“My friends are there”: constructions of schooling of children of Filipino immigrants in South Australia

Abstract

This article provides insights into children’s perspectives on schooling experiences following immigration. Albeit focusing on a small cohort of children, the theory and methodology in the article could well be applied to children of immigrants from other cultures. In exploring the primary school experiences of children of Filipino immigrants in South Australia, symbolic interactionism as frame of analysis and in-depth interviews as research method have been utilised. This study shows that children constructed perspectives on the school environment, academic work and interaction with peers and teachers. Symbolic interactionism asserts that children defined their situations, took perspectives and adjusted their behaviour in line with that of others. This paper argues that children’s perspectives were informed by socialisation to prior schooling in the Philippines and interaction with family, peers and teachers. This prior schooling experience, likewise, informed the children’s construction of primary schooling in South Australia.