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Week 6: The World of Indigenous Students

Young & Black & Deadly: Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Indigenous Students (Sara, C. 2003) was the reading for this week. I found it inspiring and defeating at the same time. I found it inspiring that a person can make such a difference in people's lives. Yes the Principal had to be working as a part of the team but it seems that he was the person to have the courage to stand up and say 'yes we are going to do it'. When you look at the steps he took, for example changing the contract for the grounds people to the local council, and developing a school song, they seem so obvious and logical. But sometimes/often it's so hard to see those things when you're caught up in a situation. I imagine that Chris, the Principal, is a charismatic person. Some people seem to just inspire others to do better for themselves. I don't feel that I'm one of those people that it comes naturally to. I feel that I have to work at it. It's inspiring to hear about someone having the courage to stand up. I hope that I work with someone like that.

How do I work past my own whiteness? I suppose by immersing myself in the culture of the school that I teach at and trying to develop an awareness, and understanding. It will be interesting to see how I cope, if I find that I don't agree with the values of the culture of the school. On my first prac there were values that the teacher upheld which I didn't agree with, but I felt that it was my place (is that a loaded statement!) as the student teacher to firstly try different teaching methods i.e. use some of my teaching styles, and secondly to uphold what was already in place. For example, the teacher I felt stereotyped children. The girls were given the jobs of colouring in the card for the teacher that was leaving, and clearing out the cupboard when it got too messy etc. Two children clearly were struggling socially and continually kept in at break times for not completing work. I suppose I more disagreed with the way he went about things. I think all children should have had a turn at cleaning the cupboard and that the two children who were struggling socially, should have been dealt with significantly differently. I feel that when I have my own classroom I will be able to do things my way, so I can avoid the above type things happening. But I can't help but feel a bit of doubt about how much freedom I will have to uphold my values. Maybe that's how you know whether you want to work in particular school or not.

I really enjoyed the style of this reading (written somewhat like a story about how Chris improved the school). I found it VERY informative but easy to read too. Its like I said in the first or second week, I like learning through stories and that's what I felt this reading was like.

I think that rewards (extrinsic motivators) are often criticized for being ineffective: children only exhibit the desired behaviour when they know there is a reward for them. In the instance of improving attendance however, it was very effective. But I think this is due to the other work that was put in as well. Students' self-respect was being built up. The student's were learning respect for their school grounds and the people who worked in them. I think they started to see that attending was beneficial to their future and they had started to have hope for the future. Going MacDonalds was just that bit of extra 'encouragement' that helped to sweeten the situation.

Sarra, C. 2003. Young & Black & Deadly: Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Indigenous Students. Australian College of Education: Australia.

Posted at 02:15PM Nov 04, 2008 by April W  | 

Week 5: Indigenous Education Policy

I found it fascinating to learn about the family unit of Indigenous Peoples. Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles have a large input into childrens upbringing, so that cousins become more like siblings (Ngarritjan-Kessaris,1994, pp. 1-2). In 'white' (Is that an appropropriate term? It kind of lumps all people together of similiar skin colour, without recognising they aren't the same) society not many Aunties, Uncles or Grandparents would participate to the same extent. They would probably be considered to be 'interfering' if they did.

Between the ages of about 9-15 I had little to do with one set of Grandparents. I found them overbearing. I see those Grandparents every Christmas, but rarely more than that. I feel that they constantly judge me and try to tell me how to live my life. I feel that they don't accept my way of doing things as 'ok'. I wonder if an Aboriginal young person goes through the same sort of thing. Do they feel angry, frustrated and disappointed when their Grandparents tell them how to do things in their life? Do they just accept that their Grandparents know best? Are young people taught that their elders know best? I guess in white Australian society we are taught this but it's considered ok to disagree. Whereas I have the impression that it's not ok in Aboriginal Cultures, that you have to listen to your elders, that its really disrespectful not to. I guess it's disrespectful in white Australian society too, maybe not to the same extent? I don't know I need an Indigenous person to ask.

Another area that caught my attention was the Aboriginal notion of time. Terry Ngarritjan-Kessaris (1994, p. 3) speaks about how the members of his family ate when they were hungry, went to bed when they were tired, didn't wear always wear pyjamas to bed and drank tea like adults. He speaks about how time seemed to flow for him, in comparison with White Australian time which he perceived it to be broken up in smaller segments. Ngarritjan-Kessaris mentions this in relation to learning about timelines in maths and that he felt that his families way of doing things was wrong because the teacher only demonstrated a typical White Australian day. This tells me that I need to be conscious of not presenting one way of doing things as THE way to do things. I need to use a variety of examples, from different cultures. When I do talk about such things as timelines, I need to speak to my children in terms of MY day, and tell them that their timeline maybe different to mine, and that's ok.

Ngarritjan-Kessaris, T., 1994, Memories of a Millner Kid, in S. Harris and M. Malin (eds), Aboriginal Kids in Urban Classrooms, Social Science Press, Wentworth Falls, NSW Australia.

See http://www.equalitymedia.com.au/equality/books/ss005.htm for details.

Posted at 01:24PM Oct 23, 2008 by April W  | 

Week 4: Invisibile Whiteness of being a Teacher

Whiteness

When I started to read this weeks reading (see http://mmcisaac.faculty.asu.edu/emc598ge/Unpacking.html ), it seemed like fluent gibberish. I didn't understand what was meant by the term 'whiteness', I suppose because I had never come across the word before or considered the idea. I have never been overseas, so I haven't really been in a situation where I have been part of a small minority. I've been trying to think of a situation where I have been in the minority and I can't really come up with one. In another class I think that I am in a minority because most of the other students seem to have more experience and know more about what the lecturer is talking about. This leaves me feeling stupid (because I know less and don't always understand). I choose to speak up less in the class because I don't want to give the wrong answer. Maybe this is a bit like what Indigenous students feel like in the class.

What could the lecturer do to make me feel more at ease?
~ Encourage questions and support answers by responding in a way that isn't demeaning; and doesn't leave students feeling stupid for asking the questions.

What can I do in my class?
~ Always welcome questions no matter how silly or stupid they may seem to me or others.
~ Answer questions in an open and accepting way so as to not make a student feel they are dumb.
~ Don't tolerate any students making unkind remarks about any student who asks a question that others may consider to be stupid or silly.

Lecturer
~ He/She could also explain things better. I don't feel comfortable asking him to explain some things because I don't want to lose face in front of my classmates: I don't want to be seen or feel dumb.

Me
~ Create a supportive and open learning environment so students feel comfortable in asking questions.
~ Develop a system where students can signal to me that they don't understand, without other students knowing that they don't understand. This way I can provide another explanation.
~ Speak to individuals one on one to make sure they understand.

Posted at 02:20PM Oct 21, 2008 by April W  | 

Week 3: Commonwealth History Project

Because Ngurunderi and Mulyawongk are about the creation of the land features of South Australia, it also fills in a puzzle piece for me, it gives me information about what Aboriginal People from these area's believe. I wonder if there is a set of readers that have The Dreamings from a group of people. It would be interesting to use them in a classroom and see how/if the parents reacted. I think some might be annoyed and/or refuse for their child to read them. I see The Dreamings as an alternative idea to evolution and creation theory. Is there a Dreaming narrative that explains the creation of the world, or do they only travel as far as the limits of Australia? 

Hearing from Mary (names changed for privacy) and Joan about how they incorporated a unit of work about Kaurna People was really interesting and useful. It reinforces to me that you can take whatever theme you like and incorporate it across the curriculum. And I believe that this makes for deeper learning because you create multiple entry points to access the same information. It also allows children to build on what they already know.

The idea of marking group work individually I think is a brilliant idea! Mary said she recorded what each person does (would have been good to know how this happened) and I think that you could teach your students to do some of this as well. I know that I usually shudder when I hear that I have to participate in a group assignment and have learnt to pick group partners carefully. The downfall of this is that I tend to work with the same people to a certain extent. I also find that I tend to extend myself more when I work with a group, I suppose because the people I try to work with are hard workers and are at University to do the best they can. Therefore they are willing to put in effort also. There seems to be much conflict about how to select groups. Random, with friends, by learning style, ability level, the list goes on. I think it would depend on the activity. During Final Practicum I did random grouping which worked ok (I was doing an activity where children interviewed each other about their holiday activities). We also did some more prolonged group work, in which my teacher divided up the children using a combination of ability and friends. This also seemed to work well.

It would be interesting to interview a group of children to hear what they think. You could ask who they prefer to work with and why, who they learn/work best with, do you prefer it when you select the groups or when the teacher does? I generally prefer it when the teacher makes the groups for brief discussions, but choose my own group when it's a group project. I'm curious about what children would prefer because I wonder if Indigenous students within a class would prefer to work together because from some of the information that I have been reading (Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Ed. Gary Partington and Aboriginal Kids in Urban Classrooms,  Ed. Stephen Harris  Merridy Malin) Indigenous students may have a similar perspective to each other. But then that's stereotyping too. Just because some Indigenous families consist of Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles, doesn,t mean that all do. I think it would come down to each individual, just like everything. The more I think about this subject the more I realise its not just about Indigenous Australian students. It's about seeing the children in our class as individuals and getting to know each individual (as much as possible) so that we can cater to their needs. In my opinion that's the biggest problem about the majority of schools- they teach/preach to the masses. As a student teacher I find it easiest to teach in the same manner as the teacher I'm with, so I find it hard to know how to cater to individuals when I haven't seen it done effectively.

Posted at 02:48PM Oct 07, 2008 by April W  | 

Week 2: Race and European Imperialism

I found it quite interesting today to try and come up a cultural identity marker. That is a hard thing to do. Initially I thought about bringing in something I had sewn, but that seemed too narrow and limiting to my family, and when I thought about it more, limited to the female members of my family. Then I thought about things I associated with Australians: BBQ, thongs, gum nuts, deck chair: these things seemed too cliqued. It is hard, if not impossible, to come up with something that includes all Australians, apart from that we live in Australia. Anyhow I decided on one of my favourite singlet tops because it has a strong link to me and things I associate with Australians. It has flowers printed on it, which I have a strong association with; its a singlet top which I see to symbolise relaxation and being laid back; its a common garment in Australia; its something I would often wear to the beach, which I think is a strong link to Australia.  Like Toni, I considered bringing a photo of my family, but firstly, couldn't find a recent on quickly, and secondly decided I wasn't sure how it could be a cultural identity marker.

I felt a bit peeved at something that the presenter said today. He was talking about the dehumanization of different groups of people. He gave examples of the discourse used for women, Indigenous People and then mentioned that there were terms for the Proletariat and stated "but we don't need to go into that." Isn't this implying support for the superiority of the proletariat, a group of people or race, but not giving examples of dehumanizing them when he has given examples for other groups of people??? It may simply have been a slip or he glanced at the clock and thought he was running behind time. Why am I trying to defend/justify what I heard?????

I found the concept of dehumanizing people through language fascinating. It never occurred to me about how the language used, allowed people, allows us, to justify our actions. I remember an article I read about the use of the word illegal immigrant. The author was trying to make the point, from my understanding, about the influence that language has on our perception. The author wrote a paragraph about some uni students doing an typical activity e.g. Today a group of uni students were seen sitting together under a group of tree's, in a heated discussion. Some of the uni students became quite animated, wildly gesturing and speaking loudly, causing passers by to notice them." Then the author rewrote the paragraph replacing the word uni student with illegal immigrants. Actually, I think it may have been the other way around. The author took an article that used the term illegal immigrants and replaced it with uni students. Anyhow, the point is that it completely changed the way you felt about what was said. It went from sounding alarming and threatening to something not out of the ordinary. My point is that language and choice of words is very powerful. We, that is humans, need to stop and think before we open our mouths.

In the tut today we started to talk about how we classify people. The Tutor mentioned about how a lady she knows classifies people as she walks down the street. I do the same. Sometimes its more like "mmm nice pattern on her top. Wonder where she got it?" "He looks grumpy wonder if he's had a bad day", "My goodness! How tall was that lady!" I find that I do it a lot in uni classes. I try to pigeon hole people. "He always speaks up" "I bet she gets High Distinctions".  I bet other people do the same to me to. "She always speaks up- know it all!" "My goodness, can she never let anyone else say something" "I bet she's boring, look at her daggy clothes." It's again that notion that we make assumptions based on physical characteristics. It would be an interesting experiment to see what we assumed about people if we could only hear them, or only smell them. Thinking about smell, I bet lots of people would smell perfume and think of a clean well presented lady, and cologne, a well dressed man, a person smelling of body odour as an old man or a teenage guy full of hormones. We have such programmed ideas in our heads, such constructed ideas, from media, family, friends, personal experience/observation, books we read. Could we get by without making assumptions and classifying people? How do we un-program ourselves? What program would replace the current program? Would a program replace the current one? What about if you suspect that someone is going to harm you because of their behaviour or appearance, but try not to assume they are going to, and then are harmed? What about the opposite, you don't suspect someone and they do harm you... I think you would feel a lack of trust in your own judgment or assumptions about people...

The reading "Savages" this week was not much of a surprise to me. I had heard of the size of skulls being measured to assign 'intelligence' and likewise with the slope of the forehead. I was also aware that a very dim view of Indigenous Peoples was presented by Europeans in general (as I think most invaders would be likely to do, to justify their actions). I see this as a gross misunderstanding of each other. As mentioned in the tut today, Captain Cook was almost speared because an Indigenous person thought he glared at him and was going to throw in over his shoulder. The invaders (I don't feel entirely comfortable with this word) likewise saw the Aboriginals as backward, primitive etc. because they were different. But isn't it interesting that Settlers still had to use Indigenous People for things e.g. tracking, so they were valued for some things, but obviously not valued enough to be considered equals. I think this is a big part of racism, different people value different qualities. Therefore if you exhibit qualities/skills that I value, then I value you at least as an equal. But if you exhibit qualities or skills that I don't consider of value, then I see you as a lower person. That's not totally accurate because not everyone is like that. Some people are able/willing to acknowledge other people skills or qualities regardless of what value they place on them. They just recognise that they are different but still valuable in their own right. I t's a bit like any kid that doesn't fit into mainstream schooling. Some people say he/she is just dumb and hasn't got a hope of ever being anything and others recognise that they have different skills/qualities than what are required to fit into a mainstream school. Western society seems to have this need to pump people out of system that are the same (as much as possible). Why? Because its too costly to create learning environments that would benefit everyone? What about if you weighed the cost of a person receiving a government payment (pension? Supplement? Not sure what its called) for a significant part of their life, (because they didn't fit into the mainstream school system, and dropped out before they completed year 9 [and to make some leaps negative jumps ahead] and are unemployed because of their low literacy) with the cost of creating learning environments that cater for individuals needs?????? Western society (I wonder if that's a politically correct term?) has a lot to answer for. I feel a bit ashamed that that is part of my past, but that also serves as motivation to makes changes for the future. I CAN make a difference.

Back to skull sizes, I understand the author to be saying that a larger skull equals greater brain capacity or intelligence. This is an interesting concept, particularly as I'm pretty sure that I read that its not the size of your brain but the density that can be an indicator of intelligence. I'm also pretty sure that I've read the Einstein had a small head compared to others.

Posted at 04:17PM Oct 01, 2008 by April W  | 

Week 1: Indigenous Society and Eduation - An Overview

First Impressions

Sitting in the lecture today, I felt quite comfortable and happy to be there, despite having very little holidays.  I am looking forward to developing my understanding of Australian Indigenous Cultures. I feel that I have a some awareness: I understand its more appropriate to use the word Indigenous Australian as opposed to Aborigine; Indigenous Peoples have strong connections to their land and being separated from it can (mostly it seems) cause stress and unhappiness; I am aware that the health of Indigenous Peoples is worse? Poorer? than non-Indigenous Australians, and that they have a shorter life expectancy [from the media]; I am aware that is inappropriate to use the Kaurna Shield in artwork, particularly public art work, without permission from the Kaurna People (unlike flags). I am aware that as I am writing this, I am thinking very carefully about how to word what I am saying, so as to try to use the correct terminology, and try to be inclusive and inoffensive.

So from this subject I hope to gain greater awareness, and understanding of Indigenous Peoples, their culture and how to cater for the individual needs of students in my classroom. I was happy to see that Daryl (Topic Coordinator) stated that part of the aim of this course was to provide strategies that can help teachers teach Indigenous Australian students. This is reassuring but I feel some skepticism towards being told this, as previous subjects have made similar promises and not delivered. Having said that, I have been impressed by the level of organisation of this subject so far; someone has put in a lot of effort, so I have hope.

I really enjoyed Daryl ending the lecture with a couple of stories. The story of the boy who lived at Sutton Boys Home really stuck in my head. It's amazing how we perceive things. A child was missing his parents, and in trying to see them became labeled a troublemaker. It also points out to me the need to talk to people, and try to understand why they are behaving the way they are. Why didn't the boy (can't remember his name) tell someone he missed his parents and wanted to see them? Maybe he tried to and was told no. Why didn't he write and tell his parents that he missed them and wanted to see them? Maybe he could have visited them or vice versa.

I was also very shocked by what have happened to John's wife and daughter (When a at childcare found out John's daughter was Indigenous while chatting to his wife, the parent picked up her child and said to her "Let's go and play with Amy over there."). I suppose racism always shocks me because I consider it to be something that happened in the past and that the human race, at least Australians, have got past this. Obviously not. Maybe it's shocking to me because most people I hang out with aren't openly racist or prejudice around me? To me it just seems so stupid to not allow your child to play with another child because of their genes. I could understand if she was behaving in an inappropriate way, but not simply because of her genes.

Readings

The readings for this week I found hard going. I don't mind reading information about stats, but not in such great quantities (There were several reports, giving statistics about Indigenous Peoples). I found I tended to glaze over after a while. It reinforced the idea that I had, that the health of Indigenous Peoples is generally below that of Non-Indigenous People. It also pointed out to me some of the links that health has to other area's of life. If a student has poor health, they are more likely to be away from school, making it harder to keep up. It's a bit of nasty circle, because strong links have been made between health and education. But if your sick and miss out on education, how can you learn about being healthier? When a person has a reduced level of schooling, they are less likely to find employment as well.

Maybe the point of bombarding us with several reading all related to Aboriginal Peoples health is to get it through to us that this is a serious issue that we need to consider. Maybe they were aiming to make an impact through quantity.

I was happy to see in the reading "Indigenous Australia Today: An overview by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission", that they acknowledged that statistics only at best tell part of a story. I couldn't agree more! I believe you can manipulate stats to say what you want them to say. It's like everything in life, you present your perspective, because that's all you can do. At least this Commission is stating that it's their perspective. As a side issue, how do you decide what stats to collect? Someone had to decide once upon a time. What information you include and exclude can say a lot. How would our responses to the information varied if they had included stats associated with mental wellbeing, happiness or other area's that may have had a more positive response?

In this reading page 4 reads "More than 1 in 10 persons aged 25 and over had been separated in childhood from their natural family." I feel very curious about this. What were the reasons they were separated from their family? Were they being abused? Did they have to stay with an Aunt or Grandpa because their parent/s were sick/had to move to find work? Were they sent to a boarding school? Does running away from home count? Was it forced separation or did they or their family choose to be separated? Whose definition of natural family was used and did the people answering the survey, use the same definition as the people who made the survey?

Posted at 07:12PM Sep 17, 2008 by April W  | 

A change of tack

To make this more useful to me, I've decided to use my blog as a medium for my Reflective Journal for the subject Teaching Australian Indigenous Students. It is about what the title suggests and is a fourth year topic. So far it has been both interesting and useful, and has even provided theory and to practical strategies (mor than I can say for the promises of othe subjects). The most significant thing for me so far, has been becoming aware of how ignorant I am about Indigenous Cultures. For example, did you know it's considered rude to look a person directly in the eyes when you are talking to them? Or did you know that a Grandparent has as much authority as a parent to a child? I didn't.

The aim of the Reflective Journal is for me to respond to readings, lectures, tutorials, and anything else related to Teaching Australian Indigenous Students.

Posted at 03:49PM Sep 16, 2008 by April W  | 

Text precision

Tags: multimedia literacy
Posted at 03:45PM Sep 09, 2008 by April W  | 

New programs

Today has been quite interesting. Trying to get my head around what to do where, what a blog is, how to use it, what a wiki is and how to use that. Like most subjects, I'm sure it will start to make sense as it goes on.

I find it interesting to consider how a blog could be used. To me its like being in a chat room, but theres a time delay between responses. How could it be used in the classroom? As a means for dialog within a class where students and teacher can speak about issues or concerns with verbally having to say it, its said through typing. It could be interesting to team up with a school overseas and have dialong between students in both schools, to exchange information. Maybe both schools could be doing a unit of work together, even though they are miles apart.

A wiki would be a great way for students to present their findings about a given topic. Or display poetry, artwork, the list goes on.

Posted at 03:07PM Aug 26, 2008 by April W  |