Dealing with diversity: Three Australian primary school responses

Monitoring responses to diversity in educational institutions is worthwhile. Careful study of policies and practices offers important insights into policies and practices which have the capacity to promote progressive change in educational practice.

This paper focuses on three differently located Australian primary schools: Graytown, a medium-sized inner city school in New South Wales; Mungar, a medium to large suburban school in Brisbane, Queensland; and Meiki, a small, rural school in New South Wales. Each school is located in a working-class area and has a culturally diverse clientele. The schools' responses to social and cultural diversity are contrasted and analysed in terms of their capacity to contribute to socially just outcomes from schooling.