Education is a crucial part of life and it must be ensured that all the communities, irrespective of their diverse values, are receiving proper education in order to boost the literacy rate as well as the employment rate in the country. This essay is focused on assessing different important aspects related to the learning system for the pupils from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It reflects specific needs of those students along with recommendations for the teachers.
It is known that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are having different cultural and social background than the rest of Australia. They are having a rich cultural background which is positive as well as negative in some context. Due to the highly contrasting lifestyle of Aboriginal and Torres Islander communities, their education systems also differ from each other. In old times, the Aboriginal and Torres Islander people used to identify the skills of their youths and work towards strengthening those skills. As per Harrison & Sellwood (2016), this was the way through which young people could contribute to their community. No decisions were imposed upon them regarding their future professions. Rather, they were helped thoroughly in identifying their existing abilities so that it can be made better and can be utilised for the greater good of the community and its people. Only children of the rich families were facilitated with educational support. As for the children of less fortunate families, they were deprived of education for a long time. Gradually, education took a drastic turn and it got mixed up with religious beliefs. For the following years, cathedrals and monasteries took the charge of education and added the essence of religion in the same (Price, 2015). Most of the people had no access to education; there were vast number of illiterate people. The priests were accountable for providing education to the sons of significant people. Higher education was like a distant dream for most of the people. The Industrial revolution of Europe introduced schooling system to the people. But its main objective was to instruct pupils to form a skilled labour force rather than rendering true education to them (Kinnane, Wilks, Wilson, Hughes & Thomas, 2014). The system was more focused on creating not well-educated, but well-trained countrymen.
The Aboriginal and Torres Islander people were concerned about educating their children, but by following their own way. The education they provided their children with was more community-centric than that of mainstream education. Since childhood they were taught about their history and different important aspects about their community (Carey et al. 2017). They had their own educational system with various facilities for their children. A teacher, a mentor and a peer were assigned for each of the children as they grew up. Tutors were also there who made sure that the children become familiar with the rich history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is crucial for the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure that the new generation gets to know their history and culture closely in order to maintain their traditions in future as well. As initially they are less prone in sending their children to schools, they did not get adequate chance to mix up with other children outside their community. As a result, an invisible barrier was created between the Australian children and children belonging from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Although, the air of western education brought new concepts in the educational system of the country, impacting it greatly, the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people kept following their own specialised education system for a very long time. For years, poor level educational facilities were existed for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community from the end of the Government (Morris & Burgess, 2018). With time the scenario changed as more facilities were allotted for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people to take their education graph higher. A number of changes were planned to be implemented for the educational facilities towards Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people such as, provision of remedial teachers, employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aids for schools, specialised curriculum materials, provision of early childhood programs, and relevant courses to meet the needs of this community (Price, 2015).
After the education system allowed more facilities towards Aboriginal and Torres Islander communities, they were provided with equal opportunities in education. The education level for the community rose and the only thing which became a barrier for their education is their participation. Initially, the participation of the children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were very low compared to other children of the country (Funston & Herring, 2016). The Government allotted facilities to the community but the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people were reluctant to send their children to schools initially. As a result, the schools had very low attendance of children coming from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (Rochecouste, Oliver, Bennell, Anderson, Cooper & Forrest, 2017). At first they were reluctant as they preferred their old education system and feared that this new education system might not be appropriate for their young generation. On the other hand, they were also concerned that their children might face discrimination, which happened in some cases as well. Children Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander were bullied in classrooms and became victim of discrimination. As a result, they became more reluctant to return to schools. The school attendance rate among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities reduced drastically. Along with lower attendance rate, the performance level of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in school took a downfall as well. The children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were not able to perform well like other students. As a result, it became harder for them to pass in different subjects and promoted to new class. With lower grades, they were subjected to mockery in schools. The rate of school drop-out was astonishingly higher among children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (Dudgeon, Wright, Paradies, Garvey & Walker, 2014). This resulted in punishments and suspensions which worsened the educational scenario for the community. Due to the misbalance between the school setting and the Aboriginal people, rate of suspension of the students from such communities increased.
The situation has become better with more awareness among the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander regarding the need of proper education to end up with good employment opportunities. Employment opportunities are a key factor which makes Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people keen on acquiring proper education and enabling a seamless education process for their children. As most of the people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are suffering from employment issues with a large amount of unemployed Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people being unemployed (Smith et al. 2015). With employment crisis on rise, the people of the communities have understood the importance of schooling; therefore, boosting the attendance rate among the students coming from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Also, the RSAS (Remote School Attendance Strategy) implemented on 2014 focused on increasing the school attendance rate among the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (Madden, 2017). Since this implementation, the attendance rate is increased by 48 per cent in RSAS schools. The RSAS works actively with the schools, parents, and communities to ensure high rate of school attendance. The program currently supports around 14,500 such students by boosting their school attendance. Due to the fluctuating behaviour from such students, the teachers need to be well-equipped with needful educational strategies to ensure proper education to the students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. The literacy rate among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are varied in rural and urban areas. The community based in major cities are likely to have more literacy rate among them than the ones living in remote areas (Price, 2015). On the other hand, the education among non-indigenous students does not vary in accordance to the remoteness of their surroundings. This reflects a major gap between both the segments. It is necessary for the teachers to assess the requirements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote areas and provide them with adequate education.
Language is considered as a major barrier in making the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students more adaptive to the schooling system. The language is important when it comes to teaching and learning. As the indigenous languages are not used in educational institutions, it can be said that the students coming from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities go through a lot of hurdles to complete their education and obtain their respective degrees. The teachers must be cautious about their languages as linguistic barrier is considered as a major issue faced by the pupils of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island (Lewthwaite et al. 2017). They often found using languages which are not appropriate in an educational setting. As a result, other students often regard them as bad influence. It is the duty of the teachers to make all the students aware about different cultures and languages so that they are aware of various languages used across the world. They should also be taught about the negative aspects of discrimination and how it should be abandoned by the pupils to spread peace and prosperity. I, being a teacher, also maintain these. When children enter in a school, which is a diverse setting for them, they do not understand the formal atmosphere of a school and ends up using languages which are considered as inappropriate in an educational setting. Therefore, they are subjected towards punishment or suspension. On the other hand, there are languages which should not be used for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people while interacting with them. For instance, words like aborigines, aboriginal people, coloured, blacks, whites, aboriginals, the Torres Strait Islanders, yellafellas must not be applied for people of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as it promotes that all of the indigenous Australians fall in same category which is untrue (Grant & Greenop, 2018). Instead, I make sure that I use phrases like Indigenous Australian people, Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islander people etc.
The words like traditional, transnational, contemporary, rural, urban, modern, remote Aboriginal people are less appropriate in the context. Being a teacher, I need to be more focused on not using these terms during my classes. Usage of such words can be extremely offensive to the Indigenous Australians (Lloyd, Lewthwaite, Osborne & Boon, 2015). Each of these terms signifies different aspects which are not acceptable for these communities. Hence, it is recommended for the teachers to refrain from using such languages. Classification of cultures should be abandoned along with application of words like native, primitive, simple, Stone Age, pre-historic as these words imply that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are ‘less advanced’ or backwards. This can be demeaning to the people of the community as they are being portrayed as less progressive. Therefore, phrases like Indigenous nations, efficient resource managers, diverse and complex societies, Indigenous Australian society are to be used to draw more attention towards the sophistication and effectiveness of Indigenous Australian resource management. I need to maintain that the people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are not discriminated by using words like band, tribe, horde, clan, moiety etc. Hogarth (2015) says, they should be referred as Aboriginal people, cultural group, language group instead. As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are strong believers of their culture, they do not consider adopting Western values with passing time. The words like Spirituality or spiritual beliefs are more convenient than Religion as it primarily refers to comparatively more accepted Western religion which are not considered by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. While teaching students belonging from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, I must be well-aware of these terms so that the students can feel better in an educational setting. As my teaching subject is not much language oriented, there is less possibility of me using those words, but I need to use proper terms while I am initiating general conversation with them. Also, as a teacher I must ensure that those students are able to fulfil their skill gaps and knowledge gaps thereby enhancing the education standards in their community.
Conclusion
The essay identifies a number of issues faced pupils from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and how I plan to skip those issues. Language barrier is a crucial one which impacts the teaching facilitated towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. With proper measures and policies, it is possible to boost the number of well-educated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
References
Carey, T. A., Dudgeon, P., Hammond, S. W., Hirvonen, T., Kyrios, M., Roufeil, L., & Smith, P. (2017). The Australian Psychological Society’s Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. Australian Psychologist, 52(4), 261-267.
Dudgeon, W., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D., & Walker, I. (2014). Aboriginal social, cultural and historical contexts. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 3-24). Commonwealth Department of Health.
Funston, L., & Herring, S. (2016). When will the stolen generations end?: A qualitative critical exploration of contemporary’child protection’practices in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand, 7(1), 51.
Grant, E., & Greenop, K. (2018). Affirming and reaffirming Indigenous presence: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, public and institutional architecture in Australia. In The handbook of contemporary Indigenous architecture (pp. 57-105). Springer, Singapore.
Harrison, N. E., & Sellwood, J. (2016). Learning and teaching in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Hogarth, M. D. (2015). A critical analysis of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology).
Kinnane, S., Wilks, J., Wilson, K., Hughes, T., & Thomas, S. (2014). “Can’t be what you can’t see”: the transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to higher education.
Lewthwaite, B., Osborne, B., Lloyd, N., Llewellyn, L., Boon, H., Webber, T., … & Harrison, M. (2015). Seeking a pedagogy of difference: What Aboriginal students and their parents in North Queensland say about teaching and their learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 40(5), 132.
Lloyd, N. J., Lewthwaite, B. E., Osborne, B., & Boon, H. J. (2015). Effective teaching practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: A review of the literature. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 40(11), 1.
Madden, B. (2017). Tracing spectres of whiteness: discourse and the construction of teaching subjects in urban Aboriginal education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 38(5), 642-658.
Morris, A., & Burgess, C. (2018). The intellectual quality and inclusivity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the NSW Stage 5 History syllabus. Curriculum Perspectives, 38(2), 107-116.
Price, K. (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: An Introduction for the Teaching Profession. Cambridge University Press.
Rochecouste, J., Oliver, R., Bennell, D., Anderson, R., Cooper, I., & Forrest, S. (2017). Teaching Australian Aboriginal higher education students: what should universities do?. Studies in Higher Education, 42(11), 2080-2098.
Smith, J. D., Springer, S., Togno, J., Martin, M., Murphy, B., & Wolfe, C. (2015). Developing a cultural immersion approach to teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and culture. LIME Good Practice Case Studies Volume 3, 39.
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