Essay: Legal And Ethical Considerations In Diversity And Discrimination In Australia.

1. Explain how cultural features of diversity in Australia can impact on different areas of work in an early childhood educational context. What should the service environment reflect from each child?
2. How can changes in Australian society positively impact the Australian community, and the diverse communities within Australia? What are the benefits to diverse communities?
3. Identify/List the relevant international, national, state/territory and local laws which apply when workers discriminate against a person on the basis of their age.
4. Which Commonwealth Act is relevant regarding specific legal and ethical considerations regarding disability discrimination when working with diversity? List the six (6) areas this particular Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against .
5. Explain the legal and ethical considerations of racial discrimination when working with diversity.
6. Explain legal and ethical considerations of sex discrimination when working with diversity.
7. Describe what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is. What is an example of a breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? How could you respond to a breach of human rights?
8. What are some of the basic human needs? If a person is denied these, are their human rights being violated?
9. Outline what frameworks are used in the children’s services sector to guide appropriate diversity practices.
10. Explain how each of the protective factors enable socially excluded people to gain power and equality. Protective factors – resilience, social support and connectedness, sense of control, self esteem and positive coping strategies.
11. Outline the mental and emotional health care needs of marginalised groups.
12. Explain the impacts of discrimination, trauma, exclusion and negative attitudes against people in marginalised groups.
13. Provide examples of issues that may cause communication misunderstandings or other difficulties across diverse groups within an early childhood setting. Consider families with diverse backgrounds – what types of issues may arise from communication misunderstandings?
14. Explain impacts on social and cultural diversity where difficulties and or misunderstandings occur across diverse groups.
15. Explain how sensitivity when resolving differences is incorporated taking into account diversity considerations across diverse groups. As an Educator, how would you approach a conflict situation with a family member?
16. Describe why a complaint from a parent should be handled according to the service’s complaints procedure.

Question number 1

Explain how cultural features of diversity in Australia can impact on different areas of work in an early childhood educational context. What should the service environment reflect from each child?

Working with diverse people is a not an easy task to do. People need to acquire effective mode of communication in order communicate their messages to different people. Health and social care organizations have to work with diverse people and have to deal with their diverse needs (Crosson-Tower, 2017, p.11). Communication is what others understand. It is also done by the method and medium of communication, but what the communicator is trying to say (Smith et al. 2017, p.299). Children with special need and care come to the access the services of the health and social care organization in order to get better life and future.

Care workers should understand the principles of health and social care services while communicating with families of the children with special need and care.  They should practice controlled emotional involvement and purposeful expression of feeling in order to deal with the problems of the families.

The care facility should help the care workers to acquire appropriate communication method while dealing with the problems diverse people in health and social care settings. The care workers should observe to learn appropriate intervention strategies, non-verbal communication technique and suitable hand gestures in order to enhance the communication skill.

How can changes in Australian society positively impact the Australian community, and the diverse communities within Australia? What are the benefits to diverse communities?

Being a multicultural nation, it is vital for the Australian society to maintain a balance between all the communities. They should change their policy and practice on- discriminatory policy. They should change the legislation in such a way that benefits all the community living in the contextual country. The change in the legislation and acceptance of the society helps the diverse community to feel accepted (Garg et al. 2017, p.228).

Diversity in a community permits the evolution of variation and richness which in turn boosts improvement and modernisation in terms of innovation. This modernisation further helps the community to improve access to jobs, attain economic growth, creating traditionally vivacious and diverse communities (Council, 2017, p.28). Moreover, it is also helpful in the prevention of cultural stagnation. Children who are exposed to ethnic and economic diversity in the early stage of their life are more prepared for the multicultural world which in turn helps them to the academic expansion and level of cultural awareness (Crosson Tower, 2017, p.76).

Identify/List the relevant international, national, state/territory and local laws which apply when workers discriminate against a person on the basis of their age.

The key legislation that prevents discrimination on the basis of age is Age Discrimination Act 2004. Apart from the above stated legislation, there are also a number of pieces of legislation both national as well as international which prevents discriminations on the basis of age (Littlefield et al. 2017, p.293). Those legislations are Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, Disability Discrimination Act 1992, Racial Discrimination Act 1975, Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Garg et al. 2017, p.228). Moreover, Children’s Rights is important International Laws that safeguard the child rights which again prevents discrimination on the basis age. Any sorts of discrimination are detrimental for the foundation of a multicultural nation. Hence, discrimination in education, employment, access to premises, providing of services, goods and facilities as well as accommodation, disposal of land, administration of Commonwealth programs and laws, and requests for information is prevented by the above stated legislation (Moss, 2017, p.41).

Question number 2

Which Commonwealth Act is relevant regarding specific legal and ethical considerations regarding disability discrimination when working with diversity? List the six (6) areas this particular Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against.

Disability Discrimination Act 1992 is contextual Commonwealth Act that is relevant regarding specific legal and ethical considerations regarding disability discrimination when working with diversity (Gregg, 2017, p.87). In accordance with the  Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA), it is illegal to differentiate a person on the basis of disability. It is seen that people are discriminated on the basis of their disability in many areas of civic life, comprising the (1) education, (2) employment, (3) renting or buying a house or unit, (4) getting or using services,(5) sports and (6) accessing public places (Manning, 2017, p.23). The above stated law ensure that no people are discriminated just for their disability. Thereafter, the Federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (D.D.A.) ensures the interest of the citizen who is suffering from any sorts of disability and make their life smooth (Malcolm Carey et al. 2017, p.48).

Explain the legal and ethical considerations of racial discrimination when working with diversity.

The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 which comes into effect after International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is contextual acts that prevent any sorts of discrimination on basis of race, colour or national or ethnic origin (Sharp et al. 2017, p.19). This law promotes equality among the people and any sorts of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, race or ethnic origin. Each person on the earth has the right to be treated fairly irrespective of the caste, creed, race and ethnic origin. Hence, it is both illegal and unethical to discriminate people on the basis of the above criteria (Gregg, 2017, p.445).

Explain legal and ethical considerations of sex discrimination when working with diversity.

It is unfortunate but true that on the eve of a new age; people still discriminate people on the basis of sexuality. On this note, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 comes into effect under the Convention on the removal of any sorts of discrimination against females and certain aspects of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 156 (Moss, 2017, p.41). The major purposes of the above stated law are to encourage equivalence between women and men; to eradicate discrimination on the basis of marital status or pregnancy, sex and regarding dismissals, family responsibilities (Manning, 2017, p.23). It is also determined to abolish sexual harassment in educational institutions, at work. Finally, it ensures the provision of goods and services as well as accommodation and the delivery of Commonwealth programs to all the people living in the contextual nation (Moss, 2017, p.41).

Describe what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is. What is an example of a breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? How could you respond to a breach of human rights?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights is done in the year of 1948, just after the World War II and several traumatic events, by the representatives of the 50 member states of the United Nations. This statutory body comprises of 50 member states of the United Nations create a list of the rights everyone around the world should enjoy irrespective of caste, creed, race and ethnical origin (Malcolm Carey et al. 2017, p.48). There is total 30 article stated in the contextual legislation which is made for safe guarding the interest of common people around the globe. If any person prevents another person from enjoying those basic rights it is treated as a breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the case of breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is vital to draw the attention of the contextual body and take the right action to mend that (Manning, 2017, p.23).

Question number 3

What are some of the basic human needs? If a person is denied these, are their human rights being violated?

Some of the basic human needs are physiological needs, safety needs and a sense of belongingness. The physiological needs comprise food, shelter and fresh air. On the other hand, the safety needs include financial security, personal security, health and well-being, net safety against illness or accidents as well as their adverse impacts. It is also important to be mentioned here that if these basic human needs are denied, the development of the concerned human society as well as the nation halts which is not at all desirable from the holistic point of view. Furthermore, these denials also create a discontent which further creates unrest among society. This unrest can lead to a situation that provokes war (Moss, 2017, p.41). Hence, for the growth of the human society, it is important to fulfil basic human needs.

Outline what frameworks are used in the children’s services sector to guide appropriate diversity practices.

Australian children deserve a well knitted, happy and healthy childhood. Therefore national policy makers and non-government agencies need to build a framework for non-profit child development programs for supporting and proving an ideal and healthy childhood to the children from each part of the community. Australian child protection service system has been developed for the identification of the services needed for a healthy childhood. Therefore universal preventive initiative has been taken for the support of all families and children. The non-profit organisations and Australian child protection service need to identify the vulnerable families and children for providing the early prevention services (Smith et al. 2017, p.299). There is a great need to identify the at-risk families and evaluate the socioeconomic position for the determination of services needed for their children and therefore a targeted services and programs need to be implemented for these families as a part of the child service in Australia. Hence all these statutory systems and service framework will serve the purpose of child services and programs in Australia.

Explain how each of the protective factors enables socially excluded people to gain power and equality. Protective factors – resilience, social support and connectedness, sense of control, self-esteem and positive coping strategies.

Social exclusion in Australian communities is cumulative in nature, therefore the long term disadvantages have been acquired from different life stages of these people. Hence these people due to the accumulated disadvantages have a high possibility of social exclusion. Therefore many non-profit organisations and government agencies have been analysing the disadvantages acquired by the people of Australian community which may induce social exclusion as a consequence (Cavanagh et al. 2017, p.362). Another important factor for social exclusion is persistence, therefore, resilience is an important factor for socially excluded people to gain power and equality in the society. Higher education and income, social security would be an important component for socially connecting people. Awareness among the socially excluded people about their right and social position would increase the change for gaining power and equality in the community.

Question number 4

Outline the mental and emotional health care needs of marginalised groups.

From the various surveys, it has been observed that thirteen per cent of adults in Australian community have been staying extreme of the country and they have been considered as marginalised group. This socially marginalised group has been staying in disadvantageous and unhealthy circumstances which could be defined as social, economic and health disadvantages (Garg et al. 2017, p.228). Therefore, people have been marginalised might experience a greater chance of developing an ill-metal condition which therefore the main hinder for accessing services. Various studies have been revealed that there is a strong connection between mental illness and weak socioeconomic condition. More than one third of the marginalised people are a carer and belongs to unemployed and low income group. Government agencies and non-government organisations need to develop a social and treatment model for the socially marginalised people. Therefore, local partnerships need to be made for the easy access to the health care and shared care.

Explain the impacts of discrimination, trauma, exclusion and negative attitudes against people in marginalised groups.

Apart from general Australians, some of the parts in Australian communities has been facing disadvantages which could affect the mental and physical wellbeing and employment opportunities and feeling of community engagement. This part of the community has been identified as the marginalised group of the community which has been subjected to discrimination and exclusion in the society (Crosson Tower, 2017, p.76). Community discrimination and disadvantages incur a sense of lack of social belonging. Religious discriminations and sense of exclusion induce trauma in a part of people in the community and persistent practise or exposure to such social negative attitudes would be the cause of ill-metal health. Therefore, social awareness and proper education among all part of the society would help to decrease these discriminations. Apart from awareness programs and social services, legislative and regulations would be another medium for decrease the social discriminations and after effects induced due to these negative attitudes.

Provide examples of issues that may cause communication misunderstandings or other difficulties across diverse groups within an early childhood setting. Consider families with diverse backgrounds – what types of issues may arise from communication misunderstandings?

Diverse groups in the communities across Australia has been experiencing various communication barriers right from the childhood setting which may incur social exclusion and negative attitude to some vulnerable families in the community setting. The primary issue of communication misunderstanding is language. Various populations from diverse social and religious background accumulated in various Australian provinces for various purposes which induce a multicultural social environment (Littlefield et al. 2017, p.293). Language barrier due to lack of knowledge and cultural diversities would induce a misunderstanding among the people in the same community. Therefore, the persistent misunderstanding would increase the magnitude of social exclusion of these culturally different families which results in a lack of social belonging. Social exclusion and communication misunderstanding have been affecting the participations in community services and health care systems. Therefore poor mental health and lack of health care have been induced among these vulnerable families due to the communication barrier and misunderstanding.

Question number 5

Explain impacts on social and cultural diversity where difficulties and or misunderstandings occur across diverse groups.

Australia is one of the major countries where cultural and linguistic diversification is much higher. It has been observed from various surveys that 40% of the general pollution in Australia is immigrants where 15% of the immigrant children have been speaking English in their home. According to 2001 census, in the Queensland alone, there are 120 ethnic communities where they are speaking in more than 120 languages (Malcolm Carey et al. 2017, p.48).  Hence from the above discussion, it has been clearly observed that the not only cultural diversity affects the Australian community but language plays an important role in creating misunderstanding among the people in the community. Therefore, language and cultural diversity have been impacted the general communication and sense of social belonging among the immigrants.

Explain how sensitivity when resolving differences is incorporated taking into account diversity considerations across diverse groups. As an Educator, how would you approach a conflict situation with a family member?

The educators and teachers of Australia, in charge of education, can employ image resources for effective communication. From the case, it can be assessed that the four year old girl loves to play with puzzles and dolls. Therefore, all the children along with Sissy can be encouraged for drawing sessions. Story sessions with illustrative images can be used to increase the visual knowledge (Manning, 2017, p.23). The educators, for instance, can tell a Malayan children story in English. This would attract the interest and curiosity among the children and the same time broadening the knowledge of the Australian about the foreign culture. Apart from this, images can be used for imparting education. Images can be very effective and beneficial for conducting the inclusive type of education.

Describe why a complaint from a parent should be handled according to the service’s complaints procedure

In the diversified community scenario, language and cultural barrier is the part of the common handling procedure of the educator. There is a huge responsibility for an educator to handle these disadvantages with care and attention due to lack of communication transparency (Sharp et al. 2017, p.19). Hence government has been developed various community and cultural handling protocols which need to be followed for the common approach towards all diversified groups in the community. Therefore, inducing a common approach for all the groups will help to build a framework for complaint handling procedure which an educator needs to be followed for the symmetry of the problem solving techniques. The common approach and handling procedure will induce a sense of equality and belong among all diversified groups and families which are quite beneficial for the community and corresponding groups in the community. The common procedure would help them to attain mental and health care services although the presence of language and cultural behaviour which would be a great initiative for inducing a sense of social belonging and integrity.  

Reference Lists:

Cavanagh, S., Cole, J., Kynaston, J., Gilson, K.M., Davis, E. and Hazel, G., 2017. Building the capacity of early childhood educators to promote children’s mental health: Learnings from three new programs. Health and Wellbeing in Childhood, p.362.

Council, C., 2017. Child care services.

Crosson-Tower, C., 2017. Exploring child welfare: A practice perspective. Pearson.

Garg, P., Ha, M.T., Eastwood, J., Harvey, S., Woolfenden, S., Murphy, E., Dissanayake, C., Jalaludin, B., Williams, K., McKenzie, A. and Einfeld, S., 2017. Explaining culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) parents’ access of healthcare services for developmental surveillance and anticipatory guidance: qualitative findings from the ‘Watch Me Grow’study. BMC health services research, 17(1), p.228.

Gregg, K., 2017. Communication disorders and challenging behaviors: Supporting children’s functional communication goals in the classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(4), pp.445-452.

Littlefield, L., Cavanagh, S., Knapp, R. and O’Grady, L., 2017. KidsMatter: Building the capacity of Australian primary schools and early childhood services to foster children’s social and emotional skills and promote children’s mental health. In Social and Emotional Learning in Australia and the Asia-Pacific (pp. 293-311). Springer Singapore.

Malcolm Carey, K.A.P.J. and Doherty, P., 2017. Barriers Facing Social Workers Undertaking Direct Work with Children and Young People with a Learning Disability Who Communicate Using Non-Verbal Methods. The British Journal of Social Work, p.bcx004.

Manning, M.L., 2017. Multicultural education of children and adolescents. Taylor & Francis.

Moss, B., 2017. Communication skills in health and social care. Sage.

Sharp, R., Green, A. and Lewis, J., 2017. Education and social control: A study in progressive primary education (Vol. 49). Routledge.

Smith, S., O'Grady, L., Cubillo, C. and Cavanagh, S., 2017. Using culturally appropriate approaches to the development of KidsMatter resources to support the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal children. Australian Psychologist, 52(4), pp.299-305.