Exploring Inequalities: Racism and Bullying Impacting Indigenous Australian Youths in the Education System

Introduction

For many years, education has been considered the most critical factor influencing the quality of life throughout the world. Most Western nations consider education as the best tool for correcting inequalities. However, within this same education system, there are still numerous lifelong inequalities that still exist. For instance, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia are believed to have suffered inequality for a long time. These groups of people are at greater risk of mental health complications, lower unemployment levels, dismissive physical health, and higher contact with the justice department.

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Even with the knowledge of the risks these indigenous Australians face, both selected academic perspectives and the popular media are encouraged to promote different resistance levels. They are also required to acknowledge the exact impact of these inequalities while at the same time ignoring the problem of racism. Racism is among the factors that have significantly attacked Indigenous Australians' identity and, at the same time, perpetuated inequality. In the past decade, research has been conducted to help determine the impact of racism and bullying on indigenous Australian youths and children. Both international and national studies confirm the negative effects interpersonal stresses could have on the education and the social and emotional well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Despite this, however, there is limited research that seeks a solution to bullying and racism among indigenous Australian students. This paper discusses the impact of bullying and racialism on indigenous Australian youths and children.

Racism

From the numerous studies conducted within the past decade, it is evident that there are many negative impacts of racism and discrimination. These researches have shown that the increase in socioeconomic disadvantage has a close association with racism and discrimination. According to Rigby and Johnson (2016), racism and favoritism can lower a person's sense of a good life. Other impacts of racism and biases include: increasing stress levels, reducing the sense of collective and individual esteem, increased cases of suicides, and physiological ill-health.

The early research that explored racism and discrimination from the perspective of Aboriginals was limited by overemphasis on the policy context and macro-orientated social justice. As Moreton-Robinson et al. (2012) stated, these early studies did little to assess the direct impacts of discrimination and racism on Aboriginal people's collective and individual well-being.

Additionally, early research focused more on people's attitudes who could hold discrimination and prejudices against Aboriginal people. A good example of this early study would be the work presented by Jordan (1984). In his research, Jordan (1984) identified seventeen dimensions that were potential descriptors of different groups of people. In this study, 289 non-Aboriginal students were asked to judge whether Aboriginal people were positive or negative (e.g., Trustworthy or untrustworthy) on any dimension. Of the seventeen traits, thirteen of them were considered to be more appropriate when they were considered in a negative context. The features included; aggressive, unreliable, drinking too much, and not maintaining employment. In his conclusion, Jordan (1984) states that his findings proved the blatant prejudiced attitude that non-Aboriginal Australians hold against Aboriginal people.

Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2012) conducted a study on the state, emotional, and social health of Aboriginal teenagers in Western Australia and discovered racism was greatly related to an increase in health risk behaviors. These behaviors included alcohol consumption, the use of marijuana, and cigarette smoking.

Furthermore, Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2016) found racism and discrimination towards young Aboriginal individuals to closely relate to increased suicidal thoughts and report clinical behavioral or emotional difficulties. According to Sullivan (2005), cross-generational discrimination and racism have significantly affected Aboriginal youth and children. It has been observed that Aboriginal teenagers are at a higher risk of developing clinical behavioral and emotional difficulties, especially if they were brought up by guardians who were removed from their homes forcibly while still young.

Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2012) state a high likelihood for Aboriginal carers who experienced discrimination and racism to report the sickness of their children. This illness would often be independent of various background variables such as age, time spent on breastfeeding, child's sex, and the time spent on daycare. Thomson et al. (2010) echo this by identifying many other direct effects of racism and discrimination on Aboriginal children around Victoria. Other than just experiencing racism and discrimination, it has also been discovered that such experiences were also associated with poor mental health, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and increases in depression.

Most of the recent research indicates that the impact of racism and discrimination is only limited to the mental and physical health career aspirations and schooling of Aboriginal students. According to Moreton-Robinson et al. (2012), Aboriginal students are more likely to fear and endure hardship in teacher, peer, and employment relationships due to discrimination and racism.

Sullivan (2005) adds by stating how Aboriginal students are usually forced to contend with high subtle to cover racism expressed in stereotypical misconceptions and unfair expectations. These findings sensitize the identification of racism and discrimination as the greatest barriers for Aboriginal students to attain their life goals and school aspirations. There has also been an emergence of quantitative findings that illustrate the impact of racism on students' educational outcomes. The discovery of Thomson et al. (2010) demonstrated how as Aboriginal high school students continued expressing an increase in racism levels, their performance in mathematics and spelling tests was greatly affected.

The general finding from various research works indicates that the impact of racism and discrimination on Aboriginal youths is substantive, and significant, and extends across social, physical, and health outcomes. It has been discovered that racism also impacts the socioeconomic and educational outcome of an individual, and these effects might be well extended across other generations. From this research, it is clear that racism ought to be taken as a serious matter. Both national and international studies have shown racism and discrimination have differential effects across different cultural groups. Therefore, it is crucial to take care while trying to fit racism within the frameworks of Western models.

Bullying

Many national and international pieces of research have been done focusing on bullying. These studies have aimed to help determine the impact of bullying among peers in schools and beyond. Like the experiences of racism and discrimination, bullying negatively affects the education, physical, and mental state of a school-going Aboriginal. Most of the existing literature illustrates a quite devastating picture of children who are forced to endure the stress of bullying while in school. A study done by Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2016) suggests that most bullying experiences are associated with greater levels of suicide and depression.

Moreton-Robinson et al. (2012) explain how bullying in school and beyond might increase anxiety while reducing educational performance. Moreover, bullying is also associated with absenteeism, long and short-term impairment of interpersonal relations, and self-perceptions. According to Bennett (2014), the school bullying rate in Australia has generally remained consistent, while the public and academic attention focused on bullying has increased.

Despite the common knowledge of the negative impacts of bullying on children and youths, Bennett (2014) states that there are still some controversies in defining it and how it can be measured and conceptualized. Arguably, Carlson and Frazer (2018) present the most cited definition of bullying by suggesting it to be an interpersonal stressor made up of recurring negative behavior resulting from an imbalance of power relations.

While this definition has drawn some criticism as Wilks, and Wilson (2015) state, numerous study works have chosen to adopt this general definition and even expand it by conceptualizing behaviors that are bullying-oriented in three different frameworks. The three frameworks include; verbal, social, and physical bullying. Within the Australian framework, Moodie et al. (2019) suggest that strong findings have emerged concerning the psychometric validity of the three-factor model of bullying. That has occurred through individuals who have been targeted for bullying as well as the bystanders and perpetrators.

As more findings emerge to describe how bullying impacts Aboriginal Australian students, recent national research has focused on indigenous groups of people. The study conducted by Moodie et al. (2019) found that a larger number of Aboriginal students have, in one way or another experienced bullying while in school. These experiences are related to an increased risk of marijuana use and cigarette smoking. Moreover, the experience of bullying is also said to increase the level of sadness and anger among Aboriginal students. Wilks and Wilson (2015) research investigated the prevalence, impact, and nature of bullying. Furthermore, this study attempted to determine how bullying impacts Aboriginal youths and children. In this study, 128 youths were interviewed, and they all reported that there were incidents of bullying in their school. Forty percent of those who were talked to either experienced or witnessed incidents of bullying daily. Although verbal and physical bullying is the most reported, there is also some social bullying. Bullying has been linked to a general sense of fear, high absenteeism rates, low academic achievement, increased suicidal thoughts, and behavioral problems.

A distinct finding is that Aboriginal students were the highest victims of bullying. Lloyd et al. (2015) explain this finding as possible internalized racism where students have had to be punished for not being Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal enough. These findings relate to larger community and family issues, the cross-general impact of conflict and bullying becomes more apparent, like a historical, social, and economic disadvantage. In other words, although there is an observable overlap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal-focused bullying studies, there were also several discerning differences, especially with issues outside a schooling environment.

Challenges faced in the education system

There is no double that racism and bullying exist in Australian schools. Common direct racism in school is incidents through discrimination, abuse, and harassment. Racism is manifested through culturally biased practices and prejudiced attitudes. The Australian education system's challenge is that incidents of racism and bullying are rarely addressed or acknowledged by teachers and other people in authority. It appears as though those who have not experienced racism themselves would either not recognize it or they might dismiss it as trivial. Additionally, the challenge of racism and bullying in school is that they are never considered the potential for damages.