Migrant Girls in Australian Schools: Voicing Their Mathematics Learning Experiences

In Australia, since the 1970s, policies regarding gender equality and multiculturalism had important but limited impact on education. This paper focuses on the schooling experience of girls from Non-English-Speaking Backgrounds (NESB) in different school years, particularly when learning Mathematics. The study identified how the girls relied on peers or previous experiences to navigate the learning space with little school support, despite national and state policies. This research also indicated the importance of considering the girls standpoint and the intersection of gender and multiculturalism when designing and implementing policies, (Reitman 2005, Fraser 2010) explained however that women in minority cultural groups require the accomplishment of fundamental points in both the feminist and multicultural agendas and the consideration for the specific intersection of these agendas in order to achieve social justice.