Introduction Australian society is always changing, and with it, primary school classrooms are swiftly filling up with more and more culturally diverse students. Diversity in the classroom is expanding, so providing educators with the correct information, knowledge and strategies are essential in achieving cultural inclusiveness and acceptance, ultimately providing all students with a positive and successful curricula experience. This electronic resource was created for primary school educators to evoke awareness, identify, and to explain the negative impacts upon multicultural students suffering from implications caused by cultural diversity. Several points are emphasised regarding how cultural diversity impacts the curriculum experience
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“We are one, but we are many and from all the lands on earth we come”, are famous song lyrics from the song I am Australia, which encourages diversity acceptance by inviting people to affirm, along with the many, their national Australian identity (Lawrence, Brooker, and Goodnow, 2012, P. 74). The cultural diversity of Australia’s population is on the rise. In 2015, the Australian bureau of statistics (2016) confirmed Australia’s cultural stance by identifying that an estimated 28 per cent of Australia’s occupants were born overseas. Collectively these 6.4 million residents settled in Australia migrating from more than 200 countries, speaking a variety of 300 languages (Burridge, 2009, Para. 1). In a country that prides itself on diversity, it can come as a surprise that issues relating to inclusiveness and the idealistic views of ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’ still cause many disadvantages to cultural minorities (Ewing, 2013, P. 75). Lawrence et al (2012, P. 75) are supporting allegations of cultural discrimination and exclusion by stating that issues of diversity directly affect 28 percent of Australians born overseas and a further 16 percent, consisting of the children of parents who migrated. These statistics not only show how culturally diverse as a country Australia is, they also clarify that although multicultural society, in general, may not be all that culturally inclusive or accepting. It is due to the number of students who identify as belonging to foreign cultures that the educational environments are one of the most distinct factions within society for reflecting upon and highlighting the ethnic and cultural diversity of our population. Ultimately establishing the classroom as the perfect scenario for students to enact the knowledge gathered virtual schoolbags in relation to cultural diversity and the issues that can cause for example discrimination,
“We are one, but we are many and from all the lands on earth we come”, are famous song lyrics from the song I am Australia, which encourages diversity acceptance by inviting people to affirm, along with the many, their national Australian identity (Lawrence, Brooker, and Goodnow, 2012, P. 74). The cultural diversity of Australia’s population is on the rise. In 2015, the Australian bureau of statistics (2016) confirmed Australia’s cultural stance by identifying that an estimated 28 per cent of Australia’s occupants were born overseas. Collectively these 6.4 million residents settled in Australia migrating from more than 200 countries, speaking a variety of 300 languages (Burridge, 2009, Para. 1). In a country that prides itself on diversity, it can come as a surprise that issues relating to inclusiveness and the idealistic views of ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’ still cause many disadvantages to cultural minorities (Ewing, 2013, P. 75). Lawrence et al (2012, P. 75) are supporting allegations of cultural discrimination and exclusion by stating that issues of diversity directly affect 28 percent of Australians born overseas and a further 16 percent, consisting of the children of parents who migrated. These statistics not only show how culturally diverse as a country Australia is, they also clarify that although multicultural society, in general, may not be all that culturally inclusive or accepting. It is due to the number of students who identify as belonging to foreign cultures that the educational environments are one of the most distinct factions within society for reflecting upon and highlighting the ethnic and cultural diversity of our population. Ultimately establishing the classroom as the perfect scenario for students to enact the knowledge gathered virtual schoolbags in relation to cultural diversity and the issues that can cause for example discrimination,