Special Schooling for Indigenous Students: a New Form of Racial Discrimination?

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loretta de Plevitz
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
New Form ◽  
Special Classes

AbstractRecent reports on Indigenous education have revealed that high proportions of students have been placed in special classes for intellectual disability or behaviour disorders. This is not an isolated phenomenon. Indigenous students in Canada and Romani children in Europe are also disproportionately represented in special schooling. This paper asks whether systemic racism, which fails to perceive cultural differences between the ethos of Australian educational systems and the experiences and abilities of Indigenous students, is the catalyst for placing many Indigenous students in special schooling, away from the mainstream. The paper applies an analysis based on anti-discrimination law to argue that while allocation on the basis of intellectual disability or behaviour disorders may not be deliberate racism, the criteria developed for the allocation may be measuring conformity to the dominant culture. If the policies underlying this segregation are unreasonable in the circumstances, they could constitute indirect racial discrimination against Indigenous students. Educational authorities could be liable in law, even though the effect on Indigenous students is unintentional and said to be for the students’ “own good”.

Indigenous higher education sector: the evolution of recognised Indigenous Leaders within Australian Universities

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Kim Coates ◽  
Michelle Trudgett ◽  
Susan Page
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Public Schooling ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Commonwealth Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Over Time

Abstract There is clear evidence that Indigenous education has changed considerably over time. Indigenous Australians' early experiences of ‘colonialised education’ included missionary schools, segregated and mixed public schooling, total exclusion and ‘modified curriculum’ specifically for Indigenous students which focused on teaching manual labour skills (as opposed to literacy and numeracy skills). The historical inequalities left a legacy of educational disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Following activist movements in the 1960s, the Commonwealth Government initiated a number of reviews and forged new policy directions with the aim of achieving parity of participation and outcomes in higher education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Further reviews in the 1980s through to the new millennium produced recommendations specifically calling for Indigenous Australians to be given equality of access to higher education; for Indigenous Australians to be employed in higher education settings; and to be included in decisions regarding higher education. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Indigenous leaders in higher education from the period when we entered the space through to now. In doing so, it will examine the key documents to explore how the landscape has changed over time, eventually leading to a number of formal reviews, culminating in the Universities Australia 2017–2020 Indigenous Strategy (Universities Australia, 2017).

scholarly journals Illuminating Indigenous health care provider stories through forum theater

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Vanessa Van Bewer ◽  
Roberta L Woodgate ◽  
Donna Martin ◽  
Frank Deer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Cultural Safety ◽  
Lateral Violence ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Physical Spaces

Learning about the historical and current context of Indigenous peoples’ lives and building campus communities that value cultural safety remains at the heart of the Canadian educational agenda and have been enacted as priorities in the Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint. A participatory approach informed by forum theater and Indigenous sharing circles involving collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health care professionals ( n = 8) was employed to explore the above priorities. Through the workshop activities, vignettes were created and performed to an audience of students and educators ( n = 7). The findings emerging from the workshop illuminated that Indigenous people in nursing and higher education face challenges with negotiating their identity, lateral violence and struggle to find safe spaces and people due to tokenism and a paucity of physical spaces dedicated to Indigenous students. This study contributed to provoking a greater understanding of Indigenous experiences in higher education and advancing reconciliation.

The Tomato Pip's Story: Creative Narratives as Bridging Cultural and Science Discourses for Indigenous Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
Lorrin Ruihi Shortland ◽  
Terry Locke
Keyword(s):  
Digestive System ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Disciplinary Literacy ◽  
Word Count ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Science Discourse ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data ◽  
Human Digestive System

This article reports on what happened when a Rumaki pūtaiao kaiako (Science) teacher at a New Zealand high school trialled the use of creative narratives with her Year-10 students as a way of developing their understanding of the human digestive system. These students were members of the school's Māori immersion unit, and creative narratives were in part utilised as a bridge between science discourse and the cultural knowledges these students brought to their learning. In this case study, students developed ‘Tomato Pip’ narratives through four versions, which told the story of a tomato pip travelling through the human digestive system. Word-count data based on these versions and from a summative test were analysed and correlations found between test scores and three categories of word-count total (total words, total science words and total discrete science words). A discourse analysis of one student's narratives identified two distinct voices in these texts: the personal narrator and the emerging biologist. Questionnaire and focus-group data indicated that the use of creative narratives was both motivational to these students and effective as a bridge into science discourse mastery. It is argued that the findings have implications for disciplinary literacy theory, Indigenous education and science instruction.

scholarly journals Thunder Bay: Local news is important for conversations on reconciliation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Lindgren
Keyword(s):  
Hate Crimes ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Thunder Bay ◽  
Police Investigations ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Previous Decade ◽  
The City ◽  
Northern City

[Paragraphs 1 to 3] The Ontario city of Thunder Bay is in the headlines these days for all the wrong reasons. Canada’s highest rates of murder and violent crime. The highest number of hate crimes per capita. Systemic racism embedded in shoddy police investigations. The deaths — many unexplained — of Indigenous students who come to the city for education not available in their remote northern communities. For years these troubles and the inequitable relationship between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in the city festered. Then in the spring of 2011, the Toronto Star began publishing reporter Tanya Talaga’s stories about the deaths of seven young Indigenous students over the previous decade. What had been a local story vaulted into national headlines. Talaga’s reporting became the basis for her 2017 award-winning book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City.

Empowered Learner Identity Through M-Learning

2014 ◽  
pp. 272-283
Author(s):  
Ruth Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Learner Identity ◽  
E Learning

E-learning has been promoted as a key component of improving educational access and opportunity internationally, but for disenfranchised learners, many forms of e-learning are just as alien as the educational systems they have rejected. M-learning utilises technologies, activities and social systems that are integrated into many people’s lives, including those who have had limited access to, or rejected, formal education systems. This paper discusses projects conducted in Northern Australia that explored a range of e-tools to support indigenous students’ engagement and recognition of their knowledge and contexts. Mobile learning tools emerged as the preferred way to learn throughout the project. This approach challenges educational institutions to connect to students’ lives and contexts. This paper shows how participants utilised m-learning to demonstrate their diverse knowledge systems, the decisions they made about representing knowledge though m-learning, and the implications for trainers and assessors.

Empowered Learner Identity Through M-Learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Learner Identity ◽  
E Learning

E-learning has been promoted as a key component of improving educational access and opportunity internationally, but for disenfranchised learners, many forms of e-learning are just as alien as the educational systems they have rejected. M-learning utilises technologies, activities and social systems that are integrated into many people’s lives, including those who have had limited access to, or rejected, formal education systems. This paper discusses projects conducted in Northern Australia that explored a range of e-tools to support indigenous students’ engagement and recognition of their knowledge and contexts. Mobile learning tools emerged as the preferred way to learn throughout the project. This approach challenges educational institutions to connect to students’ lives and contexts. This paper shows how participants utilised m-learning to demonstrate their diverse knowledge systems, the decisions they made about representing knowledge though m-learning, and the implications for trainers and assessors.

scholarly journals Student trauma experiences, library instruction and existence under the 45th

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-199
Author(s):  
Michelle Gohr ◽  
Vitalina A. Nova
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Issues

Purpose By historicizing the broader system of education contextualized under the 45th presidential administration, this paper aims to provide a nuanced discussion regarding the condition of information literacy and librarianship as capitalist institutions in service to the state. In response, tools to oppose systemic racism and minimize harm in the classroom as well as recommendations for change and resistance are addressed. Design/methodology/approach The paper focuses on historical analysis of libraries as institutions within larger educational systems and draws heavily on critical theories as a method of critique. Findings This paper demonstrates that the 45th presidential administration is a logical progression of neoliberalism and institutionalized discrimination, which has had adverse effects on the health and safety of (primarily marginalized) students, library workers and library practice, but that critical reflection and information seeking on part of librarians may provide solutions. Practical implications This paper can be used as a guide for librarians seeking to contextualize the educational environment and apply a critical praxis to information literacy programs. Social implications The reflection presented in this paper can aid in expanding awareness in LIS surrounding issues of equity and justice, and impart urgency and need for institutional change. Originality/value Given the lack of diversity in library and information science, this paper provides critical interventions for information literacy practice. The authors’ unique practical and theoretical backgrounds allow for nuanced discussion and pedagogical creation which directly impacts and addresses key issues of justice and equity in the classroom.

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