“The system of compulsory education is failing”

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
The State ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
Aboriginal History ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
State Schools

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which the mobility of indigenous people in Victoria during the 1960s enabled them to resist the policy of assimilation as evident in the structures of schooling. It argues that the ideology of assimilation was pervasive in the Education Department’s approach to Aboriginal education and inherent in the curriculum it produced for use in state schools. This is central to the construction of the state of Victoria as being devoid of Aboriginal people, which contributes to a particularly Victorian perspective of Australia’s national identity in relation to indigenous people and culture. Design/methodology/approach This paper utilises the state school records of the Victorian Department of Education, as well as the curriculum documentation and resources the department produced. It also examines the records of the Aborigines Welfare Board. Findings The Victorian Education Department’s curriculum constructed a narrative of learning and schools which denied the presence of Aboriginal children in classrooms, and in the state of Victoria itself. These representations reflect the Department and the Victorian Government’s determination to deny the presence of Aboriginal children, a view more salient in Victoria than elsewhere in the nation due to the particularities of how Aboriginality was understood. Yet the mobility of Aboriginal students – illustrated in this paper through a case study – challenged both the representations of Aboriginal Victorians, and the school system itself. Originality/value This paper is inspired by the growing scholarship on Indigenous mobility in settler-colonial studies and offers a new perspective on assimilation in Victoria. It interrogates how curriculum intersected with the position of Aboriginal students in Victorian state schools, and how their position – which was often highly mobile – was influenced by the practices of assimilation, and by Aboriginal resistance and responses to assimilationist practices in their lives. This paper contributes to histories of assimilation, Aboriginal history and education in Victoria.

scholarly journals The MacPhail Family Aboriginal Pride Program of Calgary

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Joanne Pinnow ◽  
Shane R. Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Graduation Rates ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Attendance Rates ◽  
United Way ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
Aboriginal History ◽  
Aboriginal Children

Since 1997, certain schools within Calgary have adopted the MacPhail Aboriginal Pride Program. This pilot program intends “to increase graduation rates among Aboriginal students, which historically have been lower than that of their non-Aboriginal peers. Its approach is based on the premise that students who bond and relate to their school environment are more likely to stay in school and succeed academically” (Calgary United Way, 2010). The Aboriginal population has been growing quickly, and Aboriginal children account for a growing proportion of all of the children in Canada (O’Donnel, 2006, p. 65). However, despite growing numbers, many Aboriginal children who live off reserve are being raised in communities where Aboriginal people represent only a small minority. In these communities, it is difficult to maintain ties to Aboriginal traditions and cultures. The MacPhail Aboriginal Pride Program attempts to help Aboriginal children and youth maintain these cultural ties and helps by infusing Aboriginal history and culture in the curriculum and by encouraging activities such as field trips and presentations. The MacPhail Aboriginal Pride Programs in Calgary strive to “achieve higher graduation rates, have consistent attendance rates, and experience a sense of pride in their culture and a willingness to share their culture with non-aboriginal peers and families.”

The Development of Aboriginal Education

1989 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.K. Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
State Governments ◽  
The Public ◽  
Curriculum And Pedagogy ◽  
Educational Issue ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
The Voice

Over the past 15 years the voice of protest in Australia has come to be linked synonymously with the black Australian. The nation’s indigenous people have progressively united and, in the strength of unity and growth of support for their claims, have met increasingly resistant Federal and State governments. Unfortunately, the “land rights” issue has dominated the public Aboriginal doctrine, preventing white Australians from being exposed to and appreciating the other important needs and opinions Aboriginal people have.One of these needs is an education system sympathetic to: past, failed attempts at educating indigenous people; the importance of Aboriginal culture as a socio-cultural identifier and educational issue; and the needs Aboriginal children have in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. These fundamental elements are the counterpoints from which any study of the development of Aboriginal education, within Australia, must proceed.

Addressing Issues of Equity and Access in the Delivery of Arts Education to Aboriginal Students

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.G. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
Equity And Access ◽  
Aboriginal Children

The over-riding objective of an Aboriginal Education Policy should be to achieve equity between Aboriginal people and other Australians in participation at all stages of education by the turn of the century. Education opportunities must be available to Aboriginal people regardless of where they live and in a manner that is appropriate to the diverse cultural and social situations in which they live. It is therefore essential to ensure access for Aboriginal children and adults to school and tertiary education, to ensure that Aboriginal communities are able to influence the way in which education is provided, and to ensure that it reflects their social and cultural values (Hughes Report, 1987: 17).

What Trainee Teachers and Teachers Should Know About Aboriginal Children.

1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Teachers ◽  
Trainee Teachers ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
Consultative Group

The New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group feels that more emphasis needs to be placed on the training of teachers in regards to Aboriginal education.Many first year teachers are sent to country areas with a relatively high percentage of Aboriginal students. In the main, these teachers have had little or no contact with Aboriginal children or parents.

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.

Aboriginal Education in Victoria: An Evaluation of an Innovatory Emphasis

1976 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Bourke
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Educational Services ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Education Department ◽  
Special Schools ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
Full Responsibility ◽  
Aboriginal Children

The Victorian Education Department is philosophically opposed to the unnecessary segregation of children. Consequently, and with the approval of the Victorian Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, the two special schools for Aboriginal children at Lake Tyers and Framlingham were closed some years ago.During the existence of the Victorian Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs it had been traditional practice for that Ministry to undertake special projects, after consultation with the Education Department, to alleviate educational disadvantages of Aboriginal children. Generally this support took the form of funding specific school projects or school equipment. However, in relation to other states the Victorian funding for education was at a low level.The transfer of responsibility for Aboriginal Affairs from the Victorian State Government to the Australian Government on 1st January, 1975, made it imperative for the Victorian Education Department to assume full responsibility for the administration of all funding pertaining to the education of Aboriginal children. This step was necessary because the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs does not seek to provide educational services for Aboriginal people. They believe that the provision of such services is the responsibility of existing State Government educational authorities. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs seeks to stimulate, co-ordinate and if necessary, support the extension, and where appropriate the accommodation of existing services to Aboriginals, and to ensure that special measures are taken to overcome any particular handicaps which Aboriginal people may suffer.

Accounting for “moral betterment”

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1843-1866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Greer ◽  
Patty McNicholas
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
The State ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Rationality ◽  
South Wales ◽  
History Of ◽  
Labour Contracts ◽  
Aboriginal Children

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the roles of accounting within state-based agencies which interpreted the ideal of protection for the Aboriginal population as principally about the removal of children from the Aboriginal communities to institutions of training and places of forced indenture under government-negotiated labour contracts. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the original archival records of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection and Welfare Boards (1883-1950) to highlight the link between pastoral notions of moral betterment and the use of accounting technologies to organise and implement the “apprenticeship” programmes. Findings The analysis reveals that accounting practices and information were integral to the ability of the state to intervene and organise this domain of action and, together with a legal framework, to make the forced removal of Aboriginal children possible. Social implications The mentalities and practices of assimilation analysed in the paper are not unique to the era of “protection”. The study provides a history of the present that evokes the antecedents to recent welfare policy changes, which encompass a political rationality directed at the normalisation of the economic and social behaviours of both indigenous and non-indigenous welfare recipients. Originality/value The paper provides an historical example of how the state enlisted accounting and legal technologies to construct a crisis of “neglect” and to intervene to protect and assimilate the Aboriginal children.

Aboriginal Students Perceptions of the ‘World of Work’ and Implications for the Teaching of Work/Career Education

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Di Russell
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Curriculum Policy ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
State Education ◽  
Work Education ◽  
State Schools ◽  
Evaluation Project

As part of my work this year I was required to undertake an evaluation project. I decided to combine some of my concerns about the appropriateness for Aboriginal students of some of the ways in which state education curriculum priorities are implemented with one of my focus curriculum areas, namely Work Education.In South Australia the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy ( AEP ) is seen as the overarching Aboriginal Education Policy. However, most Aboriginal students in South Australia and all state schools are required to address mandatory curriculum are as set out in the “Educating for the 21st Century” (1990), the curriculum policy document.

An Analysis of the Aboriginal Education Policy Documents of Queensland

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tricia Lasorsa
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Curriculum Content ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Aboriginal Women ◽  
Aboriginal History ◽  
Aboriginal Children

The analysis examines how the documents approach – if at all – several different aspects of Aboriginal education as expressed in particular by Aboriginal women, the traditional educators of Aboriginal children (Gale, 1983). These aspects include:-– Aboriginal Learning Styles– Parental and Community Involvement– The Child as an Individual– Teaching Staff – Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal– Curriculum Content – Aboriginal History; Aboriginal Studies (general); Integration into Other Subjects: and Relevance of Content– Research-based Teaching– Languages– RacismMisinterpretation of Basic Aboriginal Philosophies– Resources

Aboriginal Home/School Visitor

1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
L. O’Brien,
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Aboriginal Health ◽  
Home School ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Great Success ◽  
Aboriginal Students ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
Educational Seminar ◽  
Aboriginal Children

In the time I have been employed as a home/school visitor, I have visited 55 schools and have seen about 91 Aboriginal students. I have talked to principals and have spoken about Aboriginals to groups of children in some of the High Schools. I have attended a number of committees that one finds that one gets involved in once one gets into Aboriginal affairs. In addition, I have spoken to different groups of people at colleges, at teachers’ councils, and also at the Aboriginal Educational Seminar for Aboriginal children which was held in April.*I think about 188 students attended that seminar during the three day period, and even the bus strike did not affect the children’s attendance, which I thought was great. The seminar was organized by John Lunnay, a consultant in Aboriginal education, with whom I work rather closely. It was a great success, with people on the program like Wandjuk Marika and David Gulpilil, Colin Thiele and Dora Hunter, Sonny Morey, Sid Jackson, Kay Hampton, Michael Ahmad, Brian Dickson, Eva Johnson, Leila Rankin and Des Price. During the seminar, I accompanied some of the students on visits to different places, like the Aboriginal Community College, the Task Force at the South Australian Institute of Technology, Torrens College of Advanced Education where some Aboriginal students are enrolled in the Teacher Education program, the Community Centre, the Aboriginal Health Unit and D.A.A. Over all, I feel it was very successful.

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