LONDON

Abstract

As the District Inspector for Islington, Roy Truman has specific responsibilities in a borough with the highest immigrant intake in the country (23.1 per cent in the 1967 figures), but his interest ranges over a much wider spectrum of immigrant education situations — taking in many of the oft ignored differences. He is the first to point out that the heterogeneous groupings of Islington, with a weighting of Greek Cypriots, have very little in common with the concentration of West Indians in Brixton or the predominantly male, Asian community in Bradford. ‘It is not just the size of the group, it's the composition’ and each nationality brings with it a specific set of problems related to different levels of expectation. Pakistanis, for example, generally cannot speak English on arrival, have, and maintain a separate culture, and do not expect a great deal from the host community. West Indians however feel, quite rightly, that they have been brought up in the Western tradition — sharing everything from religion and language to nursery rhymes. For them the shock of nonacceptance is far greater. The West Indian children also have to face a complex transition to English — English, with intense interference from their own and the overall cultural implication of prestige. Teaching English to non‐English‐speaking children, ie Greeks and Asians, is a much more straightforward process.

Citation

(1968), "LONDON", Education + Training, Vol. 10 No. 7, pp. 275-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb015989