What Does School Mean to the Greek Immigrant Parent and His Child?

Data from a questionnaire survey completed by fifty Australian-born parents and fifty Greek-born parents of grade three children in seven inner-urban schools in Melbourne draw attention t o the parents ’ different attitudes towards and understanding of the primary schools which their children attend. Although the groups of parents are not directly comparable, recurrent themes emerging in the responses particularly reflect the Australian parents ’ concern for the individual child’s development and the Greek parents ’ concern with teacher control. The Greek parents generally revealed a greater understanding of Greek schools than of the state primary schools that their children were attending. Possible effects of such attitudes on the Greek child in his quest for identity and the role of the school in coping with these difficulties are discussed. The migration policies adopted by the various Australian Governments in the last decade or so have resulted in major alterations to the ethnic composition of schools in many of Melbourne’s inner suburbs. Of the various ethnic groups that have settled in Melbourne, the Greeks have made a particularly stron