantly in the emotional mode of operation, they can pick up in no time pretentious behaviours and treat such person with care or avoid totally any contact with the person.

In relation to their schooling, feeling good about a task depends upon different factors: the teacher's attitude toward the student and other aspects of the student- teacher relation. In general, pacific island students are emotionally sensitive and attached to these factors.

The teaching staff may not realise the vulnerability of these students in this respect. Just having them in the classroom with teachers who do not emotionally involved in what they do is the worst case scenario for these group of students. one thing about cultures which activities is still dominates by the subjective mode of operation. They feel their way through the routine of their daily life. That does not mean that they are incapable of treating things objectively; it is only to draw our attention to the fact that if we are looking for a cultural reason of why certain group generally act in a particular way, we may trace it to certain customary mode of activity which dominate the activities in their culture.

Discipline: a cultural perspective

To drill the human psyche to adhere to a certain set of social behaviour which mold a certain culture have been manifested in a variety of ways. one favourable way popular throughout human history until recently is the physical drill of the needed behavious which go hand in hand with physical punishment. The most recent resurgent of human rights and the right of children at all level has outlawed the use of corporal punishment as means of discipline. Especially with the less commercially developed countries, we are still at the cross-road of the parenting generation that grew up in the drill-punishment format caring for a generation born into a totally new conception of discipline. Discipline in the modern era is psychologically drilled minus the corporal punishment.

Institutional perspective school perspective

Discipline is an issue often raised in schools regarding Pacific island students. It seems to be the case that pactfic island student who have discipline plroblem at school generally fall in one of these categories:

(i) his or her behaviour at school is not evident at home

(ii) parents have very low profeciency in english

(iii) parents both work and the student grew up most of the time unsupervised or supervise by others (relatives)

(iv) child literacy level is very low with respect to age and class.

(v) child do not live with parents

There are other factors that may contribute to the child discipline problem, but the few mentioned so far may help to highlight others.

Whatever the discipline problem may be, teachers would find these few pointers helpful in dealing with pacific island students.

- make sure that the parents understand the problem you have experienced with their child.

- that the student understand that his/her behaviour is not acceptable and demonstrate the accepted behavour.

Racism

The issue of Racism to Pacific Island students is of great concern. The majority of the Pacific Islanders have not suffered the abuse of human rights as a result of racial discrimination experienced by some races in the Age of Discovery and Colonisation or post-modern political vicious circle of invasion, conquering, occupation and ruling in other parts of the world . Most of the pactfic islands emerged from colonialism with very limited experience of racism . However, that limited experience does not imply no knowledge of the suffering that other societies have experienced as consequences of racial discrimination. But since migration becomes a phenomenon of the modern era, Pacific island students in entering the school system have at some stage experienced some form of racial discrimination or know about some form of racial abuse. They may have by now experienced some kind of racial stereotyping and social tensions. It is certain that they entered schools with a bias view of their culture or race and the school environment may be used to fortify their beliefs.

Beside their awareness of racial discrimination, most pactfic island students have minimum experience or none at all, in handling any form of direct racism. Coming from a homogeneous society where these form of abuse are uncommon, their reaction are unpredictable, and in most cases a cause for physical violence. Pacific Island cultures have a very accommodating customs of treating strangers to their communities whether it is family or village or to behave as stranger in others. However, since the mode of cultural learning is experiential the student may have spend more time outside the cultural setting (country of origin) to learn these skills.

Although there are policies in place to ensure that school are racially neutral, it would be unrealistic to assume that students are racial-tint free. Student from different ethnic backgrounds are informed enough about their ancestral culture to be bias and sentimental in its favour. The challenge then for the school system is not only to observe the do's and don'ts of policies but also to have in place a program encouraging students to learn more about values which enhanced cultural objectivity, tolerance, awareness and proper reasoning. This cannot be too hard a task to undertake, taking into account different views in regard to any subject is one fundamental principle of democratic societies; same principle but instead of views from a homogenous society we are considering view from people of different cultural background.

The social net that scrutinise any issue is broader and culturally rich. This may call for changes in the curriculum especially in social science and humanity courses, which in a scientific era, are gradually being relegated to low priority dumping ground of inappropriateness in the curriculum.

Violence

One other area of concern with pacific island students is violence. It does not help when they are being stigmatised as such simply because they are very physical with what they do. Pacific Island students, due to the physical demands of their native environment are very physical in most things they do. From a pactfic island perspective, verbal duel or abuse and accusation prolong the conflict, a more physical solution may shorten the conflict and end a prolong confrontation. If the verbal confrontation is imbalanced by language ability a pactfic island student can easily resort to physical violence as countermeasure. At the same time he or she may choose to walk away.

This does not mean that their cultures lack mediating, negotiation and conflict resolution skills, it only highlight the fact that these students do not have the opportunity to learn these skills in the context of their culture. Pacific islands cultures have one of the most elaborate system of mediation and negotiation, but the younger generation especially those who reside overseas lacked any first hand experience of how these skills are exercised in their proper cultural context. It would be a worthwhile community or school project for students to do jointly with elders from their community.

However, these students are further disadvantaged by the failure of most school to clarify to them the activities that are considered violent as defined by the Anti-Violence policy. This neglect alone have victimised a number of pacific island students, where in most cases they cannot understand why a non-contact act like poking your tongue or simple act of pushing in the playground are considered violent. Considering their cultural and physical orientation, these students should be considered a disadvantage group in this respect, and a proper orientation program regarding Anti-Violence policy be implemented in both later primary and early high school years.

Above all that has been discussed so far, Pacific Island students come from a much more strict and restrictive family environment in terms of culture and harsh in the sense that forms of corporal punishment is still the norm in many families. In that respect, knowledge of their legal right and the limit of parental authority is something new and like any other they may test its applicability from time to time; the students may use the school environment as a testing ground for their social independence. The attitude and activities that accompanies this transition stage distracted them from their study.

Taking their cultural and social background in consideration there are two crucial points to note in dealing with pacific island students: Firstly the use of 'scare-tactic' in whatever form does not work with them; Secondly, avoid making any situation confrontational especially infront of the class or friends. Their pride in their cultures and self- esteem which, have for a long time been misconceived as low, is in reality still intact and will disadvantaged them further. on the other hand, once a trusting relationship is established between student and teacher, a pactfic island student is obliged not to do anything to jeopardise that trust, and in most cases compel others to follow. once that trusting relation is there they are an assets to teachers in any classroom.

Case Study: Viliami

I am fifteen and my name is Viliami. I was born in Tonga and did the first three years of primary school there. School was all right and not far from my home. I learned English at school but only during English lessons, and the teacher only spoke English during the lessons. We read books and did spelling tests every day. After the English class we only spoke Tongan.

In June 1986 my family moved to Australia, and after a week I enrolled at a primary school. I enjoyed the school very much because the school had more books and games than the one in Tonga. I also enjoyed watching children's program on television after school.

The uniforms were nice too and I had to wear shoes every day. The only thing I found difficult was that I had to speak English all the time. There were other Tongan kids at school. Some of them spoke English most of the time and some spoke Tongan as well as English. I was put into an ESL class to learn English. It was not much different from what I did in Tonga except that I did not have someone to talk to in Tongan, so I tried to speak English all the time. one thing that helped my learning of the language was that I had a very good friend at school. His parents are from Italy but they have been in Australia for a long time and he speak English very well. He helped me a lot to practice my English and we visited each others home to play and watch television all the time. At the end of the year, I could speak and write English better.

Now I am at high school. My dad is very strict about doing my homework and attending school. I never miss school except when I am sick. Even in my last year in primary school I was not allowed to go with my friends to the shopping centre except when accompanied by one of my parents. I am allowed to go on my own now. Every night I have to finish my schoolwork before I do anything else. Going to school is the most important thing in my family. With school so important, truanting from school never crosses my mind. We attend church on Sunday but sometimes we miss church and attend my rugby league match. I play for the junior rugby league club in our area.

At my high school it is a different story. I go to a boys high school now and there are a number of Tongan students there. My first year at high school was good but most of the Tongan students were not interested in schooling and they truanted a lot. All the time they tried to make me join the Tongan gang at school which ruled the playground. They did not care whether they did well in their studies or not. They would stay at home, roam around at the shopping centre or come to school and do nothing except disturb the class. Most of the Tongan students were not serious with their study but the school tolerated them because they were good football players. Their parents are just as strict as mine so I don't know why they are not punished. I think their parents don't know what is happening at school.

In my second year I started to hang out with these boys after school and that was when I really get into trouble with my dad. I got a belting now and then but I knew that no matter what, my parents would not allow me to leave school early or not to finish year twelve. The peer pressure to do what my friends did was growing stronger as most of them started to leave school as they turned fifteen With most of my friends not attending school, the time I hung out with them affected my study very much. I did not concentrate as much as I should in my school work.

Now I am in Year 1O and I am doing well in Art and all my teachers are encouraging me to pursue a career in graphic design. My parents are so strict that I cannot risk truanting and being belted every time. My father comes round to the school every week and asks all my teachers for a progress report. Either my father or mother attend parent's meeting and interviews every time. My mother has helped our class every year on the school multicultural day festival and everyone of my friends and teachers liked her. My friends have finally realised that my parents are so strict that they have started to be very careful about going around with me because all of us at any time would get a belting from my dad if he finds me with them doing something wrong.

Even when I leave school my parents will still be just as strict with me and will expect me to live at home. They will probably let me bring my girlfriend home but they will probably be strict with her too. That is what Tongan parents are like. You are not allowed to cuddle or kiss, especially in front of the family. Even when I get married they may expect me to stay at home.

Because I am the eldest son I will gradually be expected to take over responsibility for the family if my father is not there. one of my friends already has to take that responsibility all the time because his father had died. Probably I will still be treated as a kid when my father is around until I am sixty ! But I hope to be in charge of my family long before that.