Evaluation of Australian Bilingual Education: Some initial ideas directed at obtaining a just and thorough approach

1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
M. Christie
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Government ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

In the 1973 parliamentary session, the Australian Federal Government introduced acampaign to have Aboriginal children living in distinctive Aboriginal communities given their primary education in Aboriginal languages…and to supplement education for Aboriginal children with the teaching of traditional Aboriginal arts, crafts and skills mostly by Aboriginals themselves.Following that announcement, a committee was formed to investigate the possibilities of bilingual education and to direct the setting up of some initial programs. Five schools originally changed to a bilingual education program, and the number has grown to almost twenty. The original schools have now been in operation for five years, and there is a call for their evaluation. The government has expended large sums of money on the development of the programs, but there is still discussion concerning their possible future. Some of the key issues concerning bilingual education in the Northern Territory have not been resolved, and much of the development of programs was taken over by people of initiative in individual schools. This may or may not have been a good thing, but for the purposes of evaluation, we are presented with a very complex and freely structured situation. A just and constructive evaluation of all that has happened thus far will be difficult but invaluable for the government, the administrators, and the teachers.

Bilingual Education in Schools in Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-26
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

In January/February 1973 at the request of the Minister for Education, the Hon. Kim E. Beazley, an Advisory Group was set up to make recommendations for the implementation and development of a program involving teaching in Aboriginal languages and the incorporation in the school curriculum of further elements of traditional Aboriginal arts, crafts and skills. The members of the group were:Dr. Betty H. Watts, Reader in Education, University of Queensland, Mr. W.J. McGrath, Inspector of Schools, Aboriginal Education Branch, and Mr. J.L. Tandy, Department of Education, Canberra.It is believed that many teachers will be interested in the thinking behind the bilingual education program and the manner of its recommended implementation.The extracts which follow set out the rationale and the recommended progress through the educational program. The recommended roles of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff members will be outlined in the next issue.

Bilingual Education in Schools in Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-52 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Child ◽  
Teaching Team

In the first issue of The Aboriginal Child at School extracts from the Report were presented to show the rationale of the bilingual education program and the major recommended model, showing progression in the use in the school of both the Aboriginal and the English languages.The extracts below show the Advisory Group’s conception of the teaching team, and of the separate but complementary roles of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teaching members.

Bilingual Education in Schools in Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-51
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

In January/February 1973 at the request of the Minister for Education, the Hon. Kim E. Beazley, an Advisory Group was set up to make recommendations for the implementation and development of a program involving teaching in Aboriginal languages and the incorporation in the school curriculum of further elements of traditional Aboriginal arts, crafts and skills. The members of the group were:Dr. Betty H. Watts, Reader in Education, University of Queensland, Mr. W.J. McGrath, Inspector of Schools, Aboriginal Education Branch, and Mr. J.L. Tandy, Department of Education, Canberra.It is believed that many teachers will be interested in the thinking behind the bilingual education program and the manner of its recommended implementation.The extracts which follow set out the rationale and the recommended progress through the educational program. The recommended roles of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff members will be outlined in the next issue.

Ensuring the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages into the 21st century

1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Shopen ◽  
Nicholas Reid ◽  
Glenda Shopen ◽  
David Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
The Government ◽  
Cultural Skills ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

Abstract There were over 200 distinct languages in Australia at the time of European settlement. Today less than 40 of these are still being passed on to new generations, and all of these are under threat of extinction. Aboriginal people are struggling to adapt themselves to the massive European presence without losing their identity. The greatest threat to Aboriginal languages is the physical, economic and social situation in which their speakers find themselves. Language maintenance will not be possible without social maintenance and this in turn is a political issue. The most important factor will be the success of Aboriginal people in gaining control and self-reliance in their communities. The government can help by assisting in a program of self-determination where Aboriginal people participate at least equally with others in decisions concerning priorities and funding, and in addition by educating non-Aboriginal people to the value of the Aboriginal part of our cultural heritage. Aboriginal teacher education is of primary importance with the goal of schools with Aboriginal control where Aboriginal teachers develop the curriculum and the pedagogy. It is in this context that bilingual education can be put to best use. Bilingual education is of great importance but it must be used not just to assimilate Aboriginal children more easily into English and Western schooling but to have Aboriginal languages and English used together in a coherent educational program where the children become strong in two languages and in the academic and cultural skills they need for contemporary life. Like education, media has the potential for strengthening Aboriginal languages and oultures as well as for destroying them. The outcome will depend on the extent to which Aboriginal people themselves can control what is broadcast and printed.

Distance or Difference in Aboriginal Education

1982 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Northern Territory ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
Present Complex ◽  
The Social ◽  
Isolated Communities ◽  
Arafura Sea ◽  
Aboriginal Children

The majority of the 27,000 Aborigines in the Northern Territory live in remote communities and on cattle stations, or are grouped around some of the smaller rural towns that are scattered through the 1,347,500 square kilometres of the Northern Territory. These extremely isolated communities may vary in size from, say, one hundred to over one thousand people. There is vast climatic and geographical variation, too, between the tropical communities around the beaches that fringe the Arafura sea, and those in the desert where the harsher climate and terrain have an appeal of their own to those who live there.To educate 7,000 Aboriginal children, the Northern Territory endeavours to maintain 43 schools in Aboriginal communities, plus another 27 which are located on pastoral properties. Apart from two residential colleges located at Alice Springs and Darwin, which cater for secondary-age Aboriginal students, all Aboriginal schools could be regarded as remote, isolated by geographical distance from the larger centres. These 70 schools present complex logistical problems to those who supply and maintain buildings, equipment and staff. However, although formidable, the problems associated with remoteness are insignificant when compared with the social, cultural and linguistic factors that create distance between these traditionally oriented Aboriginal children and our western style of education.

The Mathematics of Card Playing in an Aboriginal Community

1976 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Holm ◽  
Lionel Japanangka
Keyword(s):  
Northern Territory ◽  
Mathematical Understanding ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Community ◽  
John Gay ◽  
Valuable Book ◽  
Teaching Of Mathematics ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
Indigenous Mathematics

The teaching of mathematics to Aboriginal children poses many difficulties for teachers. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teachers agree that many Aboriginal children are not making adequate progress in their development of mathematical understanding. The teaching of mathematics in Aboriginal communities is discussed in the Northern Territory Infants Curriculum (1974 : 119–123). After reviewing the outcomes of a desirable mathematics course the curriculum writers conclude that “many Aboriginal children do not manifest many of these outcomes at a level comparable with that obtained by European children”.John Gay and Michael Cole have written a very valuable book, The New Mathematics and an Old Culture, which examines the teaching of mathematics in a cross-cultural situation. They state that “... in order to teach mathematics effectively, we must know more about our students. In particular we must know more about the indigenous mathematics so that we can build effective bridges to the new mathematics we are trying to introduce.” (Gay and Cole, 1967:1)

scholarly journals Rhetoric, Aboriginal Australians and the Northern Territory Intervention: A Socio-legal Investigation into Pre-legislative Argumentation

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A Roffee
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Australians ◽  
Policy Makers

Presented within this article is a systematic discourse analysis of the arguments used by the then Australian Prime Minister and also the Minister for Indigenous Affairs in explaining and justifying the extensive and contentious intervention by the federal government into remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. The methods used within this article extend the socio-legal toolbox, providing a contextually appropriate, interdisciplinary methodology that analyses the speech act’s rhetorical properties. Although many academics use sound-bites of pre-legislative speech in order to support their claims, this analysis is concerned with investigating the contents of the speech acts in order to understand how the Prime Minister’s and Minister for Indigenous Affairs’ argumentations sought to achieve consensus to facilitate the enactment of legislation. Those seeking to understand legislative endeavours, policy makers and speech actors will find that paying structured attention to the rhetorical properties of speech acts yields opportunities to strengthen their insight. The analysis here indicates three features in the argumentation: the duality in the Prime Minister’s and Minister’s use of the Northern Territory Government’s Little Children are Sacred report; the failure to sufficiently detail the linkages between the Intervention and the measures combatting child sexual abuse; and the omission of recognition of Aboriginal agency and consultation.

Finding Meaning in Maths: an Introductory Program for Aboriginal Children

1984 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Graham
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
School Education ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Finding Meaning ◽  
Introductory Mathematics ◽  
The World ◽  
Western View ◽  
Aboriginal Children

Many teachers involved in school education of Aboriginal children have, for a variety of complex reasons, found it difficult to design programs that begin with the things children know and move to those things that children have to learn. All too frequently school education offered to Aboriginal children has been conceived in Western terms and delivered in our language. Programs designed for children from mainstream Australia have simply been transposed with minimal adaptation into Aboriginal schools. In many curriculum areas the results have not been exciting. In the area of mathematics they have been dismal if not disastrous (see Williams, 1979). The introduction of bilingual education into many of the remote traditionally oriented communities of the Northern Territory has made it possible for educators to re-examine the assumptions on which many of our mathematics offerings have been based. This paper outlines some of the initiatives that have been taken in the Northern Territory to enable children to formally organise and classify local Aboriginal mathematical knowledge as well as begin to acquire some ideas related to the Western view of the world and so provide more meaningful introductory mathematics programs for Aboriginal children.

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