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12 December 2012, 5.43pm EST

Are we headed for an educational disaster? Hardly

The recent release of Australia’s performance in the TIMMS (2011) and PIRLS (2011) test results has sparked much media comment about what this means for the quality of Australian education. The focus so far has been on the rankings in maths, science and reading and where Australian students fit on the…

27764xzn-1355293842 — Two new international reports on school performance should be put into perspective. Education image from www.shutterstock.com

The recent release of Australia’s performance in the TIMMS (2011) and PIRLS (2011) test results has sparked much media comment about what this means for the quality of Australian education.

The focus so far has been on the rankings in maths, science and reading and where Australian students fit on the ladder, but this is only part of the story.

Before we make dire predictions about what these rankings mean and what needs changing, some perspective is needed. We need to take a closer look at what these measures can really tell us about our school system – what’s useful data and what’s not.

Apples and oranges

First of all, rankings like these can be problematic if you’re only comparing apples with oranges. There is not much point comparing Australia with countries such as Singapore, Finland, Japan and Korea for example.

All these countries value different things in their education systems and all are also quite mono-cultural in makeup. For some countries, like Korea, these test scores influence educational policy. This has meant that essentially these education systems have grown to support students achieving high test scores.

As a consequence, Korea has had to legislate for a maximum number of hours students can spend in “cram school” – extracurricular schools that focus on tests.

This is the path Australian education has not taken and it shouldn’t. To follow these counties, and allow test results to impact on education policy would be a mistake.

We must remember, that these tests, which focus on content and associated skills that are common across different countries are quite narrow in their focus.

What they can tell us

But these tests can, of course, provide us with some useful information. In the most recent report, rankings have gotten all the attention, but in fact there was other valuable research done about what factors can influence student achievement, like family background.

Rankings, too, can tell us about how our students are faring in these areas, and what we may have emphasised or not since the last series of test.

One thing that has remained consistent in all of these international tests is the low percentage of students achieving at the highest level. These students are important as they not only start to achieve at their potential, but they are also an influential group in bringing the rest of their cohort along with them.

This trend of under-performing high achievers has been evident in the Australian data for some time.

Reading, writing and arithmetic

For the PIRLS reading test, this is the first time Australia has participated, so it’s not very helpful to look at Australia’s ranking. It is the first snapshot of this type that we have.

But this is not the case in Mathematics and Science, where we have participated for some time. The results show that some trends persist in Mathematics and Science. The profile of student achievement in Mathematics has shifted slightly and this may reflect different emphasis on different aspects of the curriculum over time.

In Science, achievement in physical sciences remains less than in Biology, with Earth Science a little more variable.

But once again, the context matters here. The focus on different disciplines in Science does not begin for many Australian students until Year 3. So results for Year 4 students in this study need to be regarded cautiously. Although, it does appear to improve by Year 8.

Bigger picture

The other focus of the report was a study of other factors in student achievement. This vaulable data looks at issues of gender, the resources at home, the resources at school, the background qualifications of teachers (which in Australia is quite high given that teachers must either have a 4 year undergraduate degree or a postgraduate qualification on top of an undergraduate degree), the years experience of teachers, the satisfaction of teachers and so on.

But nowhere is there a report on the quality of teachers as none of these measures can directly account for quality.

Interestingly for the Year 4 teachers in PIRLS testing, those with less than 5 years experience had students who achieved marginally better that any of the more experienced teachers. This is not the case for Science and a different scenario exists again for Mathematics.

Gender difference still exist throughout this data, as does resources at home and at school.

One of the take home messages from these reports is for Australia to unpack what does it indicate about our own students. What lessons can we learn about the highly individual students from very diverse backgrounds that make up our schools.

Such information is far more important than comparing us with countries who have different priorities for the students in their educational systems.

Articles also by This Author

4 September 2012 Gonski and the PM’s education crusade: experts respond

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25 Comments sorted by

Bruno De Villenoisy

logged in via Facebook

The most interesting definition of education I've come across is how a society chooses to reproduce itself. Do we want to be reproduced by numbers, I don't think so.I can't help think this debate about educational ranking is becoming obsolete. Students learn valuable knowledge and skills from the internet, games and other means and this won't show up on these formulaic tests.

6 months ago report
Sue Thomson

logged in via Facebook

I don't disagree with some of what you've written here, but to write off results of these studies as comparing apples with oranges is not correct. Whilst we can look at what some other participating countries do and agree that we don't share the same values, it's a little difficult to dismiss countries such as England, Ireland, Canada and the United States as being oranges to our apples. These countries all performed significantly better than Australia. Similarly, when you talk about monoculturalism…
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I don't disagree with some of what you've written here, but to write off results of these studies as comparing apples with oranges is not correct. Whilst we can look at what some other participating countries do and agree that we don't share the same values, it's a little difficult to dismiss countries such as England, Ireland, Canada and the United States as being oranges to our apples. These countries all performed significantly better than Australia. Similarly, when you talk about monoculturalism, are you implying that we are the only country in the world that has such a mix of students int he classroom? Surely not.

While the underperformance of our high achieving students is, of course, a problem, I think the performance of those at the other end is a more pressing problem, and one that needs an amount of courage to address that is not being seen at the moment. There are real problems in many schools. One of them is the proportion of teachers who say that they are not confident teaching particular areas or topics, and another is the number of teachers, particularly in mathematics, who are not trained in that area.

6 months ago report
Chris Gillham

Journalist

This article sounds similar to the excuses I've heard in other media coverage of the disastrous international test results ... "it's the parents' fault" and "it's because we don't pay teachers enough".

I'm 52 and have been sub-editing newspapers and magazines since my teens. I'm at the coalface of Australia's literacy crisis, so to speak, because I have to correct it just about every day to make a living.

Examples I've seen trickle and then flood out of our education system over the past few…
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This article sounds similar to the excuses I've heard in other media coverage of the disastrous international test results ... "it's the parents' fault" and "it's because we don't pay teachers enough".

I'm 52 and have been sub-editing newspapers and magazines since my teens. I'm at the coalface of Australia's literacy crisis, so to speak, because I have to correct it just about every day to make a living.

Examples I've seen trickle and then flood out of our education system over the past few decades include widespread confusion over the words "however" and "but", and with compound words such as "for ever" instead of "forever". Punctuation seems to be based on the premise that if it feels right, chuck a comma in.

Well over 20 years ago I was freelance commissioned to script a documentary for Channel 7 on the state of schools in Western Australia. Several months of research revealed a clear teaching failure that occupied almost 25 minutes of the script ... our English teachers can't read and write.

I'm exaggerating but not much.

The documentary wasn't produced because it barely touched on juvenile crime, sex, etc, and didn't fit the dumb-down theme of Australian commercial television.

At about the same time in 1991, as it turns out, the Australian Journal of Teacher Education published a paper by respected educator Owen Watts from Curtin University titled "Who Is Teaching our Children to Spell? The Literacy Crisis in Teacher Education", containing observations such as:

"This paper argues that if the teachers who are expected to teach such a syllabus themselves have a degree of competence below that required, the problem of literacy at all levels can be expected to worsen. It is also suggested that only by directly teaching the functional skills and the content of language can the problem be overcome. It is time, it is argued, that content take precedence over process and that creative writing be seen as useful only after the functional language skills have been thoroughly inculcated."

That was a generation ago. Since then, school graduates have become English teachers and the problem is compounding as the last of the literates retire.

In 1991, was it the parents' fault or are we still waiting for teachers to be paid enough? They had a huge pay rise in WA last year and it's interesting reading the views of a journalist who covered that salary campaign ... http://www.scribeworks.com.au/imgs/west-teachers-jul28-2011.jpg. By the way, most parents nowadays have poor English skills because they're a product of the teaching failure identified in 1991.

I've joked to myself over the years that nobody read the Owen paper because nobody in Australia can read. See http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1153&context=ajte if you're up to the challenge.

I've also watched year by year as increasingly common mistakes litter the text I have to sub-edit and as poor reading and writing weaken research skills in many industries including the media. Poor literacy is largely to blame for that dumb-down theme I mentioned earlier.

For example, I nowadays expect to find sentences such as "One of the take home messages from these reports is for Australia to unpack what does it indicate about our own students.", try to understand what the hell it means, and wonder how it survived both writing and proofing before publication.

Several studies in recent years have identified the problem: poor teacher subject knowledge rather than poor teaching skills.

Similar to Owen, I've long advocated a cure whereby English teachers (preferably all teachers) throughout Australia are subject to a high-level English examination. If they fail, they should do it again. If necessary, give them full pay for their time off work required to learn correct English. Only give them their pay rise when they've proved they're experts at what they teach.

Without good literacy that encourages reading and further learning, students will always struggle to understand other subjects and will carry a career and life burden no matter their other talents. If everybody is happy for their children to suffer that fate, then keep ignoring the problem.

Well over 60% of Australians are semi-literate, according to the ABS. We have English teachers and journalists who do not understand or enjoy reading and writing. We have a problem.

6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

"and all are also quite mono-cultural in makeup"

Well clearly declining average education levels are a social cost of high immigration levels due to reduction in average english profficiency, with all the flow on education impacts that this causes.

Clearly lower average emglish pfofficiency then imposes and economic cost on us in having to provide more education resources to compensate for this. And let us remember that our former mining boom is receding along with the revenue windfall that the current federal labour government was counting on.

This has to be considered carefully when setting immigration policy across the board, INCLUDING what we do about illegal boat arrivals.

6 months ago report
Comment removed by moderator.
Ranmalee Mendis

-

Interesting response to Australia's performance. However I would like to point out that Singapore is not mono-cultural in its make up. On the contrary, it has major ethnic groups comprising the Chinese, Malays, Indians, Peranakans and Eurasians. Most students grow up bilingual from an early age.

6 months ago report
Charles Driver

logged in via email @gmail.com

If you're going to base your claims / thoughts on a notion that the test in question is not a useful, broadly applicable indicator of knowledge and competence across different areas, it would be good to know why. Testing can be done well without needing to be tailored to specific contexts...

6 months ago report
Michael Leonard Furtado

Doctor at University of Queensland

Interesting argument, Deborah, with which I substantially agree from the standpoint that testing does very little other than to reconcile participants to their international ranking. A few determined teachers and the infusion of more resources in some schools will probably on current evidence not make as much of a difference compared with the shift testing generates towards a reproductive 'back-to-basics' curriculum with the loss of much else that is of value, especially in employing a varied pedagogy…
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Interesting argument, Deborah, with which I substantially agree from the standpoint that testing does very little other than to reconcile participants to their international ranking. A few determined teachers and the infusion of more resources in some schools will probably on current evidence not make as much of a difference compared with the shift testing generates towards a reproductive 'back-to-basics' curriculum with the loss of much else that is of value, especially in employing a varied pedagogy and more authentic assessment practices.

As to your point about comparability, I think that in such a compressed article you are probably right. South Korea, in particular, has an educational regime, demographic and monoculture that is very different from our own. Nor indeed should we be especially emulating their hot-house practices on ethical grounds, which, in my view, are in any case not transferable to Australia.

While some other polities do demonstrate a cultural diversity similar to our own, their superior ranking relates precisely to the high value they attach to literacy aspects of their cultural diversity, which clearly show that second and home languages enhance a capacity to gain fluency and performativity in English, as Joe Lo Bianco's well-regarded research consistently shows.

Indeed, as a non-Native-English-speaking migrant I can assure both Chris Gilham and Greg Boyles that the quality and standard of my written and spoken English is consistently more variegated and expressive than - and arguably superior to - that of most native-born Australians.

6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

"I can assure both Chris Gilham and Greg Boyles that the quality and standard of my written and spoken English is consistently more variegated and expressive than - and arguably superior to - that of most native-born Australians."

Even if you do say so yourself Michael.....

I don't doubt there are some developing world migrants whose english profficiency is as good or better than native speakers.

But nor do I doubt that there is also great many developing world migrants whose english profficiency is far from equal to native speakers. And nor do I doubt that this lack of english proficiency effects their education outcomes and therfore the average education outcomes of the nation as revealed in this test.

6 months ago report
Michael Leonard Furtado

Doctor at University of Queensland

Nothing in Professor Corrigan's original piece, nor for that matter in the Report, alludes to the negative impact of teaching children from a Non-English-speaking background.

Indeed, and to iterate, Lo Bianco's research demonstrates that that the quality of teaching and curriculum offerings are the key determinants of not just successful outcomes in literacy performativity but also results that are consistently better than for native-Australian English speakers without a second language…
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Nothing in Professor Corrigan's original piece, nor for that matter in the Report, alludes to the negative impact of teaching children from a Non-English-speaking background.

Indeed, and to iterate, Lo Bianco's research demonstrates that that the quality of teaching and curriculum offerings are the key determinants of not just successful outcomes in literacy performativity but also results that are consistently better than for native-Australian English speakers without a second language.

It follows that we are on a hiding to nowhere in imposing this unproductive and deeply demoralising (for children) faux testing regime. Granted we shouldn't exclude nor indeed escape entirely from a tests agenda, in my view the pendulum has swung too far that way, and, consequently, it shows up in the results somewhat dismally, given that our expectation should be that test-prepared students perform well in exams and our's dont even manage to do that.

Conversely, well-educated children with good teachers and adequate resources perform highly successfully in tests when they are exposed to the kind of rich tasks that employ all sorts of pedagogies and assessment practices.

As an unfortunate aside, and while loathe, for reasons of common courtesy, to take you on, Mr Boyles, your persistence in raising yet again the red herring of migrants and refugees, impels me to draw attention to both of your posts, and, in particular, this howler:

"But nor do I doubt that there is also great many developing world migrants whose english profficiency is far from equal to native speakers." Chris Gillham should have a field day in pointing out the most basic breaches of the rules of English grammar and spelling in that one!

6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

Michael regardless of what is in or what is not in Corrigan's original piece the fact remains that it is harder for english speaking teachers to teach students who do not have a good grasp of the english language.

Therefore regardless of what is in or what is not in Corrigan's original piece the fact remains that the increased number of less than perfect english speaking pupils must have SOME effect on average education out comes.

Perhaps some one should specifically address this issue and gauge exactly what effects they ARE having on education outcomes and if education resources need to be specifically targeted at this area.

6 months ago report
Michael Leonard Furtado

Doctor at University of Queensland

Dear Greg

(And sorry to digress from your article, Deborah).

The research that you recommend has already been done. The acknowledged scholar in the field is Joseph Lo Bianco, who is professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne. Lo Bianco is also the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

There are several others of equal eminence in the field, who contribute to a complexity of other strands that comprise the overall field of literacy studies…
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Dear Greg

(And sorry to digress from your article, Deborah).

The research that you recommend has already been done. The acknowledged scholar in the field is Joseph Lo Bianco, who is professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne. Lo Bianco is also the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

There are several others of equal eminence in the field, who contribute to a complexity of other strands that comprise the overall field of literacy studies. However, you will not find them in ardent disagreement with Lo Bianco's findings.

The definitive text, available to be read on the net, is 'Second Languages and Australian Schooling' (by Lo Bianco, with Slaughter, ACER, 2009).

http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/AER_54-SecondLanguagesAndAustralianSchooling.pdf

In this e-book, Lo Bianco shows how second languages are essential to the preservation, improvement and spread of English literacy, and how, conversely, English literacy levels fall if a teacher's focus is purely on functionality and ignores issues of culture, context, exchange, understanding and social justice.

Naturally, English, like any other language, has set rules of grammar, syntax, etc. However, a high standard in English literacy cannot be equated with a capacity to parse a sentence, conjugate a verb or inflect a declension.

There are people who can do this and still not be functionally and culturally literate. Literacy is derived from immersion, which means one cannot progress it in a monocultural environment. The data also shows that people with high English literacy are invariably highly literate in other languages.

It also points to the fact that when resources are properly invested in making the most of the various cultural factors that constitute a multicultural society, very high literacy standards obtain.

It follows that where second languages are not taught and second language speakers' needs not included within the broader scope of the curriculum, English literacy standards fall, as they have consistently done since the emphasis on the functional at the expense of the multicultural set in about a decade ago as a result of government policy.

Thus, your implicit criticism of the expense to which governments are put to teach migrants and asylum seekers how to speak English is in fact reductionistic and conceptually flawed. Sure, it costs money. However, those who bring a second language to our shores actually add social capital to our understanding and fluency, not simply of second languages, but also to our improved use of English.

As with much else in life, Greg, the human must take precedence over the economic or we will be reduced to machines...cyphers, if you like, or, as you refer to Tim Flannery's overused term elsewhere, mere 'consumers'.

Ironically, the move away from multiculturalism was originally construed as a means of reasserting the primacy of English, not simply as Australia's first language but also of recognising its global supremacy. The pendulum, it was said, had swung too far in the 'multicultural direction'!

Unfortunately the denigration of second languages, instead of recognising them as assisting in keeping alive the high standard of English literacy, has resulted in the precise opposite.

And, as you and some others might see, the issue of falling literacy standards is a political one, but not one that migrants and asylum-seekers are to blame for (since English literacy is a requirement for settlement in Australia), but in fact the reverse. Our attitude to people who are different from us is far too narrow and damaging in the long term, as much to our levels of literacy as to our economy.

Cordially,
Michael

6 months ago report
1. Greg Boyles
  
  Lanscaper and former medical scientist
  
  In reply to Michael Leonard Furtado
  
  Puting it bluntly Michael, this sounds like academic bull$hit to me.
  
  This would suggest then that the Chinese and Japanese, with their relative lack of ethnic, cultural and language diversity, are backward, illiterate and poorly educated people who have difficulty comprehending their own language!
  
  Clearly not the case!
  
  6 months ago report
Michael Leonard Furtado

Doctor at University of Queensland

Japan's literacy rates are approximately the same as Australia's (on average 99%). However its Burakhumin or Indigenous literacy rates lag behind, as our's do. There are complex reasons for these 'within-differences' to do with social exclusion.

China's literacy rates lag well behind Australia's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

"China's literacy rates lag well behind Australia's."

That has nothing what so ever to do with the levels of multiculturalism or multilingualism in China. That has to do with the education system alone and income levels.

I would be interested in hearing what real scientists would say about the papers like this that seem to me stretech credibility.

6 months ago report
1. Michael Leonard Furtado
  
  Doctor at University of Queensland
  
  In reply to Greg Boyles
  
  Mr Boyles, the issue at stake is, regrettably, your limited understanding and use of the English language. The Conversation record show that you chose more than once to try to argue a case for altering the dictionary definition of 'zenophobia', which is clearly a case in point. And there are numerous other gaffes of yours that litter these pages and which are an embarrassment for me to point out.
  
  All advanced societies, especially those at the top of the test results table in question, have, without…
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  Mr Boyles, the issue at stake is, regrettably, your limited understanding and use of the English language. The Conversation record show that you chose more than once to try to argue a case for altering the dictionary definition of 'zenophobia', which is clearly a case in point. And there are numerous other gaffes of yours that litter these pages and which are an embarrassment for me to point out.
  
  All advanced societies, especially those at the top of the test results table in question, have, without much exception, considerably culturally diverse populations, proving that their advancement and, indeed, their wealth, has been built on policies of non-discriminatory immigration. Indeed, an argument could be made from the figures for increasing Australia's migration intake to help raise our standard of living. In fact, this view is one of the major planks for our current economic policy.
  
  Japan is the only exception to this rule (as China's population is considerably ethnically diverse, contrary to your assertion). There are particular reasons for this, including many centuries of Japanese geographical and cultural isolation, the almost unitary nature of Japanese culture and the strong emphasis on docility and obedience that Japanese culture has tended to promote, resulting eventually in a disastrous imperialist war waged by a fascist regime and many centuries of aristocratic and therefore anti-democratic rule.
  
  Nevertheless, Japanese people emigrate from Japan in quite large numbers, principally to the US and Peru, where they become model citizens in what are undeniably muticultural societies.
  
  You also consistently choose to lump refugee figures, which are statistically neglible, in with immigration figures, but I have equally consistently shown that these are a nonsense and part of the false correlations that you thrive on making. In fact, your arguments bring to mind those of Sir Cyril Osborne, the late Conservative MP for Louth in Buckinghamshire, England, who regularly correlated Britain's immigration figures with the health statistics for numbers of UK leprosy sufferers!
  
  You are, I'm afraid, a charlatan masquerading as a righter of academic wrongs! When cornered you affect to be a scientist, though I have yet to read of one prepared to leap to your defense,
  
  You even chose to invoke the illuminating arguments of Tim Flannery to support your anti-immigration standpoint. In fact, his book, 'Future Eaters', shows him up to be an anti-racist of quite compelling proportions and his arguments couched, not at building a Fortress Australia, but a sustainable world.
  
  6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

Also regrettably Michael Leonard Furtado, a proportion of you academics are full of your own importance and like to complicate and confuse issues that would otherwise be fairly straightforward, presumably to justify your own academic positions and increase their perceived importance!

And regarding the definition of xenophobia, it is you pal who are attempting to re-interpret the literal definition of this term to suit your own political agenda.

Most definitions, in dictionaries and most internet…
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Also regrettably Michael Leonard Furtado, a proportion of you academics are full of your own importance and like to complicate and confuse issues that would otherwise be fairly straightforward, presumably to justify your own academic positions and increase their perceived importance!

And regarding the definition of xenophobia, it is you pal who are attempting to re-interpret the literal definition of this term to suit your own political agenda.

Most definitions, in dictionaries and most internet sources, state the definition of xenophobia is the fear of strangers or outsiders. But never the less 'strangers and outsiders' do not automatically imply people from other countries.

Life and human behaviour is not black and white Michael and the xenophobia is not exclusively directed at other nationalities.

And when we look beyond your superficial politics to the neurophysiological origins of xenophobia, there is NO difference between a Collingwood supporter loathing and Carlton supporter, one New Guinea tribe loathing another New Guinea tribe, a Rural resident loathing a city resident or an Ausy loathing a whinging Pom or a Sri Lankan illegal immigrant demanding our charity.

6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

I have no doubt that being able to speak another language is a great skill if you wish to be able to interact fully with another culture and conduct business etc. And I have no doubt that it fosters understanding and cooperation between nations.

But what I find self evidently rediculous is that speaking a foreign language is necessary for an english speaking Australian to fully understand the english language and be able to interact fully with other Australians.

I don't speak any other languages Michael. Are you having trouble interacting with me in discussing our political differences? Perhaps apart from my bad habit of not checking for typos properly which seems to distract you at times.

6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

The economic sciences are well known, in physical science circles, for ignoring the fact that the economy is contained within a finite global ecosystem when they formulate their economic therories.

I reckon than the social sciences are suffering from a similar problem in ignoring neurophysiology and human biology, while focusing on superficial human politics, in formulating their social theories.

I think both these sciences, which are relatively recent when compared to the physical sciences, still have some way to go in acheiving the same discipline and methodologies that the physical sciences have developed over the millennia.

There has been more than one example in here where social 'scientists' of one flabour or another seem to be 'out there' when it comes to their 'theories'.

6 months ago report
1. Michael Leonard Furtado
  
  Doctor at University of Queensland
  
  In reply to Greg Boyles
  
  To reply to your several posts, Mr Boyles:
  
  My first point refers to the etymology of xenophobia, which is commonly defined as 'fear of the foreign'. My second point addresses your speculation that it is of entirely neurophysiological origin (which I do not dispute) but suggesting that it cannot be cured (which, as an ethicist and an educator, I do). My third point offers more suitable scope for you to test out your ideas, without risk of being regarded as a troll.
  
  1. Dictionary definitions…
  Read more
  
  To reply to your several posts, Mr Boyles:
  
  My first point refers to the etymology of xenophobia, which is commonly defined as 'fear of the foreign'. My second point addresses your speculation that it is of entirely neurophysiological origin (which I do not dispute) but suggesting that it cannot be cured (which, as an ethicist and an educator, I do). My third point offers more suitable scope for you to test out your ideas, without risk of being regarded as a troll.
  
  1. Dictionary definitions of xenophobia:
  
  Xenophobia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Xenophobia is a dislike or fear of people from other countries or of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia
  
  Xenophobia | Define Xenophobia at Dictionary.com
  noun: an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange. Origin: 1900–05
  dictionary.reference.com/browse/xenophobia
  
  Xenophobia in South Africa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.....
  After being housed in temporary places of safety (including police stations and community halls) for three weeks, those who fled the violence were moved into specially established temporary camps.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia_in_South_Africa
  
  xenophobia - definition of xenophobia by the Free Online Dictionary
  xen·o·phobe (z n-f b, z n-) n. A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples. xen o·pho bi·a n.
  www.thefreedictionary.com/xenophobia
  
  Xenophobia - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
  fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign
  www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xenophobia
  
  More results from merriam-webster.com »
  Xenophobia - definition of Xenophobia in the Medical dictionary -
  xenophobia /xeno·pho·bia/ (-fo´be-ah) irrational fear of strangers. xen·o·pho·bi·a (z n-f b-, z n-) n. Fear and contempt of strangers or foreign peoples.
  medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Zenophobia
  
  Xenophobia | Easy to understand definition of xenophobia by Your Dictionary
  An example of someone with xenophobia is a person who is fearful or hateful of recent immigrants.
  www.yourdictionary.com/xenophobia
  
  More results from yourdictionary.com »
  Xenophobia: Racism, xenophobia and human rights at The Medical Dictionary
  Xenophobia: Racism, xenophobia and human rights.
  the-medical-dictionary.com/xenophobia_article_2.htm
  
  xenophobia - Wiktionary
  A fear of strangers or foreigners. · A strong antipathy or aversion to strangers or foreigners.
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xenophobia
  
  Xenophobia | Medindia
  The dictionary definition of Xenophobia is an unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different. “Xenophobia can manifest itself in several ways in a country - victimization by police, brutal assaults, murders, ethnic cleansing in an area, mass expulsion from the country” (Navarette, 2008). Could xenophobia have a biological significance and be programmed within our genes? Neurobiologists often see this as an evolving behavior for ‘self preservation.’ For example a newborn baby has no fear of strangers whereas as it grows it starts diffentiating between strange faces and familiar faces. This fear of strangers is the early instinct of xenophobia. The reflex in the infant is seen as a natural instinct and the loud cry is seen as an alarm to attract the attention of parents and initiate a rescue. Similarly, toddlers show an intrinsic and automatic fear of snakes. Assistant professor in social psychology at Michigan State University, Carlos David Navarrete famously researched "the psychology of prejudice" by studying the nexus between race and gender discrimination. He focused on the neurophysiological and behavioral correlates of xenophobia. Dr. Navarrete used mild shocks to induce fear in men and women (both black and white) of other black and white men and women. In essence, white men were conditioned to be fearful of black men, white men, black women, and white women. The same went for the others. Once conditioned, he studied to see which of these fears lasted and which didn''t. The conclusions of this study, reported in Psychological Science, were both intriguing and unexpected. It''s commonly understood that our fears are of people different from us; what psychologists call the "out-groups". And this fear of "the other" is clearly demonstrated with race. But the results emerging from Dr. Navarrete''s study surprisingly revealed that racial fear is also gender-specific. The persistent fears in the study's volunteers were reserved for men of the out-group alone. So white men and women feared black men; and black men and women feared white men. Conditioned fear for women diminished quite quickly. Additionally, Navarrete found that people with close relationships outside their own race had less persistent fears than did those with little interracial experience.
  Xenophobia can be studied from two different perspectives. First, as a medical condition (a ‘phobia’ like all others) whose underlying causes need to be addressed. Secondly, and more importantly, as a cultural and social malaise that has moth-eaten the concept of a utopian world. Here, both outlooks are examined and suggestions have been offered with regard to appropriate treatment options for the medical ailment while also studying possible cultural solutions to widespread xenophobic sentiments.
  http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/xenophobia.htm
  
  2. Your rubbishing of the social and economic sciences betrays your misunderstanding of what constitutes epistemology or several ways of researching complex phenomena. Even Navarette, who is a psychologist, admits to xenophobia being a 'social and cultural malaise'. Your insistence that the physical sciences provide the only insights and, evidently, solutions, betrays your poor understanding of empiricism (or evidence).
  This blog offers several academic and scholarly strands, one of which is devoted to neurophysiology and especially the promotion of the study of evolutionary biology as a means of finding a solution to many of the world's problems. While I find the discipline somewhat deterministic and dismissive of free will, the discourse is fascinating and sometimes persuasively informative. Why dont you test out some of your ideas on this site? My own cleave towards those who discuss ethics as a means of influencing human behaviour and, because this is my pure disciplinary area, I usually reserve my posts to applications of that field.
  
  3. It being the season of goodwill, my sense is that you would benefit by testing some of your ideas out in a research environment in which time and space allow. Since you are such an ardent participant and evidently have a great deal of time to devote to your ideas, my suggestion is that your seek out a postgraduate university environment in which to do this, perhaps through exploration of the potential for you to 'do' a research degree, or even as a participant within a multidisciplinary research seminar context.
  
  6 months ago report
Greg Boyles

Lanscaper and former medical scientist

Michael all your definitions list stranger or strange AS WELL as foreign or foreigner.

Strange or stranger IS NOT the same thing as foreign or foreigner.

Therefore it is perfectly legitimate to describe the tension between Collingwood supporters and Carlton supporters, between small rural town folks and a new city resident and between New Guinea highland tribes as xenophobia.

Even though your political biases mean you prefer not to use the term xenophobia in these contexts.

6 months ago report
1. Greg Boyles
  
  Lanscaper and former medical scientist
  
  In reply to Greg Boyles
  
  strangers OR foreigners
  
  fear of people from other countries or of that which is perceived to be FOREIGN OR STRANGE
  
  . A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of STRANGERS OR FOREIGN peoples
  
  for·eign/ˈfɔr ɪn, ˈfɒr-/ Show Spelled [fawr-in, for-] Show IPA
  adjective
  1. of, pertaining to, or derived from another country or nation; not native: foreign cars.
  2. of or pertaining to contact or dealings with other countries; connected with foreign affairs…
  Read more
  
  strangers OR foreigners
  
  fear of people from other countries or of that which is perceived to be FOREIGN OR STRANGE
  
  . A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of STRANGERS OR FOREIGN peoples
  
  for·eign/ˈfɔr ɪn, ˈfɒr-/ Show Spelled [fawr-in, for-] Show IPA
  adjective
  1. of, pertaining to, or derived from another country or nation; not native: foreign cars.
  2. of or pertaining to contact or dealings with other countries; connected with foreign affairs.
  3. external to one's own country or nation: a foreign country.
  4. carried on abroad, or with other countries: foreign trade.
  5. BELONGING TO OR COMING FROM ANOTHER DISTRICT, PROVINCE, etc.
  
  DIFFERENT DISTRICT OR PROVINCE e.g. QLD versus VIC, rural versus city, one tribe versus another tribe and by extension Collingwood supporter versus carlton supporter (which might be viewed as modern tribes)
  
  So again Michael I point out to you that it is your political biases that are clouding your judgement as to what 'xeonophobia' can be applied to.
  
  6 months ago report
Michael Leonard Furtado

Doctor at University of Queensland

I profusely apologise to Deborah Corrigan for ill-advisedly and inadvertently colluding with Greg Boyles in his successful attempt to drive the issue of global standardised school testing off these columns.

I wish further to conceed that he is a brilliant strategist, preventing at one and the same time The Conversation's readership from considering the complexity of the various 'takes' on the topic, including David Zyngier's passionate plea to use the issue to highlight the failure of Gonski in…
Read more

I profusely apologise to Deborah Corrigan for ill-advisedly and inadvertently colluding with Greg Boyles in his successful attempt to drive the issue of global standardised school testing off these columns.

I wish further to conceed that he is a brilliant strategist, preventing at one and the same time The Conversation's readership from considering the complexity of the various 'takes' on the topic, including David Zyngier's passionate plea to use the issue to highlight the failure of Gonski in trying to remedy the school-funding and resourcing situation in regard to state schools, while managing to cloud Deborah's own take and therefore her prominent disagreement with her faculty colleague on this matter. To fell one literacy giant with his post, without inviting a riposte, is a considerable achievement; to mow down two is surely an act of genius.

Meanwhile, I have written separately to Oxford University to press (pardon the pun) the claims of Mr Boyles to a change in the meaning of the word 'xenophobia' to raise it to the level of including the rivalry, usually reserved to sporting occasions between Aussies and Brits, between ourselves and Mr Boyles's charming term, 'Whingeing Poms'. I expect them to respond in due course, expressing their appreciation for Mr Boyles's suave and Frenchified contribution to the new etymology, with an agreement to add it to the OUP's lexicographical explanation surrounding the term.

In similar vein, would Collingwood supporters be also advised that the extreme passion they arouse doesn't relate to footie-fever but to xenophobia, according to Mr Boyles, who has taken it upon himself to report the matter to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. I myself have formally registered a not-for-profit Society for the Protection of Collingwood Supporters from Xenophobic Attacks' with Mr Boyles as its Patron. (Membership, $100 per annum, with all proceeds to go to the 'Greg Boyles is Undoubtedly Right' Campaign).

Greg, you have surely outdone yourself in proving, if nothing else, that we are hardly heading for an educational disaster, especially in the field of literacy. Oops, sorry; weren't you trying to prove the opposite and holding Sri Lankan refugees, rather than yourself, to blame? I'm confused and hereby willingly withdraw from the fray. Happy Christmas!

6 months ago report
1. Greg Boyles
  
  Lanscaper and former medical scientist
  
  In reply to Michael Leonard Furtado
  
  Michael I could say much the same thing about you. You have displayed a high level of academic arrogance on this in totally ignoring my valid point about the definition of xenophobia in that it always states foreign OR strange and strange DOES NOT necessarily mean foreign.
  
  And the defintion of foreign that I provided DOES NOT exclusively mean 'from another country'. It could also mean from another province or district. Which again you arrogantly ignored.
  
  And if you are so adamant that xenophobia exclusively means fear of people from another country then I suggest you level your criticisms at Proff Tim Flannery. Because he uses xenophobia to describe the tension between tribes in the New Guinea highlands in his book The Future Eaters.
  
  Are you prepared to say in public that Tim Flannery is a fool Michael? Because according to you he is making the same folly as me!
  
  6 months ago report
2. Greg Boyles
  
  Lanscaper and former medical scientist
  
  In reply to Michael Leonard Furtado
  
  Personally I think you are getting rather confused between xenophobia and racism!
  
  6 months ago report

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