102085 ABORIGINAL

AND CULTURALLY
RESPONSIVE
PEDAGOGIES ESSAY
Aboriginal and
Culturally Responsive
Pedagogies Essay

Student Name: Samuel Chappuis

Student Number: 18331631

Date Submitted: 8/9/19

Campus: Kingswood
Essay – Option 2
All children have the right to an education (UNICEF, 2019). Additionally, it is hoped that this
education caters to the immense diversity of students and allows every student the opportunity to
succeed. In Australia, success and achievement are highlighted as being accessible through high-
quality education for all students (NSW Department of Education, 2017). Furthermore, the NSW
Department of Education (2019, p. 1) is “committed to improving the educational outcomes and
wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students so they excel and achieve in every aspect
of their education”. However, while Aboriginal students have this right and commitments being
made, educational policy regarding Aboriginal education and the current structure of Australia
schooling systems highlight the apparent need to have all students achieving the same education
outcomes (MacGill & Blanch, 2013; Australian Government – Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet, 2019). The need to elevate Aboriginal students to minimum mainstream Western standards
arguably implies assimilation and not equity. It is my responsibility, as a mathematics teacher within
Australia’s schooling system, to build a classroom learning environment that empowers and
strengthens the voices of Aboriginal students an allows them to be wholly included within the
classroom. It is also my responsibility to highlight to all students that being an Aboriginal student and
achieving high results are not contradictory. This paper aims to investigate the current practices of
Australian schools in relation to school disciplinary practices and explore the effects of these
practices in relation to behaviour, well-being and inclusion. Additionally, this paper will investigate
the school and social factors that contribute to behavioural problems and social inequity for
Aboriginal students. Finally, this paper will discuss the kinds of practices teachers can employ to
promote a successful education for Aboriginal students.

Firstly, negative indicators associated with schooling such as discipline events (Person,
2012), suspensions (Mills & McGregor, 2014), low attendance (NSW Department of Education 2017;
Australian Government – Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2019), exclusions (Perso,
2012), low retention (Bain, 2011) and performance (Perso, Kenyon & Darrough, 2012) are constantly
overrepresented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Llewellyn, Boon & Lewthwaite,
2018). This overrepresentation of Aboriginal students is due to the fact that too often schools use
detention, calm cards or suspension to address behaviour concerns instead of addressing the
reasons for behaviour (Llewellyn, Boon & Lewthwaite, 2018). Current disciplinary practices in
Australian schools have far too much of a focus on punishment for misbehaviour. In regards to
Aboriginal students, the perpetual deficit discourse in Australian society places the blame of
misbehaviour on the students and families rather than schooling systems or teachers, ignoring
historical antecedents (Griffiths, 2011). Furthermore, the Aboriginal living conditions caused by
Australia’s westernised culture are not acknowledged when thinking about the behaviour of
Aboriginal students within schools (Llewellyn, Boon & Lewthwaite, 2018). These current disciplinary
practices impact on the wellbeing and inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Western culture is highly entrenched and normalised in not only Australia society, but within
Australian schools. This is reflected, as Lingard (2008) illustrates, within pedagogy, curriculum and
assessment. Contrastingly, easily ignored within the system are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander ways of knowing and learning; they appear to be seen as an afterthought (Ford, 2013). The
little or lack of presence of Aboriginal English within schools is a clear example of this. Aboriginal
English is a dialect with a very specific structure and as Nguyen, Oliver & Rochecouste (2015)
highlight, can be highly valuable to Aboriginal students learning if given a place. However, this dialect
of English is hardly present in many schools and so the perception is that it is inferior to Standard
Australian English. Nguyen et al. (2015), as well as Malcom (2013) explain the fact that Aboriginal
English is not readily present in the classroom perpetuates a rhetoric that Aboriginal English is the
inferior variety of English. This type of deficit discourse results in Aboriginal students own social and
cultural values to be devalued within a school that is highly westernised. This leads to Aboriginal
culture to be misunderstood or not acknowledged and as Guenther (2013) and Beresford (2012)
point out, leads to setting Aboriginal students up to fail by default. Aboriginal students, within this
discourse, perceive that they do not belong. In a similar manner, in adolescence, identity and self-
concept are highly impactful and as both Whitley, Rawana & Brownlee (2014) and Beresford (2012)
illustrate, Aboriginal students are caught in a harmful cycle of trying to develop a sense of belonging
within a schooling system that highlights that their language, identity and culture is not respected.

In a similar vein, a perpetual cycle of low expectations and failure can be created from a
deficit discourse. Results from a study identified that both full-time and pre-service teachers
expressed lower expectations of Aboriginal students compared to non-Aboriginal students (Dandy,
Durkin, Barber & Houghton, 2015). Likewise, a study conducted by Riley (2012, p. 95) revealed that
teachers had attributed Aboriginal students with “lower expectations despite their achievement
level”. It would appear that deficit discourse is deeply entrenched in Australian society and that
students of Aboriginal descent are not expected to achieve the heights of non-Aboriginal students.
Part of this deficit discourse can be attributed to negative expectations communicated to Aboriginal
students by their teachers and the internalisation of those conversations. This leads to Aboriginal
students arriving at school with negative preconceptions which Munns, O’Rourke & Bodkin-Andrews
(2013) highlight have been passed on from negative experiences with schooling experienced by
parents or relatives. If these preconceptions from Aboriginal students are validated by the schooling
system than Beresford (2012) explains that failure becomes the easiest option. The harmful cycle
reflected by this deficit discourse evidences a reason behind that statistics for Aboriginal students’
attendance and suspension rates highlighted in the NSW Public Schools Annual Report (2017) and
the Closing the Gap Report (2019).

However, there are specific strategies that I can utilise as a graduate secondary school
teacher within my own Key Learning Area of Mathematics, to create a classroom learning
environment that highlights the strength and voice of Aboriginal students and allows for deep
understanding and respect. These strategies will aim to “promote reconciliation between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous Australis” as highlighted as Professional Standard 2.4 by the Australian Institute
for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL] (2014). One of the most fundamental aspects of the
teaching and learning of mathematics is the development of positive relationships (Price, 2012).
Furthermore, it is highlighted that “positive relationships with adults are perhaps the single most
important ingredient in promoting positive youth development” (Painta & Allen, 2008, p. 24). In my
own teaching practices, in order to develop positive relationships with all students, Bahr & Mellor
(2016) illustrate that I should:

 Be friendly, approachable and supportive;

 Promote a positive cultural identity;
 Make the learning interesting and fun; and
 Make the learning challenging.
Ultimately, through the development of positive relationships with all students I can reduce the use
of punishment and suspension.

Making sense of the world is an important aspect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
culture and Prager (2008, p. 24) identified that one of the essential learning outcomes for students
of mathematics is an “awareness of the power of mathematics to make sense of the world”.
Therefore, another effective strategy of applying Professional Standard 2.4 is to utilise the
mathematics curriculum and connect its ideas to the real world of the students. Bahr & Mellor
(2016) highlight that Stronger Smarter Teachers make the learning interesting and fun by using
practical, hands-on examples to deepen understanding. Furthermore, Yunkaporta (2009) highlights
‘Land Links’ and ‘Non-Verbal’ as two of the 8 ways of learning in Aboriginal languages. For example,
outcome MA4-19SP from the Board of Studies NSW Syllabus (2012, p. 330) - “collects, represents
and interprets single sets of data, using appropriate statistical displays” – can be achieved through
these techniques. Students can visit an Aboriginal site called ‘Red Hands Cave’ which showcases a
cave of Aboriginal artwork mainly focussing on Red Hands. From this visit students can measure the
lengths of the different hands in the cave and measure the lengths of their own hands (collecting
data). From this, students can represent and interpret the data collect and compare the lengths of
their own hands with the lengths of the hands showcased in the Red Hands Cave. Additionally, the
red hands from the cave can be a stimulus for an activity to achieve content strand “Define
congruence of plane shapes using transformations” (Board of Studies, 2012, p. 325). The activity can
involve students creating their own red hands by putting their handprints in different positions on
the canvas. The teacher can discuss how their hand shape will always be congruent no matter which
way they print their hand on the canvas. These hands-on practical examples linked to the world
around students will not only help Indigenous students but non-Indigenous students as well, limiting
the punishment and suspension levels of schools.

Moreover, another important tradition in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture is that of
Storytelling. It is highlighted by Yunkaporta (2009) as another one of the 8 ways of learning.
Similarly, the oral narrative tradition of Yarning was the original teaching tool of many Aboriginal
societies (Nguyen et al., 2015). In the mathematics classroom, the importance of oral tradition and
storytelling in recognising our connections to nature and land can be highly prominent. Price (2012,
p. 105) stresses the need to see mathematics as a “cultural expression” and that teachers should
allow students to express themselves through mathematics. Matthews (2009) developed the
pedagogical approach ‘Maths as Storytelling’ which had the following steps:

1. Understanding symbols
2. A simple maths story
3. Students representation (unstructured)
4. Students representation (structured)
5. Sharing symbol systems
6. Modifying the story

Through this pedagogy Price (2012, p. 107) demonstrated that “students can start their learning in
mathematics through self-expression that values the students’ current knowledge”. For example,
the ideas of storytelling and narrative can be utilised to address outcome MA4-10NA “uses algebraic
techniques to solve simple linear and quadratic equations” (Board of Studies, 2012, p. 302). Teachers
can teach the ideas of solving equations by expressing and equation as a story. For example, the
equation 2𝑥 − 1 = 11 can be introduced as a story such as: “Once upon a time a little 𝑥 was
walking around when suddenly it was multiplied by 2. After this multiplication the number 1 had
been taken away and what was left was simply the number 11”. Utilising narrative and storytelling
within teaching practices enables Aboriginal students to be more connected to their learning and
will aid in the reduction of punishment and suspension.

Additionally, it is of high importance that when teachers are engaging with students, parents
and colleagues that they be aware of their own cultural assumptions and beliefs (Barker, Frederiks &
Farrelly, 2014). As a future mathematics teacher, I need to be fully aware and address any existing
negative beliefs or attitudes I may have towards certain cultures. Furthermore, language is a “vehicle
for the expression of discrimination and prejudice as our cultural values are reflected in the
structures and meanings of the language we use” (Flinders University, 2005, p. 1) and as such all
graduating teachers should be aware of correct terminology when talking with or talking about
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Harrison (2008) illustrated that a reason why Aboriginal
students struggled to engage in their learning was that they perceived through the language heard in
education system that their culture was not respected or understood. For example, as Flinders
University (2005) illustrates hearing the term “the Aborigines” tends to suggest that Aboriginal
people are all same and thus stereotypes Aboriginal Australians. In my own teaching practices, I
should endeavour to always use the correct terminology and to continually learn about Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people and culture in order to further my professional development.
Engaging in appropriate terminology within a classroom setting can also lead to reduced punishment
and suspension for Aboriginal students.

In conclusion, Australia’s highly westernised current schooling system perpetuates a harmful

cycle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students where they feel they are not valued within
society. This leads to the attendance and suspension statistics highlighted by reports such as the
NSW Publics Schools Annual Report (2017) and the Closing the Gap Report (2019). As a mathematics
teacher, I should be aiming to end this cycle by developing positive relationships with all my students
by getting to know them and trying to address their needs. Additionally, through the mathematics
curriculum, I should endeavour to connect mathematics to the world in which my students live in
and try to utilise storytelling within my teaching to aid in the understanding for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students. In all aspects of my practice, it is my professional responsibility to use
appropriate terminology when addressing Aboriginal People. Ultimately, if I can develop these
aspects into my teaching practice, I hope to reduce the amount of punishment and suspension for
Aboriginal students and give them the opportunity to be the very best they can be.
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