Practice teaching in remote aboriginal communities: the need for adaptation to the social and cultural context

As part of the teacher education program at Edith Cowan University, a small group of student teachers experience teaching practice in remote Aboriginal communities. In this paper, student teacher perceptions of their experiences on such a practice are presented to illustrate the influence of the practice on their views about teaching Aboriginal children. Through an investigation of journals written during the practice, it is apparent that students had considerable difficulty adapting their teaching to the context in which they were working, particularly in relation to the different cultural and social demands of the situation. INTRODUCTION Graduates from teacher education institutions are Education District, the prepared for teaching in a range of situations, but it is difficult to provide practical experience in all situations. One of the problems facing institutions in Perth has been the provision of experience in schools in remote areas of the State. A number of alternative approaches have been utilised over the years, including conducting instruction in regional centres and distance education. Neither of these alternatives solves the problem of experience for metropolitan students, many of whom, upon graduation, will gain employment in remote or rural schools with significant enrolments of Aboriginal children. The majority of these schools are well over 1000 km from Perth and practice in schools closer to the city does not provide the kinds of experiences appropriate to these schools. Because of this lack of similar schools in the metropolitan area (where the majority of teacher education students attend university), the Faculty of Education at Edith Cowan University conducts three programs to provide appropriate practicum experiences for students. One of these, the Remote Teaching Practice, gives two weeks' experience in nine remote Aboriginal community schools during the second year practicum. In 1996, the practice took place in September in a number of schools in the most remote region of the State in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. Nineteen students and five supervisory staff participated in the practice. As part of it, students were asked to keep a journal of their experiences and Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 22, No.1, 1997 52 perceptions. This article reports some of the outcomes of the practice, viewed through the journal entries and considers implications for teacher education in the future. ORGANISATION OF THE PRACTICE Nine schools participated in the teaching practice. There is one other school in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, but it was too remote to take part. The communities in which the schools are located are small, some with community populations of less than 100 and school populations varied from a handful of students up to approximately seventy students. All the schools in the Lands are operated by the Education Department and are a part of the Kalgoorlie district office being situated over 1500km to the south east. To minimise costs, student teachers and staff travelled by Toyota Coaster buses to the schools. Although uncomfortable, this has proved to be a cheap and reliable form of transport in the nine years the practices have operated. We departed early on a Saturday, camped overnight the first school, Cosmo Newbery and reached the remotest school on the following Monday morning. The distances are daunting. It is over 1000 km from Perth to the first school, and a further 1000 km to the furthest visited, with over half the distance being travelled on unsurfaced roads. The populations of the communities, apart from a small number of non-Aboriginal professionals, service and support people, were all Aboriginal. The contrast between the lifestyles of the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people was quite marked, with the non-Aborigines living in houses typical of urban housing in Perth (and the newer houses being quite spacious), while the Aboriginal people lived in a variety of accommodation ranging from makeshift dwellings to housing of a similar nature to the non-Aborigines. In general, most Aboriginal housing was much more basic than the nonAboriginal accommodation There is a marked boundary culturally linguistically, economically and socially between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the community. The number of student teachers who can take part in the practicum is limited by the accommodation available in the houses occupied by the teachers. There is no consideration that they might be accommodated with Aboriginal people. Although it places greater pressure on the student teachers in relation to their classroom performance when they are living with the teachers, it also gives them a clear view of the daily lives of teachers in the communities, which is an intention of the practice. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 53 Vol. 22, No. 1 1997 Student teachers observed for the first day or so, then commenced teaching, one lesson a day at first, building up to half a day by the end of the practice. This can be a demanding schedule, given the cultural differences in the communities, the different behavioural expectations of the children, and the active social life of the schools while the student teachers are visiting. Prior to departure, a series of familiarisation seminars was held at the university, during which videos were shown, readings discussed and information disseminated on culture, community curriculum demands and appropriate teaching methods. Even so, these vicarious experiences could only mitigate some of the shocks awaiting the student teachers, who had to cope with cultural and linguistic differences, ill-health among the children, absenteeism and life in a very different environment. The context of the practice for the student teachers was one of performance in another teacher's class, under the supervision of the teacher, the university supervisor and, possibly, the principal of the school. In many respects, it mirrored the experiences reported by Martinez (1994) of a beginning teacher in an Aboriginal community school in Queensland. The restrictive nature of teaching practice, in another teacher's class, under the gaze of various supervisory personnel and with a performance mark as the outcome, was more daunting than the situation of the teacher studied by Martinez. The difference was in the much more temporary nature of this experience and the greater degree of control exercised over the student teachers. They were not free to experiment with methods and practices and inevitably felt constrained by the degree of supervision and the nature of the classroom context. In compiling their journals, student teachers were requested to comment on cultural differences that they observed, critical events during the practice (including problems they experienced in both their teaching and after-hours lives), and their thoughts on the situation and their adjustment to it. A list of possible topics for consideration was distributed and the kinds of reports discussed with the group. Variety was encouraged and the issues to be covered was left very open