Cultural recognition in the classroom

No-one involved in tertiary education over the past few decades would have failed to have noticed the dramatic and multifaceted transformations of the circumstances in which we teach. The trends towards privatization and commodification of education have been well documented, but equally significant is the transformation of the student body that has been brought about by intersecting global social, cultural and political developments. In Australia, the postwar immigration program, the expansion of tertiary education, and the globalization of education have combined to present us with classrooms comprised of ever larger numbers of students, many of whom are second-generation migrants and/or first-generation tertiary students. [Introduction]