Nimmi Ann Varghese, 18158263

OPTION 1

The improvement of Indigenous educational outcomes has always been a national priority
and a key feature of major policies like ‘Closing the Gap’ strategy endorsed by all Australian
governments (Silburn et.al., 2011). One thing that everyone has agreed upon for achieving
this is building a positive and respectful relationship with the students (Martin & Dowson,
2009). There are several components that can help in building such a relationship like positive
student identity, high expectations, cultural competence, partnerships, personal reflections
and Indigenous leadership. This essay will focus on two main components; the positive
student identity and high expectations for building positive and respectful relationships with
Indigenous students and improve retention. This will be done through identifying the major
issues and challenges and the links to the key policies that were introduced from time to time.
It will further assess, as a future teacher, the strategies that I can use to support learning and
retention in my classrooms, through evidencing effective strategies and approaches in
teaching and learning science.

There are two distinct Indigenous groups in Australia: Aboriginal people and Torres Strait
Islander people. An Aboriginal person is, someone who is of Aboriginal descent, who identifies
as an Aboriginal person, and is accepted as such by the community in which they live, or
formerly lived. Torres Strait Islander people are Melanesian in origin and part of the Pacific
Islander group of kinship-based societies. A Torres Strait Islander is, someone who is of Torres
Strait Islander descent, who identifies as a Torres Strait Islander, and is accepted as such by
the community in which they live, or formerly lived. (Reconciliation Australia, 2015. p. 7, as
cited in Gilbert, 2018). The term Indigenous will be used through out the essay to refer both
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, unless specified separately.

Developing a positive relationship with young people requires the identification and
acknowledgement of the key issues and challenges that they face daily. The major risk factors
for Indigenous children include poor physical and mental health of carers, poor mental and
physical health of children themselves, life stress events, poor quality parenting, poor
relationships and support, racism, tobacco and alcohol abuse, forced removal, historical
trauma and social exclusions (Dobia & O'Rourke, 2011). These risk factors play a major role in
Indigenous students’ educational outcomes and achievements. Hence building a rapport
should start with providing and or enhancing protective factors such as safety, care, positive

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school and classroom climate, participation, health options, positive sense of identity and
culture and high expectations.

The fallacy that Indigenous people are uneducable was and is still a barrier that widens
the gap between the outcomes of these students. Education is not a new thing in any
community, in the past, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people learned by identifying
skills and developing it as a community. For them the environment was the classroom, senses
were the means of learning and the community supported and assessed them. Western
education introduced regulated learning and enforced participation (Price, 2012). This was
against the staged and specialised way of learning in the communities. These colonial
educational reforms ignored their capabilities and stereotyped them.

Now, the specific challenges of Indigenous students are identified, protective factors are
recognised and the prejudicated beliefs of teaching Indigenous students are being discussed,
let us look at the different policies that were introduced from time to time, to enhance
Indigenous teaching and learning. It was the 1967 Referendum, which the first time gave the
Commonwealth Government an Australia wide responsibility in Aboriginal affairs (CDE, 1981,
p.3, as cited in Price, 2012) and shortly after that Department of Education’s involvement in
Aboriginal Education began. However, later reports showed that Aboriginal students showed
a significant negative difference in academic achievements compared to their non- Aboriginal
counterparts (Price, 2012). Since then, there had been countless efforts by the State and
Federal governments to close this gap. After 50 years of the Referendum, the extend to which
the differences have been closed and the outcomes achieved are still debatable. The
attendance rate (for Indigenous students nationally was 83.2 per cent, compared with 93.0
per cent for non-Indigenous students), literacy and numeracy (Outcomes vary by state and
territory, and only Year 9 numeracy is on track in all the states and territories) (Closing The
Gap report, 2018). Hence, there are still a huge room to improve and reflect on teaching and
learning among Aboriginal and Torres Islander students. This is translated in the goal of
Department of Education NSW; “it is the goal of the department that, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students will match or better the outcomes of the broader student
population” (NSW Department of Education- Aboriginal education policy, 2018). Not only in
education, reconciliation is a focus in the different aspects of the community’s life and
wellbeing; which are measured in five dimensions such as race relations, equality and

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equity, institutional integrity, unity and historical acceptance (Reconciliation Australia,

2018, p.7).

Translating these policies and several others for the empowerment of Indigenous
community, requires effective strategies and factors. Challenging, developing and
embracing a positive sense of Indigenous identity is one of the key strategies ensuring
success. Clear links to their culture and land is extremely important for Indigenous students
to succeed (Price, 2012; Purdie, Milgate & Bell, 2011). With many negative stereotypic
perceptions of Aboriginal identity existing within the school and wider community,
Aboriginal people consciously and unconsciously behave like these stereotypes thinking
that they are reinforcing their self-identity (Sarra, as cited in Purdie, Milgate & Bell, 2011).
Enhancing a positive Indigenous identity has a two-stage approach- we need to determine
what the 'positive sense of Indigenous student identity' is, and then establish how we
'acknowledge, develop and embrace' it in our schools (Stronger Smarter Professional Learning
Module, The school Environment). This can start from visible symbols of Indigenous art at
school and should go beyond just story telling and arts to incorporating Indigenous knowledge
and perspectives in the curriculum. This means to establish a program that is culturally
relevant in the local context, draws on local histories, and is delivered by the local community
(Stronger Smarter Professional Learning Module, The curriculum). These strategies also
support the following National Professional Standards for Teachers:1.4 Strategies for teaching
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011).

Quality teaching for Indigenous students depends on to what extend is the teacher-
student relationship have high expectations and if the students explicitly know this (Purdie,
Milgate & Bell, 2011). High expectations mean genuinely expecting more of ourselves, our
communities and our children (SSI module, High expectation leadership). Developing high
expectations is inevitably based on the whole school culture, however, developing high-
expectations leadership is to determine what 'high expectations' means for your classrooms.
Some of the effective strategies to set high expectations relationships in classrooms include
use of positive reinforcement, working from what students already know, planning lessons

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that students are enthusiastic about, explaining the relevance of the content and the use of
practical, hands on experience to get the real picture (Purdie, Milgate & Bell, 2011).

The above said strategies are effectively implemented through one key factor of a
teacher- cultural competency. A culturally competent educator, will respect the Indigenous
identity and foster it, will build positive relationship and engagement with Indigenous
students and communities (Price, 2012). Each person’s identity is developed through the
social and historical relationships. This is the case for both the Indigenous students and the
teacher. Hence, it is important for a non- Aboriginal teacher, to know and respect the
Indigenous culture. This is also advocated by several policies invented as early as 1989, the
National Statement of Principles and Standards for More culturally Inclusive Schooling in the
21st Century and A Model of More Culturally Inclusive and Educationally Effective Schools
are two of the important documents in this case.

Engagement and participation are the crucial factors for educational outcomes for
all students and is particularly important for Indigenous students, as the gaps are significant
for their achievements. The causes for non- attendance can be grouped under different
aspects such as parents and carers (attitudes and irresponsibilities), society (inadequate
values and support for schooling), schools (poor teaching and retention policies) and
students (peer pressure, bullying, low self- esteem). All these overlaps with already
discussed strategies of positive student identity, high expectations and cultural
competency. Beyond all the different scholarships, grants and financial supports, research
shows that cultural relevance is the best approach to engaging Indigenous students (Purdie
& Buckley, 2010). There are many school based programs that are found to be very
effective. For example, The Wiltja Program, What Works: The Work Program (Purdie &
Buckley, 2010). However, there is a lack of robust evidence for attendance and retention
high quality literatures.

The available evidences suggest that educators need to recognise the need for a
positive cultural identity (Purdie & Buckley, 2010, Bodkin-Andrews et. al., 2017; Dunstan,
Hewitt & Tomaszewski, 2017) and set high expectations relationships (Strengths based
programs initiated in Canada with First nations Youth is a good example for this). Strengths
based program sets higher expectations, valuing the knowledge and skills students already
have and then teaching from there (Crooks, Chiodo, Thomas & Hughes, 2010). This was also
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highlighted in another systematic review of Australian and international literature by

Silburn et. al (2011). The review suggested the effective strategies as Culturally responsive
practice, Multilingual instruction, family and community engagement, culturally responsive
curriculum and instructional competence.

The implications for us as a teacher, then, is to respectfully create learning

environments where Indigenous identity is valued and challenged in positive ways. I think
it is important to have some cultural competence first, about the community where I am
supposed to teach and then embed Aboriginal pedagogies to engage students in the
lessons. My relationships will be built on the Stronger Smarter philosophy of student
identity and high expectations along with possible community engagements and Indigenous
leaderships. This may start with better communication with students, active listening and
understanding their cultural backgrounds (SSI module). I would display different cultural
arts and pictures in the classroom that are developed by students and have the stories in
my classroom that are related to them. This would be further extended to science
curriculum, through collecting artistic forms of scientific phenomena like seasons, day and
night, stars and planets etcetera. These informative arts can be used as learning resources
and connect western scientific knowledge to the cultural knowledge.

Culturally responsive pedagogy in science for me is the enrichment of cultural

knowledge and activities into the scientific learning of concepts and adopting a social justice
agenda in the classrooms (O’keeffe, Kathryn & Osborne, 2018; Gere et.al., 2009). For
example, a lesson on day, night seasons and time can be incorporated with the non-Western
concepts of the position of sun and tides to develop the seasonal calendars in Aboriginal
culture and how they represent different things that happens in the land, air and water at
each point of time (O’keeffe, Kathryn & Osborne, 2018). The deep knowledge and
organisation of knowledge in calendars that drive the life in an environment will be a
challenging lesson for all students. This can not only be an interesting lesson but also a stage
to value the knowledge of Indigenous people and their culture.

Science is a learning area where many culturally responsive learning resources can
be incorporated. I had seen (during my professional experience) a science teacher
successfully engaging a class in learning sustainability by watching a movie, ‘The Satellite
Boy’. I could see students responsibly taking part in the discussions of Aboriginal life and
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value for land, even though it was a minority Indigenous classroom. Hence, I believe any
culturally responsive teaching strategies are helpful and engaging for any group of students.
These type of teaching and learning can also be aligned with the 8- way framework of
Aboriginal pedagogy. The above-mentioned activities can be arranged in the 8-way
framework to make links to the land and cultural knowledge.

In conclusion, Indigenous education has changed tremendously after the major

events of colonisation and Government reforms. However, the success of Indigenous
students is still a debatable question, which points out the importance of school culture and
teacher perceptions and professionalism. Policies are all in place, but, are Indigenous
students failing the schools or the schools failing them? This is worth a thought as a future
teacher. It is clearly evident that approaches like positive student identity, higher
expectations, cultural competency and culturally responsive pedagogies are key elements
for closing the gap and building positive relationships with Indigenous students.

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