bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Symptoms and Solutions: Problems of Explanation in Aboriginal Education
Authors: McConnochie K.R. , Whitelaw A.J. 
Published: November 2015

The preparation of this paper has been stimulated by the table appended to the article “Parental involvement: endeavours to improve communications between Meningie Area school and the Pt. McLeay community in the period 1973–4” (A.M. Nankivell, The Aboriginal Child at School, Vol. 3 No. 1, 1975 pp. 48–55). The table, headed “Summary of Main Points Arising from Group Discussion of the Eight Major Problems at Meningie”, is a report of some conclusions derived from a seminar conducted with “Aboriginal and white parents and representatives of the various administrative and ancillary bodies concerned to discuss mutual problems”.The article and table describe a number of ‘facts’ and make deductions, based on the unchallenged wisdom of psychologists, which purport to ‘explain’ problems in Aboriginal education. Indeed, the table is a succinct statement of the kind of explanatory system which has been used in Aboriginal education; an explanatory system which deserves close examination in the light of the failure of Aboriginal education over the last 130 years. The comments which follow, then, are not directed exclusively at the paper under discussion; they refer to general problems of explanation in Aboriginal education.
Yarrabah Program 1975
Authors: Schuurmans R. 
Published: November 2015

Yarrabah is an Aboriginal community of approximately 1200 people. The community, although close to Cairns, is isolated by a 3000 ft mountain range. The people identify more with the community than with individual tribes. A few crafts remain; Aboriginal languages are known but are not now spoken. So, in comparison with the communities further north, it is fairly westernized. The Grade 8 class is attached to the primary school. It is considered as a transition year from primary to secondary.Before the first week of school was over it was evident there were vast differences in ability and attainment levels in the class of eleven boys and twenty-three girls. Through a variety of testing procedures, students’ performance levels in the basic skills of numeracy and literacy were tabulated to give a composite picture of the class.
Art in Aboriginal Education
Authors: Richardson Donald 
Published: November 2015

No one has ever defined art in a way that has achieved universal acceptance, yet usually we operate as if this were not so.Is hairdressing art? Is pottery art? Was Christo’s wrapping up of Little Bay art? Is architecture art? Is John Cage art? Is photography art? Is Andy Warhol’s “Flesh” art? Both “yes” and “no” have been answered to these questions.
The Role of Guidance and Counselling in Secondary Education for Urban Aboriginal Students
Authors: Mclntyre L. , Clark R. 
Published: November 2015

Despite recent developments in Aboriginal education very few Aboriginal high school students in Queensland are in academic courses that will enable them to matriculate with the possibility of entering into tertiary institutions. Instead, the majority of Aboriginal students are in lower level industrial and commercial courses and consequently leave school ill-equipped to enter into a competitive job market. Of those students who do find employment, few are in jobs commensurate with their ability.Educationalists such as McConnochie (1973) have pointed out that the failure of Aboriginals to succeed at school is primarily a result of factors associated with our social institutions, particularly the schools, rather than with the Aboriginal child himself. McConnochie suggests that our institutions tend to debase the black child’s concept of himself and the group with whom he identifies, and it is the child’s consequent lack of self-esteem that contributes significantly to his low vocational aspirations and academic achievement. However, low vocational aspirations and achievement themselves interact, reinforcing the child’s negative self-concept and he becomes caught up in a self-sustaining cycle of increasing school failure and worthlessness.
Free to Choose – an Alternative in Post Primary Education
Authors: Leak J.M. 
Published: November 2015

In previous years, attendance of secondary-age students at Maningrida had declined to a mere handful. And so, at the start of 1976, it was decided to make secondary education at Maningrida a priority within the school.To this end, money and effort were directed towards the setting up of a secondary unit. The main objective was to increase the number of secondary students attending school. We tried to do this by encouraging those adolescents who were not otherwise employed in the settlement to come along to school, and to see whether or not the secondary unit offered them a desirable alternative.
Educational Tour to Papua New Guinea
Authors: McClintock W.D. 
Published: November 2015

As in previous years, the school at Mornington Island has considered that one of the major disadvantages of the educational program here has been the lack of opportunity for interaction with other children, and the experiencing of other aspects of life which are so readily available to children living on the mainland and particularly those nearer to large centres of population.Over the past two years, with financial help from the Aboriginal Secondary Grants Scheme and Disadvantaged Schools, plus local help-, children in the upper grades have had the opportunity to visit various centres of interest such as Cairns and hinterland, Mt. Isa and Brisbane.The evaluation of such educational tours is a long term process and made even more difficult as many of the children leave school, but from what has been ascertained, it is felt that such tours to European centres, though of value in developing a variety of concepts, did not totally satisfy the needs of our school or meet with the major objectives of developing the need for a sense of responsibility within our younger people who will be required to be the leaders of the community in the future.In previous tours our Aboriginal children observed Europeans at work and play, but rarely saw any of their own skin involved in outside life, and then only in labouring types of work. With this thinking in the background, and an enthusiastic report from Doomadgee about their trip to Papua New Guinea last year, we considered the possibility of visiting another country.
Motivation Scores Related to Progress in Listening and Reading
Authors: Boyd R.M. 
Published: November 2015

Abstract:A one and a half year study of listening and reading among rural children in north-west New South Wales, indicated marked differences among Aborigines and whites in listening and reading. A Motivation for School Schedule, included in the initial test battery predicted over fifty per cent of variance in listening comprehension, administered at the end of years 2 and 3, for Aboriginal girls, and was significant in a multiple regression with Aboriginal girls’ end of year three reading scores as the criterion. The schedule contributed little, if anything, towards predicting reading success for white children or Aboriginal boys.The research underlines the importance of teachers understanding the conflict some girls from minority groups face when attending schools organized by the dominant culture, particularly when the vocabulary of the dominant language is assumed to be understood by all children in the same way.
Getting to Know Your Community
Authors: Madsen A. 
Published: November 2015

(Mrs Anne Madsen is an Aboriginal teacher aide at Bloomfield River. Originally she came from the Cairns area, and so writes from personal experience, of the importance of getting to know your community. She presented this paper in December 1977, at the Aboriginal Teacher Aide Conference, Gatton.)The first two years at Bloomfield River were very busy ones for our family as we were building our house and improving our property so we didn’t have much time for much else at this stage, but as time went on the Mission manager paid us a visit, and over a cup of tea he and his wife invited us over to the Mission to do our shopping and to church services, also just for a visit to have a talk and a cup of tea. My family and I accepted this invitation and we became very good friends. This helped quite a lot with the people also.
School Excursions
Authors: Young F. 
Published: November 2015

One of the benefits provided for in the Aboriginal Secondary Grants Scheme is funding for students to take part in school excursions. For students in remote areas, this provision is very necessary and important. Teachers very willingly plan and supervise excursions each year and the effort that they put in is commendable. However, not all excursions are eventually seen by teachers, students or parents as successful. It would appear therefore that some evaluation of excursions is warranted.The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultative Committee to the Director General of Education has presented its first report, as a result of its meetings and investigations during 1977.
Student Records – Are They of Value?
Authors: Robson G.A. 
Published: November 2015

At the 1977 Small Schools Conference in the Northern Territory a great deal of concern was expressed by representatives from all over the Territory about the lack of continuity in small schools. One manifestation of this was the absence, in many cases, of meaningful student records that allow a new teacher to immediately make some valid assessment of the attainment levels of his students that he is about to meet for the first time. Allied to this problem is the lack of old programs to show the new teacher what has been done in the past. Teachers coming into such a situation are therefore likely to suffer drastically from the “what am I doing here” syndrome. And in the middle of the bush, 400km from one’s immediate superior, help is NOT as close as the telephone.It was, I think, the concensus of the Conference that the Department should stipulate a minimum standard for the keeping of educational records (as distinct from stock records, stamp records, maintenance and repair records, and other types of administrivia too numerous to mention which are the bane of the small school teacher’s existence, and are probably one of the reasons adequate educational records are not kept anyway) to ensure that new teachers coming into the area do not have to spend the first six months trying to determine what the children know or don’t know, what tools are available to fill the lamentable gaps, and devising methods to put these into operation. And if the teacher is only at the schools for one year, it doesn’t leave much time for teaching anything new to the children.
Establishing a Functional Library in an Aboriginal School
Authors: Jaunay E. 
Published: November 2015

After spending five terms working in the library at Oodnadatta Special Aboriginal School, I can now say I have achieved something. However, this achievement cannot be measured by an up-to-date catalogue and an extensive picture file, for example. What I have created is a library and library borrowing scheme which works for the children in this school.In the first instance I set about to structure the physical layout of the library so that each section was very clearly separated. Basically,we have an Easy Fiction, Fiction and Non-fiction section. Because reading achievement in this school is limited and reading ages low, I have played up the Easy Fiction section. We have used more shelves than in any other section and each shelf is backed with brightly coloured material. We display, with covers showing, as many books as possible, and only use the very bottom shelves for storing our books. These displays are changed daily by our aides, who are now an integral part of library functioning, as I am the pre-school teacher here and I have accepted the library merely as an area of responsibility.Because our more mature students are unsophisticated, there is little need to buy much material specifically for them, for they will read picture books with enthusiasm provided they are attractively displayed. At this time, we are cashing in on a gimmicky approach to encourage use of the library, rather than just the desire to read. The library is carpeted and curtained. We have removed a blackboard and replaced it with backed hessian, which we use for art display. We manufactured a listening-post from a high jump stand. We have removed tables and chairs and now have only a charge desk and chair and one low table for specific displays. We read on the floor. Because we have a storeroom for large audio-visual equipment, and our film projector and video are on moveable trolleys, (service trolleys) we do not use the library for these activities. This has helped us to channel the emphasis towards reading and books rather than use of the library as a general activities area.
Pupil Power
Authors: Coker J. 
Published: November 2015

Teachers of Aboriginal children have very special responsibilities. You and I know that Aborigines are the poorest, worst housed, least healthy group of people in Australia. More to the point, they are the least educated group of people in the Australian community. Our challenge is to rectify that situation.We will not get very far if we delude ourselves into thinking that we are working for the Aborigines. We have gone past that stage. You and I work with Aborigines. That is why we are so committed to the employment of Aboriginal teacher aides; why we have pushed Aboriginal Teacher Training; why we employ Aboriginal home/school co-ordinators; why we have Aboriginal school councils, and why we are forming a State Aboriginal Education Consultative Commi ttee.
Prerequisites for Language Learning
Authors: Armstrong J. 
Published: November 2015

Today, as never before, the teacher has access to an extremely wide array of materials claiming to foster language development. The language in this context can mean anything from oral language learning to appraisal skills for English literature.This paper, however, will deal specifically with the acquisition of oral language and can be applied either to a first or second language learning context.As teachers, we will have a personal expectation of the level of competence to be achieved by our students. Our expectations may decrease or increase according to the responses of our students over a period of time.
An Aboriginal School – A Model 1979-?
Authors: Moeckel D.A. 
Published: November 2015

This model is based on the following set of suppositions:– the Aboriginal school should be bilingual;– Aboriginal people are traditionally tied to their land and therefore students are reluctant to leave their local community for further education;– Communities in Australia will become self-managing, self-sufficient, and will determine their own future;– education of Aboriginal children will prepare them for their rightful position in their Community in relation to the above;– the Aboriginal attitude to education is different from that of the European Australian, and schools should cater for their needs as seen in the Community and not through the eyes of middle-class non-Aborigines;– Aboriginal people have the right to education on the basis of the United Nations Charter, Article 26:
Parent/Infant Play Group
Authors: Martin Karen 
Published: November 2015

I am one of a group of young Inala mothers who are involved in a playgroup in which we teach and learn with our children through their different stages of growth.Each Thursday we are visited by Margaret Henry and Jeannie Barney. They offer me advice concerning different and new methods of play or sometimes we exchange methods of play and communication.The play involved doesn’t require a set time or any expensive toys. Cotton reels, plastic containers etc., can provide hours of fun. However, we are fortunate enough to have a toy and book library from which our kids can select a toy or book for the week.Once a month we all meet at the Inala Family Education Centre, and there we mothers have the chance to talk and our children to play. In general, we discuss and experiment with suggestions and ideas, and we get the chance to show off our creativeness in the making of an item of play for our sons or daughters.The advantages of such a program are many. We are not only teaching our children but we’re learning with them also. We develop a relationship as friends with them, and they shall have some form of preparation for kindergarten. But, for me, there is nothing more fulfilling than to see my son repeat something I’ve shown him, and enjoy doing it.
Mobile Unit for Aboriginal Communities
Authors: Westover David 
Published: November 2015

A mobile education unit was commissioned in 1976 as a completely new concept in the education and advancement programme for Aborigines in South Australia. Previous attempts of institutionalised educational programmes had proved generally unsuccessful as adult Aborigines living in their own lands had not responded well to conventional approaches.The Department of Further Education accepted the need to preserve and develop Aboriginal society and to provide effective training within that society. As a result, opportunities were offered to adult Aborigines in the north west of the state to acquire domestic and mechanical skills in locations of their own choosing and in a way appropriate and in harmony with, traditional life styles.
The Incorporation of Near Extinct Aboriginal Languages into the Curriculum of Jervis Bay Primary School
Authors: Nugent A. 
Published: November 2015

Comparatively few Aboriginal words remain in the speech of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community. The words that have survived are remnants of two Aboriginal languages of the South Coast of New South Wales – the Dharawal language and the Dhurga language. Linguists consider that these were the main languages on this section of the coast. Since the turn of the century, however, it is thought the vocabularies were mixed up, so that now it is sometimes impossible to know for certain from which language particular words have come. It is on the basis of the words that have survived, a grammar of the languages compiled by Diana Eades, and her advice, that a language unit has been developed for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children who attend Jervis Bay Primary School.The language materials have been designed for children aged eight to nine years. In the materials emphasis is placed on the human qualities of language – its day-to-dayness, enjoyment and human interaction. By means of colourful, self-corrective manipulative materials, games, songs and vocabulary built around themes, the children are encouraged to work and play with the languages. These enjoyable experiences are expected to motivate the children to undertake language learning in the future. By teaching the Aboriginal languages of the area, the school demonstrates that it values the original Australian languages and that it desires to achieve in its curriculum some cultural transmission by the Aboriginal community.
Cultural Studies: Comparative at A.T.E.C.
Authors: McClelland G. 
Published: November 2015

The following Cultural Studies program has been working at A.T.E.C., Batchelor, for two years. The initial fears (how are you going to teach Aboriginals about their own culture? etc.) have been laid to rest and the course entered its second year in a very strong position with a lot of support coming from students.The structural components of the course come from three areas: Paulo Friere’s Education for Critical Consciousness, Beattie’s Other Cultures, and documentation from the East West Centre, Hawaii, on Cross Cultural Orientation Techniques.The course runs for four years and is based on a spiral concept with eight subjects discussed each year: law, politics, leadership, economics, kinship, family, language, religion.
Alienation in Aboriginal Education in the Northern Territory
Authors: Barry N. 
Published: November 2015

In many areas of government policy there is a big gap between theory and practice, that is, there is a difference between what ought to occur and what actually eventuates. This is unfortunately true for education as well. That education actually alienates the young from the old and from their traditional life-style may in some way be substantiated. In theory this should not happen. Before any discussion on the pros and cons of such a state of affairs, however, there is a need to define what education is, to define some of the approaches officially accepted in Aboriginal education and to differentiate between the needs of some of the more recognizable Aboriginal groups and their life-styles.Education can be defined as all the ways in which one person deliberately tries to influence the behaviour of another person. Behaviour may include knowledge, skills, habits, values and attitudes (Butts, n.d.). I believe education should serve either or both of two purposes -1. the acquisition of knowledge, skills, habits, values and attitudes which can be used to assist his community/society to attain a better standard of living, that is, economic development and/or quality of life, and/or2. to enable a person to be a better and more useful citizen in his/her society.
How Do Teachers Transmit their Attitudes and Expectations?
Authors: Dwyer J. 
Published: November 2015

In an earlier article (The Aborignal Child at School, Vol.7, No.3, 1979) I explored the idea that we, as teachers, may transmit our attitudes and expectations to our pupils through our accommodating and non-accommodating moves towards them. I suggested that we might observe such moves if we monitored our language behaviour against our intentions, as these are modified by our beliefs and attitudes, and by the on-going interaction. I proposed a model to help us explore the motives underlying our own accommodating and non-accommodating behaviours; to help us explore how these motives affect the kinds and extent of shifts we make; and to help us explore the effects of these shifts on the whole class or on groups of individuals within the class. I indicated that the aim of such exploration would be to sensitize us to the extent to which our language behaviour signals, both overtly and covertly, our own attitudes and expectations to our pupils.I would now like to look more closely at some of the items in the tentative list of ‘measures’ of accommodation that I detailed in that earlier article. In particular, I would like to look at questions in the classroom; at how teachers organize talk and use talk for organizing; and at joking in the classroom.
The People of Broken Bay : An Aboriginal Studies Course for Secondary Students Conceived and Implemented by an Aboriginal Community Member
Authors: Cook T. 
Published: November 2015

The Aboriginal Studies course outlined here was conceived by Jennie Fraser, a member of the Woy Woy Aboriginal community. In 1979 Jennie, who lives in Woy Woy with her family, approached the principal of Woy Woy High School with a proposal to introduce Aboriginal Studies within the school. The principal, in consultation with the Social Science and History masters, agreed to the idea and responded by allocating for Jennie Fraser’s proposed course, a segment of the Years 9 and 10 Social Science program.This showed considerable flexibility on the part of the school and left Jennie Fraser with a commitment to develop and participate in the teaching of an Aboriginal Studies course in 1980. She realized the constraints on the program, her own lack of teaching experience worried her and the curriculum aspects of developing a unit were of concern to her. However, she had expertise in Aboriginal Studies, and with the assistance of the school, was able to meet appropriate resource personnel. She contacted the Curriculum Consultant (Aboriginal Studies) and several visits and planning workshops were arranged for consultation which was beneficial to all parties concerned. During this process she met with the N.S.W. State Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and a workshop was organised to consider curriculum rationale at which she was able to discuss approaches to designing a unit. Alan Fidock, from the Curriculum Development Centre, attended this workshop.