bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
So, You Want to be a Teacher!
Authors: Darvall Ken
Published: August 2016

Undertaking teachers training through schemes such as AREP, ANTEP, or this commendable scheme through the Catholic College system has required dedication and commitment to get you through the workload as well as overcoming the frustrations that seem to increase as your studies have progressed. Frustrations due to time (or rather lack of), difficulties with assignments (first, trying to make sense of them and then trying to write something that does make sense, while you are wondering how this is actually going to help you to become a teacher) and absences from the family (when you are required in Sydney or doing a practice teaching session away from home) are very hard to overcome. Therefore, the support network that has been put in place must be regarded as effective, otherwise you would probably be watching the footy instead of satisfying course requirements.
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Urban Classrooms
Authors: Hudsmith Sandra
Published: August 2016

Much of the literature on Aboriginal education tends, and rightfully so, to emphasise the disadvantages Aboriginal children face when they enter into Western schooling. Cultural discontinuity theory proposes that cultural mismatch between the home and school cultures is an important factor in the alienation and school failure for minority (e.g. Aboriginal) children. Research certainly supports the view that Aboriginal students differ from their Western counterparts in terms of world view, learning styles and sociolinguistic etiquette. Current cultural ecology theory proposes that some minority group students (i.e. from ‘involuntary’ or ‘colonized’ minorities) rectify these differences in opposition and in resistance to the majority culture and thus play an active role in perpetuating school failure (Ogbu, 1987). In some urban schools, it appears that the inability of teachers to understand and cater for the cultural differences of their Aboriginal students is compounded by an active resistance to the school culture by those students. This paper investigates the teaching styles and practices of two teachers in urban schools who not only recognise and cater for the unique differences and abilities of their Aboriginal students but who have actively created learning environments in which student resistance is either directed towards group enhancing goats or rendered inappropriate. Pseudonyms are used throughout this paper.
The Aboriginal Child in the Modern World
Authors: Wenitong L.
Published: August 2016

How can one describe him? Cheeky, shy, mischievous, intelligent. He is all of these. He also has a great sense of humour and great powers of observation and hearing. Sometimes I’ve found his sense of humour rather weird, but I’ve found it’s because he cannot express himself in words, so he laughs at things, even someone else’s misfortunes„

Since working with them I have found there is a difference between the urban child and the humpy child.

Urban children grow up in an ordinary urban situation like any other childo Their best friend could be the European kid next door and they can be welcome in each other’s homes at any time They are very much integrated and can be found with a mixed group of any nationality. Their ideas are much the same: to grow up and get a job – an apprenticeship if a boy, or a truck driver. The girls think teaching or typing would be nice. These children feel pretty secure, especially if they have parents who are either Christians or non-drinkers.

Both urban and humpy children have strong family ties and become terribly lonely if away from familiar surroundings. Little children are protected by other people even when deserted by their own mothers. I found, if I have them home to stay with me for a weekend, the children usually want to stay longer and when they return to the family they usually go up in the rest of the family’s estimation. They are very interested in all you do in the home – from cooking a meal to washing and cleaning. They want to know why you do this, that or the other, and they follow you around, watching. They like to help you do things and you can end up having quite a hilarious time in the kitchen.
Thinking about Writing an Aboriginal Science Curriculum
Authors: Ganambarr M.
Published: August 2016

A child picks up all words by listening to somebody at home (relatives) or a teacher in school. Children first learn from their parents. Mother teaches children by saying words bit by bit until the children really can understand their own tongue and the meanings of these words. In the same way teachers write words on the blackboard, say them and then explain to the children while the children listen.

This listening/hearing is the most important thing for the children. When teachers give a lesson they must first explain which part of the habitat they will talk about. Let the children listen to you carefully and give them a good explanation about these habitats around them. Prepare all the materials that you are going to use such as charts, pictures, slides, library books, if you are staying in the classroom. Prepare for an excursion if that is your lesson plan. Show these things, explain what you are talking about to give the children a better understanding, so they will remember this information.

The other important thing for the children to do, apart from listening, is for them to talk. There is only one way for the teacher to know if the children understand the lesson. The teacher must ask questions to see if the children know the answers. The teacher must ask the children to talk about the topic to see if they can memorize the information and use the science skills (see Skills section).
Classroom Discipline: Some Practical Suggestions for Beginning Teachers
Authors: Ritchie S.M.
Published: August 2016

My first teaching appointment to Cunnamulla Secondary Department in 1975 was indeed a humbling experience. I am constantly reminded of my frustrations experienced as a beginning teacher as I see inexperienced teachers grapple with similar problems now, at Murgon High School.

Against this background, I would like to offer some suggestions for establishing and maintaining classroom discipline. Although these suggestions are specifically directed at beginning teachers in schools with significant proportions of Aboriginal students, they may also be helpful to teachers in other settings, since they are well supported in the literature (see references).
What to Do Before The Formal Teaching of Reading Begins
Authors: Durre A.C.
Published: August 2016

The teacher sits on her low stool with the children around her. They are seated comfortably on a piece of carpet. Eyes and faces show intense interest in the story being read. Then -- “Teacher Pam, show me that word ‘wallaby’.”

The teacher is delighted at this interruption from little ------ as it is the first indicator after many weeks that she is making the connection between marks on the page and MEANING - a very necessary step for any child who is going to learn to read successfully and effectively.
Values Dissonance
Authors: Iversen G.A.
Published: August 2016

Within the North-west Aboriginal reserve of South Australia a traditional system of tribal Aboriginal culture is currently maintained and reproduced. The observable culture of the Aboriginal people of this region retains distinct traditional elements and a life-style very different from that of the dominant white Australian society. Within this socio-cultural setting, schools which have been operational in some form since the establishment of the settlements face a unique challenge. Unfortunately, the challenge has, in most cases, not been successfully met, since the lack of success of Aboriginal students in the school situation is a damning indictment of the introduced Western system of schooling. Success is measured by the achievement of the set goals of the school, but frequently these reflect a white Australian value system.
Lake Mungo
Authors: Wright Barry
Published: August 2016

Lake Mungo, in New South Wales, is the home of the first known people in this country. Here, the oldest known evidence of Aboriginal people in Australia has been found. Because of its importance, it is a site which everyone should know about. To give us a feeling for Lake Mungo, Billy Reid, the illustrator of The Aboriginal Health Worker and The Aboriginal Child at School, came with me on a trip. We travelled west to the Darling River (whose Aboriginal name is Calewatta), and then south-east to Lake Mungo itself. Billy made wonderful drawings to represent the deeds and everyday life of those people. This can be reconstructed from the fossil evidence found at Lake Mungo. He has also drawn some scenes of life along the banks of the Calewatta - the river which is Billy’s own home. He hails from Bourke.
Some Aspects of the Position of Aboriginal Women in Australian Society
Authors: Vazey M.A.
Published: August 2016

This paper includes a short history of Aboriginal women in Australia from about the turn of the century. This has been made possible by the writings of such women. Most non-Aboriginal women have been and are ignorant of this history. They need to understand this past in order to come to terms with it. Aboriginal women are also not aware of how misinformed non-Aboriginal women are of the role of Aboriginal women in their own society. An extensive dialogue is needed to develop the mutual understanding necessary for the construction of a peaceful and just post-colonial Australia.
Thomas Greenfield and Administration for Aboriginal Schools
Authors: MacNeill N.
Published: August 2016

Aboriginal education, long considered the poor relation in education, is currently in a stage of development akin to a Renaissance. The success of the one-best-method of education is seriously being questioned, as are the twin constraints of the hidden curriculum - tradition and conformity.

The first major breakthrough in Aboriginal education came with the development of the concept of Aboriginal learning styles (Kearins, 1983; Harris, 1980). Teachers became aware that different strategies and materials had to be employed to cater more successfully for Aboriginal students. It is most likely the case also that school principals need to adopt an administrative style which is significantly different from that employed in urban, middle-class schools. Thomas Greenfield, a Canadian, has revolutionized thought in educational administration, and his thoughts may have relevance to administering Aboriginal schools.
An Adult Literacy Program
Authors: Hall C.
Published: August 2016

This paper describes the way in which a program in Adult Literacy has been successful in developing individualized educational programs. The fundamental criterion for this is the identification of the individual needs for each learner, and the development of a teaching-learning program that enables the learner to become self-directing and active in the attainment of literacy skills.
Koories in the Classroom
Authors: Bamblett P.
Published: August 2016

Despite growing initiatives in Aboriginal-designed educational facilities, most Aboriginal children still undertake their schooling in mainstream classrooms where methodology and organisation have evolved according to a white Australian tradition.

The school system is an institution relentlessly perpetuating the stereotypes and social order that have been Australia’s since the British occupation. Aboriginal children are seen to ‘underachieve’ in terms of a system designed to meet the needs of the dominant society. While ‘underachievement’ may be slightly diminished by adjustments in teaching styles, these changes should be part of an overall classroom strategy that is based on an understanding of Aboriginal characteristics and cultural traditions, and a realisation that Aboriginal children’s behaviour reflects their experience of a largely racist society.
Education -- Initiation!
Authors: Jenkings P.
Published: August 2016

Education as a form of initiation has severely affected Aboriginal children as they endeavour to live in ‘two worlds’.

Education involves the initiation of a child into society. At an early age a child attends school where he or she learns attitudes, values and beliefs that are seen as desirable.

Australia’s early white settlers saw that the Aborigines had no buildings and no formal institutions, this led them to draw a distorted view of Aboriginal education. Coming from the European situation where classrooms, boarding schools, and university buildings represented learning, they concluded that Aborigines were completely without any system of education.
An Aboriginal Child Learning to Write
Authors: Walton Chris
Published: August 2016

In 1985 there was a Combined Associations Conference held in Darwin. As part of that conference Ann Harrison (a TESL lecturer at Darwin Institute of Technology) and I prepared a workshop to explore some issues concerned with Aboriginal children learning to write in English when it is not their mother tongue. In that workshop we looked at samples of Northern Territory Aboriginal children’s writing in English to consider:
Townsville’s Aboriginal and Islander Teacher Education Program
Authors: Loos N.
Published: August 2016

Historically, universities and colleges have been preoccupied with studying Aborigines, and to a much lesser extent Islanders, doing research on them, and teaching about them. In the mid 1970s, however, the then Mt Lawley, Townsville, and Torrens Colleges of Advanced Education independently launched special entry, indigenous teacher education programs. By providing personal, social and academic support for an enclave of Aborigines and Islanders within white institutions, it was hoped that students would be able to learn to cope with the demands of tertiary education and graduate with the same qualifications as other students in the colleges. With varying degrees of success, this has happened, such that this enclave support model has been adopted in a number of other colleges and in universities, and is now the most important single reason for the increased number of Aboriginal and Islander students in tertiary education.
The Artists and Their Work
Authors: Allen Louis A.
Published: August 2016

No one knows when or where Aboriginal painting began. There is some agreement that the Australian Aborigines came from a Veddoid ancestry originating in South India and Ceylon. Since the term Vedda is derived from the Sanskrit Vyadha, meaning a hunter or one who lives from the chase, we can assume that this also was originally a hunting culture. There is evidence that these hunters made paintings in caves, using ashes and turmeric mixed with spittle, possibly to bring success to their hunting. We can only conjecture, with no factual evidence, that the earliest migrants to Australia have brought this custom with them.

The Arnhem Land bark paintings evolved from pictures of fish, animals and people which the first inhabitants appear to have made in caves and rock shelters. We can assume that these designs of kangaroos, fish, and thin, sticklike spirits called Mimi were drawn for the same purposes as today: to depict the totemic ancestors so their help and support could more readily be invoked, to encourage game to reproduce and increase, to make magic, and to depict the limits or characteristics of the ‘country’ owned by a clan.
Teaching Aboriginal Studies
Authors: Woolmer G.
Published: August 2016

Aboriginal Studies is becoming increasingly popular in schools. Here are some South Australian findings and thoughts on how to teach it.
Parent Involvement in Education: What Local Groups Can Achieve
Authors: McCaskill R.
Published: August 2016

The following is a brief account of the achievements of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultative Committee (QATSICC) in Innisfail.
Aboriginal and Islander Tertiary Students as Creators of Culture
Authors: McDonald Helen
Published: August 2016

James Cook University of North Queensland currently offers an affirmative action program enabling Aboriginal and Islander people to enter teacher education programs. This program - the Aboriginal and Islander Teacher Education Program (AITEP) - began in 1977 at Townsville College of Advanced Education, now amalgamated with the university. In July 1987, there were about 130 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education programs, having entered the university through AITEP. A similar program in community welfare now operates with over 20 students enrolled. Currently there are possibly around seven Aboriginal or Islander undergraduates who gained direct entry to university and four graduate students, including three who began their undergraduate studies through AITEP.
Aborigines - Was It Smallpox?
Authors: Wright B.
Published: August 2016

When the fleet of British warships and transports led by H.M.S. Supply entered Botany Bay on the 18th of January 1788, the white invasion of Aboriginal Australia had begun. Captain Arthur Phillip in Supply was followed over the next two days by H.M.S. Sirius, six transports and three store ships. On the 26th January the Frenchman, La Perouse, with the ships La Boussole and L’Astrolabe, arrived at Botany Bay and remained there until the 10th of March, 1788. Because of the open nature of the bay, its shallow water and the lack of plentiful fresh water, Phillip decided to move the settlement, and on the 25th January sailed to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) in Supply, with the transports following on the 26th of January. The white invasion and occupancy of Australia started in reality when the whole of Phillip’s fleet and colonists were anchored at the east of Sydney Cove. On board Phillip’s eleven ships came 736 male and female convicts, 17 convict children, 211 marines accompanied by their wives and children.
Who Do You Think That I Am?
Authors: Turner P.
Published: August 2016

I am delighted at the opportunity to address you today and I would like to start by quoting a section from the speech made to Aboriginal people by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, when he visited Australia last year.

His Holiness made reference to the strength of Aboriginal culture and the need to preserve it. He chose to make an analogy between the culture of the Aboriginal people and the indomitable nature of a native Australian tree.
An Aboriginal Studies Program For Year 11
Authors: Blundell Patricia
Published: August 2016

To situate the Aboriginal Studies program I am designing, I would need to say that in a Year 11 course in Religious Education at a Catholic Girls’ Independent (non-systemic) High School in Brisbane, the Semester 2 area is Morality and Justice and involves a consideration of personal decision making, understanding stages of moral development, individual/personal moral issues and social, moral and justice issues. (I should add that the school is almost totally non-Aboriginal although it is multi-ethnic to the extent that it runs ESL classes at each year level).
The Development of Inservice and Induction Programs for Teachers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students in Queensland Schools : An Historical Overview Part II
Authors: McGarvie N.
Published: August 2016

It is axiomatic that the development of any material such as this for inservice and induction of teachers draws on the work, ideas, and philosophies of many people over a considerable period of time. If it has any success in achieving desirable results it must be appreciated that the recent developers “stand on the shoulders of those who went before.” Paul Mort (1964, p.324) reinforces this by stating
Action Research
Authors: Sands G.
Published: August 2016

There is a growing body of literature of teachers’ accounts of their attempts to implement improvement and change in classrooms and schools. This literature is evidence that Australian teachers are thinking more reflectively and critically about their work than ever before.

This paper will attempt to define action research, and explore its characteristics and the epistemological and theoretical framework that has grown out of it.
Indigenous Research, Differing Value Systems
Authors: Foley Dennis
Published: August 2016

The collective aim of many of this Journal's readers is
to provide Indigenous Australians with a sound education to
allow us (Indigenous Australia) to take a more active role
in Australian society. My personal research interest is in
business studies, training Indigenous Australians in
management and business principles. I continually face the
question of am I training my kin in a Western science that
is often at the opposite end of the spectrum to Indigenous
thought and practice?
The Café Manymak Project
Authors: Young Maggie
Published: August 2016

The day my class of 10 to 12 year-olds transformed a
classroom into a café complete with red gingham
tablecloths, travel posters and cooking equipment was the
beginning of an exciting, engrossing and most rewarding
learning experience.
The Purga Project: Indigenous Knowledge Research
Authors: Sheehan Norm , Walker Polly
Published: August 2016

We are Indigenous University lecturers involved in
research with the Purga Elders and Descendants Aboriginal
Corporation. Our research at Purga involves the instigation
of Indigenous Knowledge as the basis of effective and valid
research methodologies. This article will describe the work
that the University of Queensland (UQ) Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit is doing at Purga. It
will then articulate the principles of Indigenous Knowledge
Research that inform this work.
Children's History: Implications of Childhood Beliefs for Teachers of Aboroginal Students
Authors: Leonard Simon
Published: August 2016

While conducting research intended to explore the
underlying thoughts and assumptions held by non-Indigenous
teachers and policy makers involved in Aboriginal education
I dug out my first book on Australian history which had
been given when I was about seven years old. Titled
Australia From the Beginning(Pownall,
1980), the book was written for children and was not a
scholarly book. It surprised me, then, to find so many of
my own understandings and assumptions about Aboriginal
affairs and race relations in this book despite four years
of what had seemed quite liberal education in Australian
history.
Action Learning for Indigenous Education Students project
Authors: Coombs Collette , Fleiter Belinda , Fleiter Kelly , Foley Jenny , Jarro Debbie , Law Charmaine , Spillman David , Smith Lynn , Smith Lynn , Moran Pat
Published: August 2016

The Action Learning for Indigenous Education Students (ALIES) project was established at Central Queensland University (CQU) in 1998. Its original membership consisted of a group of eight first year Indigenous (Murri) students, who were enrolled in the Bachelor of Education degree programme; an Indigenous, Sociology Honours student; the Faculty of Education and Creative Arts' Associate Dean Administration and sub-Dean of Students; and, a member of Nulloo Yumbah's support staff
An Aboriginal Christmas Celebration
Authors: Kerckhoven Gilbert Van
Published: August 2016

The Golden Hill Steiner School in Denmark, West Australia, is a small “alternative” school and part of the world wide Steiner/Waldorf school movement. In 1998 this young school had 56 students from kindergarten to class 6. Because of the small numbers, primary classes are combined (for 1998 this was a class 1/2, class 3/4 and class 5/6).
Non-Indigenous Academic and Indigenous Autonomy
Authors: Partington Geoffrey
Published: August 2016

One of the many fascinating problems raised in recent
issues of the
Australian Journal of Indigenous Education
(AJIE)is that of Indigenous autonomy in education.
Although opinions differed about the extent to which
Indigenous people currently exercise educational autonomy
in various situations, there was wide agreement that there
ought to be Indigenous control or ‘ownership’ of all
knowledge relating to Indigenous life and culture, past and
present. Sister Anne Gardner, then Principal of
Murrupurtyanuwu Catholic School in NT, explained (1996: 20)
how she decided to ‘let go, to move away from the dominant
role as Principal’, in order that Indigenous persons could
take control. She had been helped to this conclusion by
reading Paulo Freire, Martin Buber and Hedley Beare, and,
within the NT itself, ‘people of that educational calibre,
such as Beth Graham, Sr Teresa Ward, Fran Murray, Stephen
Harris, all pleading with us to allow education to be owned
by Aboriginal people’. Sr Gardner held that ‘Aboriginal
people never act as “leader”, a view shared by her
designated Indigenous successor, Teresita Puruntayemeri,
then Principal-in-Training of Murrupurtyanuwu Catholic
School, who wrote (1996: 24-25) that ‘for a Tiwi peron it
is too difficult to stand alone in leadership’. One way to
share the burdens of leadership is, she suggests, to
‘perform different dances in the Milmaka ring, sometimes in
pairs or in a group’.
Native Approaches to Decolonising Education in Institutions of Higher Learning
Authors: Walke Polly
Published: August 2016

A growing number of Native scholars are involved in
decolonising higher education through a range of processes
designed to create space for Indigenous realities and
Indigenous ways of managing knowledge. Basing their
educational approaches on Indigenous ontologies and
epistemologies, they are developing Indigenist approaches
within higher education. Ward Churchill (1996:509),
Cherokee scholar, explains that an Indigenist scholar is
one who:

Takes the rights of indigenous peoples as the
highest priority …who draws on the traditions – the
bodies of knowledge and corresponding codes of value –
evolved over many thousands of years by native peoples
the world over.
Doing it Differently. Link and Learn — the work of the Indigenous Education and Training Alliance
Authors: Taylor Pauline
Published: August 2016

The
Indigenous Education and Training
Alliance(IETA) is a staff college of Education
Queensland. Its primary focus is to broker and deliver
professional development to educators around the policies
contained within
Partners for Success: strategy for the continuous
improvement of education and employment outcomes for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Education
Queensland(Education Queensland, 2000b). This
paper describes how IETA's work to support one of the
policies,
Literacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Students, has been theorised and enacted. It also
discusses the organisation's successes and challenges in
the significant area of language and literacy pedagogy for
Indigenous students.
The Fourth R — Reconciliation and the Maintenance of indigenous Language in Urban Secondary Schools
Authors: Jade Sue
Published: August 2016

Indigenous students in urban secondary schools in the Northern Territory are faced with barriers to their success in learning, in the education race. Amongst these is the question of language studies. Like all students, they must study English as a separate subject, they must study all other subjects using English as the language of instruction, and they must study a second language, a language other than English (LOTE), as a component of their Junior Secondary Studies Certificate. Most schools offer Indonesian and some are able to offer a broader choice. For the Indigenous student, social justice demands an addition to this range. It is illogical and unfair that schools, in some cases with up to 30 per cent Indigenous students, do not include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in their programs. It is also shortsighted of schools to ignore the opportunity to provide these students with a subject area in which their culture is dominant.
Torres Strait Islander Women
Authors: Barnes Ketrina
Published: August 2016

During some stage in their lives many Torres Strait Islanders, especially women will migrate to Australia in order to further their education, employment and training (Warrior, 1997). This paper focuses on a recent that I carried out among Torres Strait Islander women living on the mainland. The purpose of the survey is to indicate how Torres Strait Islander women are maintaining their identity whilst living on the mainland. To show these results, first the Torres Strait Islanders will be discussed generally to give an overview of their identity, then briefly Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland will be discussed. The paper will then conclude which the results from the survey conducted.
Promoting Home–Community–School Links
Authors: Watson Kathy , Roberts Dianne
Published: August 2016

Minimbah is an Aboriginal word whichmeans ‘place of learning’. Since self-management in 1987 by the local Aboriginal Management Committee, the school Director, Dianne Roberts has promoted parent, staff and community input at this place of learning. Improved parental involvement in this Aboriginal preschool was essential following the policy change from outside control to self-management.
What Entitles a School to Legitimately Call Itself an Aboriginal School?
Authors: Buckley Paul
Published: August 2016

According to the 1995 Northern Territory Department of Education Directory, the numberof schools within the Territory which cater for Aboriginal students are as follows:

• 40 preschools in predominantly Aboriginal communities

• 67 primary schools of predominantly Aboriginal communities

• 53 outstations and Homeland Learning Centres in predominantly Aboriginal communities

• 33 Community Education Centres and other post-primary schools in predominantly Aboriginal communities.
AnTEP Comes of Age
Authors: Gale Mary-Anne
Published: August 2016

Walking across that stage, no-one can take that feeling away because it's really special to you. You feel really, really proud — even though it took a long time to do it and to get there.

(Ruth Anangka, one of the first AnTEP graduates, Pers. Comm., 1995)

With permed hair, academic gowns and proud smiles of achievement, two more groups of Aboriginal women have walked the length of the red carpet on the stage of the Adelaide Festival Theatre during university graduation ceremonies. Amid hoots and cheers from University staff seated on the stage (also wearing gowns and smiles of pride) on the 29th May 1995, six more women from the far north west of South Australia, and one from Alice Springs, were awarded the Associate Diploma of Education. Six months later, on the 6th October 1995, two more women from the north west were presented with the Diploma of Teaching.
An Extended Negotiated Narrative in an ESL Classroom
Authors: Pugh Derek
Published: August 2016

In October 1995 a short novel, Tammy Damulkurra, was published by Aboriginal Studies Press. Tammy was the result of a six-week narrative writing program undertaken with a class of teenage girls at Maningrida Community Education Centre, in the Northern Territory. The girls, Charlene Bonson Djarpi-Djarpi, Alison Cooper Gangarnda, Jacqueline Phillips Galamarrjin, Evette Dawn Pascoe, Sabrina Yulumurru Dhurrkay, Rhonda Brown Guykaladawuy, Eileen Bonson Djinjirrow, Simonne Lawrence, Justina Williams Wilinggirra and Roseanne Darcy Wangaytcha, are mostly Burarra, speak English as a second or third language and in 1994 were studying for their General Studies Certificate with me in Eagle Class.
Portrayal of Controversial and Difficult Issues in Aboriginal Teacher Education or Silent Betrayal of Expectations. A response to Paul Buckley's article (Vol. 24, No. 1)
Authors: White Leon
Published: August 2016

Despite the introductory ‘rider’ being provided so that readers be ‘advised to remain aware of the possible cultural bias resulting’ from the fact that ‘those interviewed, although possessing vast experience of Aboriginal education are non-aboriginal people’ (p. 26), Buckley's article is a confused and poorly articulated comment on the views of a small number of non-Aboriginal educators relating to attendant issues to implementation of the Batchelor College Teacher Education program. Buckley gets off to a poor start by not getting the name of the program correct. His Remote Access Teacher Education program is in fact known as the Remote Area Teacher Education (RATE) program and has been referred to as this for most of the last fifteen years.
A Personal Story of School Development In a Remote Community
Authors: Heslop Jim
Published: August 2016

Between 1978 and 1979 I taught in a number of small newly established schools in some of the communities of what was then referred to as the Central Reserve (now called the Ngaanyatjarra Lands) in Western Australia. I had recently graduated from college and was very uncertain about the content and methodology required to be an effective teacher of Aboriginal students. This general lack of confidence was compounded by my lack of experience in interacting with Aboriginal people, especially those who spoke little English. Moreover, there was no support service from the regional education office in Kalgoorlie (about 1000 kms to the south) and I generally taught in one-teacher situations with little opportunity to share with other colleagues. In general, I found my professional life in the Central Reserve to be quite dissatisfying and disillusioning.
Language Nests in New Zealand. Implications for the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Context
Authors: Ford Margot
Published: August 2016

In the past ten years there has been an increasing interest in early childhood education in Aboriginal communities, particularly for 4-year-olds and under. The reasons for this are varied. One of the main reasons is the existence of the Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) where Aboriginal people in remote communities receive the equivalent of the unemployment benefit in exchange for work and training, usually four hours per day for five days. Other larger communities, for example Yuendemu or Maningrida in the Northern Territory, have considerable numbers of people studying, often at Batchelor College, and therefore some type of support is needed to take care of their young children. Increasingly Aboriginal people are taking on professional jobs in communities — teachers, health care workers and office administrators. All these factors are leading to a need to re-evaluate traditional forms of child care, which in these changing times is putting an unacceptable burden on older women and the extended family generally. Other pertinent reasons are the need for a more cohesive strategy to pass on cultural knowledge, to support language maintenance and language revival and support very young mothers who need the support of older women with more experience.
Teaching Literacy Through Rhyme and Rhythm
Authors: McDougall Jill
Published: August 2016

Poems, songs and chants are excellent resources for developing competence in English for Aboriginal children who speak other languages at home. Children find rhythmic and repetitive language attractive and accessible. It is not unusual to hear children using the language over and over again in their play and, incidentally, teaching it to younger children in the community. As chunks of language are memorised, new language structures and vocabulary are also internalised. While there is very little commercial material available which is relevant to the interests and needs of remote Aboriginal children, it is a powerful learning activity for children to work with the teacher to create texts which reflect shared experiences.
‘What matters is the girth of its belly. Can it swallow us or not?’ — Shifting Values Towards New Models of Teaching in Aboriginal Schools
Authors: Smith R.G.
Published: August 2016

At a maths workshop we were discussing measurement as a cultural concept. One of the balanda staff asked an Aboriginal colleague how he might depict the length of a crocodile. Another Aboriginal teacher laughed. ‘You balanda always think length is important. What matters to us is the girth of the belly. Can it swallow us or not!’

Territory-wide the government, through its Department of Education, has the unenviably difficult task of maintaining and providing education which is both equitable and accessible to a cohort of students who represent a third of its student population. While their common qualifier is that these students are ‘Indigenous,’ their disparate worldviews often only share some common features. It seems that in recent years, rather than meet these diverse needs the department has determined that the only way around the difficulty is to apply a relatively prescriptive curriculum to its remote Indigenous schools. This is evidenced by the Intensive English, Foundation and General Studies programs now in place for secondary aged students. Many (including Indigenous) educators argue that perhaps this is the only pragmatic answer.
A Culture of Poverty with Special Reference to the Aboriginal Community of Australia and the Former South African Dispensation
Authors: le Roux Johann
Published: August 2016

Cultures of poverty represent a worldwide phenomenon of considerable topical interest. The term designates a social grouping with low socioeconomic and cultural levels (viewed from the dominant culture's perspective), and scant social and economic status. Consequently families in disadvantaged environments are subjected to adverse factors such as poverty, cultural and geograpical isolation, membership of a non-technological cultural group, physical deficiencies, and the high mobility and uprooting of families caused by migrant labour and rapid industrialisation and resultant urbanisation. Although the various social groups in cultures of poverty may differ worldwide in certain respects, they do share some of the following common indicators: low economic and social status, a low level of education, poor housing, limited privacy, insufficient or unsuitable food, inferior occupations or unemployment, limited community involvement, and a limited potential for upward social mobility. These characteristics are indicative of social groups that are caught up in a spiral or syndrome of poverty, deprivation and cultural destitution because of their disadvantaged milieu and psychosocial impediments. For this reason they are seriously handicapped in their efforts to achieve optimal self-actualisation, to improve their chances in life, and to make an invaluable, meaningful and constructive contribution to a dynamic technocratic society.
What Does the Literature Say about Computer Literacy and Indigenous Australians' Language?
Authors: Steen Tangi
Published: August 2016

The word culture is defined by Singer, 1988: 6) as:

a pattern of learned, group-related perceptions —including both verbal and non-verbal language, attitudes, values belief and disbelief systems, and behaviours — that is accepted and expected by an identity group… each identity group has its own language or code, each group may be said to have its own culture.

It is obvious from this definition that each one of us belongs to one culture or another, each culture encapsulating a totality of a way of living, expectation and behaviour that is specifically unique to that group. Culture is constituted in our daily lives, in our negotiations and adjustments to experience day-to-day existence.
Roelands Mission Education — A Personal Narrative
Authors: Calgaret Irene
Published: August 2016

Firstly let me introduce myself to you. My name is Irene Calgaret. I am an Aboriginal of the Nyungar people from Bunbury, Western Australia. I attend Edith Cowan University, Bunbury as a first-year student, studying English as my major.

I am the mother of three lovely daughters and the grand-mother of four wonderful grand-sons. I have been a nurse for 25 years, employed at local Government and private hospitals, and at various other small, country town hospitals in our very large state of Western Australia.
Nyungar Education in a South West Australian Location: A Perspective
Authors: Wooltorton Terry
Published: August 2016

Assimilation of the Nyungar kids into the system takes place. Those who assimilate better, do better in school. Those who don't assimilate well, have problems with the system. (John, Primary School teacher, 6/8/93) (cited in Wooltorton, 1993)

According to this teacher, assimilation is inevitable, therefore the school should assist that process. This paper examines and presents a perspective on the extent and effect of assimilation and suggests that the negative outcomes of the education of Nyungars is a result of assimilationist teaching practices and school culture. Further, it recommends that Nyungar education be underpinned by Nyungar control of Nyungar education, which consists of the followingprinciples: Nyungar decision-makers, Nyungar teachers, Nyungar parent involvement in educational implementation and decision-making and culturally appropriate teaching methods and teaching spaces.
Some Thoughts on Literacy Issues in Indigenous Contexts
Authors: Nakata Martin
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACT
This paper critically examines some elements of the
nation’s policy on Indigenous education priorities
(Department of Employment, Education and Training, 1989)
and how they have framed our approaches to formal schooling
issues over the past decade. I draw on some of the
‘cultural’ tensions in the policy position to illustrate
the dilemma they produce at the level of practice. I then
reflect on the implications of these tensions for literacy
teaching as well as ways that they can be addressed. The
conclusion brings these reflections back to a more
theoretical level to consider how shifts at the level of
theory might re-frame how we might best view the literacy
issues and priorities in Indigenous contexts.
Preparing Preservice Teachers’ Minds, Hearts and Actions for Teaching in Remote Indigenous Contexts
Authors: Osborne Barry
Published: August 2016

ABSTRACT
This paper examines some challenges we confront working
with preservice teachers prior to serving in remote
Indigenous communities. Some challenges include what
preservice teachers bring to their studies -
subjectivities, experiential understandings of teaching and
notions of childhood/adolescence, culture and social
justice, all of which involve minds, emotions and our
notions of our places in society. Some challenges involve
linking new notions of teaching to what they already know
which may entail unlearning before relearning. Some
challenges involve making sense of the theory/action
dialectic - teasing out links between strongly held but
unarticulated values, beliefs and actions that derive from
them. Some challenges involve anticipating what it might be
like to live and teach in a remote setting and preparing to
work effectively across cultures. I then discuss how we
might tackle them in the light of productive pedagogy and
culturally relevant pedagogy (Osborne, 2001a, 2001b).
Teaching Grammar in anEnglish as a Foreign Language (Efl) Context
Authors: Garrett Lisa
Published: August 2016

Abstract
This paper is based on my recent experiences as a
classroom teacher in Coconut Island State School on Poruma
(Coconut Island), a Torres Strait primary school, and
discusses best practice in explicitly instructing Islander
students in Standard Australian English grammar. I argue
for a variety of approaches, informed by a careful
consideration of the students’ cultural understandings and
their language needs. These are crucial for determining
which grammatical approach is most effective in ensuring
effective independent second language acquisition in
Standard Australian English.
Answering Teachers’ Questions at the Esl (English as a Second Language) Conference, Badu Island, 15-18 May 2000
Authors: Shepherd Susan
Published: August 2016

Abstract
In 2000 a program of English as a Second Language
inservice provision was initiated by the Thursday Island
State High School in response to teacher and community
concerns about low literacy rates in Torres Strait, as
measured by the National Languages and Literacy Institute
of Australia Bandscales and other related difficulties. In
mid-May of that year an English as a Second Language
conference was held on Badu Island and was attended by
teachers from throughout Torres Strait. During the
conference, Susan Shepherd (Education Adviser English
Language Acquisition at Thursday Island State High School)
conducted a question-and-answer session dealing with some
of the most commonly asked questions: What is English as a
Second Language teaching? What is an English as a Second
Language learner? What is an English as a Second Language
school? Why is the students’ English not improving in my
school? Can we have learning support teachers? Why
shouldn’t the children’s home language be banned from the
school so that the students will learn English more
quickly? Why can’t the children understand more about what
they read? Why, if the local Creole is so much like
English, do we need special programs in English?
Cultural Safety: Let’s name it!
Authors: Bin-Sallik Maryann
Published: August 2016

Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the Australian
Indigenous higher education sector commencing from its
development in the early 1970s to the present. It outlines
how the first Indigenous higher education support program
was developed, the reasons behind the development, and how
and why it has been replicated across the Australian higher
education sector. The whole process over the past 30 years
of formal Indigenous participation within the higher
education sector has been a very difficult process, despite
the major gains. On reflection, I have come to believe that
all the trials and tribulations have revolved around issues
of “cultural safety”, but we have never named it as such. I
believe that it is time that we formally named it as a
genre in its own right within the education sector. We need
to extend it from our psyches and put it out there to be
developed, discussed, debated and evaluated. This is what
is beginning to take place within Indigenous health - so
why not Indigenous education?
Around inCircles orExpanding Spirals?: aRetrospective Look atEducation inTorres Strait, 1964-2003
Authors: Osborne Barry
Published: August 2016

Abstract From the early 1900s, education in the Torres Strait was dominated by protectionism and segregation. In 1964 on Thursday Island the segregated state school system was abolished: “coloured children” could attend the high top from 1964 and thus secondary schooling became available to all as far as year 10. Since then there have been considerable changes. This paper describes and analyses some of these within a framework of relational justice and social access. Themes discussed include written texts about the people of Torres Strait and about education in Torres Strait; the growth of Torres Strait Islander voice in educational research; educational governance, facilities and staffing; teaching in Torres Strait classrooms; curriculum and vlanguage; preparing teachers to teach in Torres Strait; supporting teachers in Torres Strait; school-community relationships; and some recent initiatives.