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This study explored the issues facing young Vietnamese who have a sibling with an illicit drug addiction and the coping strategies that they and their families employ. This paper concentrated on the results from interviews/focus groups of Vietnamese parents and young people. There were some areas of commonality between the responses of the parent and youth cohorts. Issues of shame, guilt, grief and lack of support were raised by both groups. The reactions of parents and siblings change over time, as the negative impact of the user's behaviour intensified and family systems become strained. There were significant differences in the responses of the two cohorts in relation to parental behaviour. The youth cohort generally was critical of parental behaviour towards both children who are using illicit drugs and their non-using siblings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many parts of the world, there is a visible increase in the numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students entering compulsory education. To explore the preparedness of teachers for responding to this diversity, this article reports the findings of an ethnographic study which had a specific focus on Samoan students. In semi-structured interviews, teachers of a south-east Queensland primary school described initial challenges they encountered, as well as their opinions about the professional development they had received for intercultural education. In talanoa (Pacific Island-style discussions), parents in the school community shared their concerns about the cultural and linguistic responsiveness of the teachers compared to their previous experiences. Analysis of the findings revealed that teachers experienced "culture shock" in highly multicultural classrooms perhaps related to the lack of opportunities for professional learning about teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. Too few opportunities for teachers to develop and sustain positive dispositions towards intercultural education may have factored into the school staff's focus on the "how" of intercultural education, rather than the "why". A scarcity of professional and human resources in this area was also identified. The article concludes with ideas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]