Infant removals: The need to address the over-representation of Aboriginal infants and community concerns of another ‘stolen generation’

ObjectivesThe removal of a child from their parents is traumatising, particularly in Aboriginal communities where a history of child removals has led to intergenerational trauma. This study will determine where disparities in child protection involvement exist among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children and characteristics associated with infant removals. Challenges faced by child protection and other agencies, and opportunities for overcoming these, are discussed.MethodsData from both the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and linked Western Australian government data was used to examine disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in the child protection and out-of-home care system.ResultsNationally, Aboriginal children are ten times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care than non-Aboriginal children and this disparity starts in infancy. Infants were removed from parents with high levels of risk. Aboriginal infants were at increased risk of being removed from women with substance-use problems and had greater proportions removed from remote, disadvantaged communities than were non-Aboriginal infants.ConclusionsAboriginal infants have a high rate of removal. Although there are many complexities to be understood and challenges to overcome, there are also potential strategies. The disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal infant removals needs to be seen as a priority requiring urgent action to prevent further intergenerational trauma.     

从政治经济视角解析加拿大土著经济发展状况

加拿大土著经济一直徘徊在加拿大的经济圈之外,处在与现代经济并行的福利经济中。这主要归因于殖民历史给土著社会造成的持久影响。虽然联邦政府采取诸多经济战略,实施《社会援助计划》,启动现代化方案,弘扬土著文化等等,目的是帮助土著尽快走出经济困境,但是土著若想真正走出福利经济的怪圈,就必须掌握自然资源的控制权,自我发展的主动权,迅速提升经济竞争实力,不断拓展与非土著民族经济合作的广度与深度,才能彻底改变依附政府福利援助和救济的被动局面。     

Measuring the impact of a community of practice in Aboriginal health

Effective strategies to enhance the competence of practising health professionals are limited. Communities of Practice are proposed as strategy, yet little is known about their ability to develop cultural competency and practice. This study aimed to measure the impact of a Community of Practice on the self-assessed cultural competency and change to practice of dietitians working in Aboriginal health. A mixed-method approach including a quantitative 16-item cultural-competency self-assessment tool (completed at baseline and after 12 months of participation) together with the qualitative most significant change stories were used. Quantitative and qualitative data were compared together for congruence and difference. All participants (n?=?13) completed the cultural competency-self assessment and participated in the significant change story development. They reported that through networking and joint problem solving they increased competence (13 of 16 performance indicators) and qualitative described increased self-confidence for their work in Aboriginal health through improved understanding of the factors related to the impact of history, culture and utilisation of resources on service delivery, appropriate communication strategies, effective relationships and managing conflict. These findings suggests that formalised and structured Communities of Practice may be an effective workforce development strategy to influence the practice of health professionals working in Aboriginal health.     

Listening to our Students: Understanding the factors that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' academic success

While the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in higher education in Australia has doubled in recent years, the gap between their attainment and the attainment of other Australians has remained consistent. It is essential to elucidate the factors that promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' academic success, not in order to justify the exclusion of these students from tertiary education, but to refine and develop curriculum and management strategies which promote their academic success. This study focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students' experiences in a diploma program offered in block mode, in order to better understand the ‘on-’ and ‘off-’ campus experiences which are related to academic success and the factors which challenge or enhance students' study. The research yields important findings related to students' motivations to enrol and their definitions of academic success; the challenges they experience in making the transition to tertiary study; the vulnerability of our students' determination to succeed; the effects of being in a program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; and the ways in which minor challenges, if unresolved, can accumulate to interfere with students' study.     

Improving the participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business education

Most Australian universities have among their goals to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at their institutions. In the Australian higher education context, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are seriously under-represented, particularly in business education compared to other disciplines. An understanding of why a larger proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students do not choose to study a discipline that provides promising employment opportunities, is fundamental to improving the status quo. This paper reviews the literature to identify key barriers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ participation and engagement in business education. Apart from multiple general barriers to participation in higher education, factors specific to business as a profession and as an academic discipline are also considered. The paper then discusses a number of strategies Australian educational institutions could pursue when seeking to increase participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business. Drawing on the review, the paper concludes with recommendations for higher education institutional policy to further improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation and engagement in business studies.     

The Remote Area Teacher Program (RATEP): Cultural contextualisation of distance education through interactive

The Remote Area Teacher Education Program (RATEP) is a successful and innovative distance education programme. Curriculum design demands the meaningful integration of traditional distance education materials and strategies with other electronic technology and interactive multimedi a computer courseware. RATEP is more than ‘two‐way schooling’ for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander distance education students studying in their home communities. Centred within Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development, the interactive multimedia computer courseware is informed by the intersecting set of the various cultural contexts: academic culture embedded in Western culture; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and that of the computer. Illustrative examples from generalist and mathematics content and curriculum subjects demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally contextualising instructional computer‐student interface design in order to promote learning through interactive.     

Belonging and learning to belong in school: the implications of the hidden curriculum for indigenous students

This paper engages with current educational literature in Australia and internationally, in exploring the implications of the hidden curriculum for Indigenous students. It argues that in schools, most of the learning rules or guidelines reflect the ‘white’ dominant culture values and practices, and that it is generally those who don't have the cultural match-ups that schooling requires for success, such as Indigenous and minority students, who face the most educational disadvantage. Howard and Perry argue that Indigenous students ‘… need to feel that schools belong to them as much as any child’ and that to ‘… move towards the achievement of potential of Aboriginal students, it is important that Aboriginal culture and language are accepted in the classroom’. This paper will also provide a discussion into school-based strategies that are considered effective for engaging Indigenous students with school.     

Relationship to place: positioning Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives in classroom pedagogies

This project is based on research conducted with 12 schools in New South Wales, Australia. It examines how each school incorporates Aboriginal perspectives in its Kindergarten to Year 6 program with a view to identifying quality practice. As we interviewed teachers in these schools, it became clear that there is considerable confusion over the difference between Aboriginal perspectives and Aboriginal knowledge with both concepts being used interchangeably to teach syllabus content and information about Aboriginal people. We endeavour to clarify these concepts and to suggest how teachers might incorporate Aboriginal knowledge in their programs, without recreating some of the stereotypical representations that are often an effect of current pedagogies.     

Searching for the Songlines of Aboriginal education and culture within Australian higher education

The introduction of spaces that encouraged the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in higher education became a reality in the early 1980s. Since then, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators and leaders have worked tirelessly to find their ‘fit’ within the Western academy, which continues to impose a colonial, Western educative framework onto Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. More recently, universities are attempting to move towards a ‘whole of university’ approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education. To achieve such a major shift across the academy, Indigenous values, perspectives and knowledges need to be acknowledged as a strong contributor to the environments of universities in all core areas: student engagement, learning and teaching, research and workforce. In a move to achieving a ‘whole of university’ approach which revolves around Aboriginal culture and knowledges, the Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle developed a set of cultural standards, as part of an international accreditation process, to guide a culturally affirming environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff. This environment acknowledges the unique cultural values and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In this paper, the authors explore, from an Indigenous Standpoint, the creation of a university environment that privileges Aboriginal values, principles, knowledges and perspectives. The paper exposes how traditional Aboriginal Songlines, particularly in Aboriginal education, were disrupted, and how the creation and emergence of a contemporary environment of Aboriginal educational and cultural affirmation works towards the re-emergence of Songlines within higher education.     

Deadly Ways to Learn a yarn about some learning we did together

The title of Western Australia's Deadly Ways to Learn project, an action research project aimed at facilitating and enhancing the teaching and learning of Australian Aboriginal students, was inspired by Aboriginal English in which 'deadly' means 'really good'. Aboriginal English is the first dialect of most Indigenous Australians and differs in fundamental and consistent ways from Standard Australian English which is the language of instruction in most Australian schools. Accordingly, most Aboriginal students receive schooling in a second dialect. Deadly Ways to Learn brought this dilemma into focus and engaged teachers and Indigenous Education Officers (IEOs) from several government, Catholic and independent schools in action research to develop two-way bi-dialectal teaching practices that would support literacy acquisition among Aboriginal students. Getting teachers and IEOs to accept the existence and validity of Aboriginal English was a huge task. The real challenge, however, was getting teachers to respect the sociocultural perspectives and value systems that Aboriginal English is used to express. Teachers and partner IEOs jointly participated in a series of collaborative forums in which candid discussions about culture and linguistics were carefully facilitated. Over a relatively short period, profound changes were observed and self-reported among participants. This paper outlines the collaborative processes employed in the project, qualitative changes that occurred among participants and key findings about two-way bi-dialectal teaching.     

Beyond cultural competence: transforming teacher professional learning through Aboriginal community-controlled cultural immersion

ABSTRACT

This paper problematises the concept of cultural competence in teacher professional learning arguing instead for opportunities to develop critical reflexivity in the ongoing construction of a pedagogical cultural identity. In the Aboriginal context within Australia, this research study demonstrates how attaining cultural knowledge, understandings and skills is most effective when professional learning is delivered by local Aboriginal cultural knowledge holders. This research study analyses the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Connecting to Country cultural immersion programme for local communities and schools. A mixed methods approach, analysing quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires and interviews, highlights the significant impact this experience has on teachers in building relationships with local Aboriginal community members. Teachers reported learning new knowledge about local Aboriginal people, culture, history and issues that challenged their assumptions, personal and collective positioning and pedagogical approaches to teaching Aboriginal students. Implications from the study identify the significance of privileging Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in order to realise culturally responsive schooling and empower teachers as critically reflective change agents in their schools. It further identifies the need for significant human and financial investment so that all teachers can engage with this authentic and potentially transformative professional learning experience.     

Aboriginal identity in education settings: privileging our stories as a way of deconstructing the past and re-imagining the future

From Aboriginal Australian perspectives and experiences, Aunty Judi Wickes and Marnee Shay bring a cross-generational, critical race analysis of Aboriginal identities and how they are implicated in the schooling experiences of Aboriginal young people. Using autoethnography, Aunty Judi and Marnee discuss their educational experiences in the Australian education systems from primary schooling experiences to university settings. These narratives bring forth the dominant discourses that continue to subjugate and subordinate Aboriginal Australians and Aboriginal Australian identities in Education settings. The paper distinguishes the narratives of two Aboriginal women and how on-going colonial and racialised constructions of Aboriginal identity continue to impact upon the educational experiences of Aboriginal peoples and consequently the engagement of Aboriginal young people in school settings. Moreover, we will use the process of critical self-reflection to re-imagine educational approaches to reconstruct our own experiences and consider what changes might improve the outcomes of Indigenous young people for future generations.     

Aboriginal student stories,the missing voice to guide us towards change

Despite decades of policy and practice oriented at improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal students in Australia, achievements on most measures indicate that there is a long way to go in this endeavour. One avenue for improving Aboriginal education that has received little attention is accessing the views of Aboriginal students themselves about best practice in engaging Aboriginal students. While there is a body of research in education that attempts to privilege ‘student voices,’ little work has explicitly focussed on accessing the voices of Aboriginal students. This paper reports on my study that involved asking Aboriginal students their views on schools, teachers and the curriculum in culturally safe discussion spaces. The Aboriginal students highlighted the need for their culture to be represented at schools and the recognition of their Aboriginality in safe environments at school. These findings reinforce the importance of engaging with Aboriginal people in the development of best practice so as to build Aboriginal understandings within a Western educational system.     

A cross-cultural comparison of numeracy skills using a written and an interactive arithmetic test

This study applied two arithmetic tests, one written and one one computer-based interactive, to samples of primary school children from two populations, one suburban non-Aboriginal and one rural Aboriginal. The results from the written test were significantly (p?&;lt;?0.001) better for the non-Aboriginal children than for the Aboriginal children. This was not the case with the results from the computer-based interactive test. The study used Rasch-based methodology to reduce the results from the two tests to a common scale, to ascertain whether the Aboriginal children performed better (in relation to the non-Aboriginal children) in the computer-based than in the written test. The study found that this was the case, and concluded that the results from the computer-based test exhibited less cultural bias against the Aboriginal children than the written test.     

Inter‐disciplinary but not Undisciplined: Writing the history of Aboriginal “education”

The history of Australian Aboriginal peoples sits uneasily on the margins of Australian history in much the same way as Aboriginal peoples themselves exist on the borders and interstices of the society that has colonised them and dispossessed them of their lands and cultures. The history of education likewise, sits somewhat on the margins of the discipline of history. The history of Aboriginal education, therefore, has never been a large field of study, though a handful of individuals have made important contributions.

This article will consider some of the reasons for the current position of the study of how Aboriginal peoples have learned and been taught in the past and will suggest that there are a number of inter‐related reasons for the limitations of both research and analysis within the field. Some of these limitations stem from the discipline itself, others from the subject. They will be discussed using examples from research with Australian Aboriginal and Canadian First Nations peoples and with regard to some recent publications in Australia and New Zealand.     

从赋权自治到能力建构:加拿大原住民教育政策的新路向

在原住民运动的推动下,加拿大原住民教育政策确立了赋权自治的取向。但原住民教育依然面临挑战与困境,原住民缺乏担当和发展教育的现实能力。为此,加拿大政府和原住民采取了一系列新的策略、措施,以提升原住民能力为路向,积极完善教育政策,为原住民教育的发展提供本原性动力,以求从根本上综合解决原住民教育问题。     

加拿大土著中等教育之变量研究:基于宏观与微观视角

多元文化政策和各项土著教育政策的实施促进了加拿大土著教育的良性发展。然而,根据最近统计数据,与非土著学生相比,土著在学习态度,学业成绩、出勤率和稳定学习等诸多方面均表现出极大的差距。根据雅塔.卡努教授对土著学生所做的教育调查报告的结果展开了深度思考,从土著文化与课程的有机融合,到宏观结构政策的积极配合,这两种变量对土著学生取得学业成功至关重要,缺一不可。     

Reflections on residential school and our future: "daylight in our minds"

This testimonio takes up what it means to be an educator of Aboriginal ancestry working within existing school structures for the betterment of Aboriginal children. While the testimonialista does not presume to speak for her people, she contends that her story of growing up and becoming a teacher is not unlike that of other First Nations people in Canada. She examines her life within the continuing colonizing structures of Canada and shows how the struggles for justice and recognition of Aboriginal wisdom within education are making a difference.     

‘Research as dialogue’ and cross-cultural consultations: confronting relations of power

In this paper, we discuss methodological issues that emerged as we worked through a small empirical research project, ‘Engaging Aboriginal students in education through community empowerment’. Recent national policy statements (see, for example, MCEETYA 2000, NBEET 1995) argue the importance of education/research that keeps the locus of control within the Aboriginal community as a means to further the goal of self-determination and improve educational outcomes. In keeping with these recommendations, our project aimed to challenge assimilationist frameworks and sought to ‘empower’ members of the local Aboriginal community through participation in the project.