title: The Impact of Sociocultural Factors on the Behaviour, Learning Expectations, and Attitudes to Learning of Australian Primary School Students with Chinese-Born Parents
Creators: name: Wood, Simon
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Program for International Student Assessment
subject: Chinese-born parents
subject: primary age students
subject: social-cultural influences

description: The educational systems of many Asian countries, and in the context of this project China in particular, are widely perceived by governments and their citizens as superior to the Australian educational system. This perception is due in part to the analysis of successive studies undertaken by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA publish performance tables which demonstrate that the performance of students who took the test in China appears higher than that of students who took the test in Australia. Included in the PISA report is a direct comparison of the levels of Mathematics achievement between non-immigrant students and immigrant students who completed the PISA Mathematics test in several countries, including Australia. The PISA comparison of mathematics test results reveals that students in Australian schools who have Chinese-born parents outperform Chinese students studying in China; the analysis would therefore seem to contradict the perception that the educational system of China is superior to the educational system in Australia. Previous research into the specific practices and involvement of Chinese-born parents in Australia is very limited. Research has also been mainly quantitative with many studies relying on mass PISA data or using data from high school students or older. This study makes a key contribution by focusing on primary age students at the earliest stage of their formal education. Using sociocultural theory as a framework, the purpose of this research study was to examine the attitudes and behaviour of Chinese students and their parents in Australia, to test whether these may be responsible in some part for the comparatively high achievement levels of students with Chinese-born parents. By using an exploratory qualitative case study approach, it aimed to provide an understanding of the nature of the possible social-cultural influences. Data were collected by way of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with individual participants, including parents, students, and a specialist tutor of Chinese students. This study also establishes that the families in this study express what might be considered traditional culturally Chinese attitudes and beliefs. As a result of these cultural influences it is perhaps the key finding from this study that even primary school students at the earliest stage of their formal education engage in the types of behaviour, and express attitudes, which have been demonstrated to impact most on student achievement. The findings support the Cultural-Historical Assumption which posits that cultural values and beliefs are responsible for student behaviour and performance. The Policies and Structures Assumption, which suggests that educational systems and education policies are the best explanation for differences in student achievement between countries and regions, is not supported. This is important because the broader implication is that non-Chinese students in Australia can achieve similarly if they and their parents approach learning with the same levels of expectation and engagement as their Chinese counterparts.