Andrew McDonald

1869428

Option One

Introduction

In the Prime Minister’s ‘Closing the Gap’ Report (Commonwealth of Australia, 2017) two key
goals are cited as having been targeted by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) as part of
a governmental program of improving the educational and life outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples. These are improving the attendance rate for Indigenous Australian students
in contrast to non-Indigenous attendance rates by the end of 2018 and improving the comparative
rates of Year 12 attainment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students by the end of 2020.
These goals are aimed at addressing individual and societal costs for Indigenous Australians such as
unemployment, poverty, homelessness and criminal behaviour, as per the 2004 Australian Council
for Educational Research report cited by Taylor (2010), thus redressing the imbalances suffered by
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in areas such as literacy, numeracy and cultural identity
(Hogarth, 2017).

The first section of this essay will review and analyse the relevant policy documents that will
inform my future teaching practice, focusing on those elements that are designed to form positive
and respectful relationships between teachers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
These elements will be identified and discussed as per their presence in policy documents such as
the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Policy, the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
and the New South Wales Educations Standards Authority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Principles and Protocols. By reviewing these strategies and postulating how I may implement them
in my future professional practice as a secondary English and/or History teacher of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students, I will endeavour to reflect on and demonstrate how I will support
Indigenous student learning success and retention.

The second section of this essay will review and outline specific pedagogical strategies that have
been proposed and proven to have led to successful Aboriginal student learning outcomes and
improved retention rates. Each of these strategies will be referenced to recent academic research
and correlated to policy documents such as those discussed in the first section of this essay. They
will also be specifically contextualised to my key learning areas, relevant curricula and future
teaching practice.

Policy and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Education

In her reflection on the recent history (as of 2015) of Aboriginal education policy, Kay Price
states that:

“…the majority of programs and projects seeking to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples’ educational results have been directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students, parents and caregivers…The majority of programs and projects have similar goals – to raise
the outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students without compromising their cultural
knowledge base.” (Price, 2015, p.16)

The matrix of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational programs and policies is complex
however the overarching philosophical framework may be discerned from reviewing the 2008
Melbourne Declaration of Education Goals for Young Australians, the ‘Closing the Gap’ Prime

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Minister’s Report, the 2015 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy, the
current New South Wales Department of Education Aboriginal Education Policy and professional
teaching documents such as the New South Wales Education Standards Authority Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Principles and Protocols and the Australian Institute for Teaching and School
Leadership Australian Professional Standards.

Whilst each document has unique and specific directives and elements, they all have
foundational links with the following positive policy proposals for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander education as outlined in the Melbourne Declaration:

“Meeting the needs of young Indigenous Australians and promoting high expectations for their
educational performance requires strategic investment. Australian schooling needs to engage
Indigenous students, their families and communities in all aspects of schooling; increase Indigenous
participation in the education workforce at all levels; and support coordinated community services
for students and their families that can increase productive participation in schooling.” (Ministerial
Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, 2008)

This statement embodies three current key positivist approaches to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander education policy, each with their own rationale. Firstly, considering that Mcinerney
established in 2003 that Aboriginal students have similar levels of motivation to achieve at school as
do other Australian children, high expectations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait students are key in
challenging negative ethnic stereotypes regarding Indigenous student goal setting, as discussed by
Dandy, Durkin, Barber and Houghton in their research on academic expectations of Aboriginal and
other Australian students from different ethnicities (2015). Chris Sarra, founder of the Stronger
Smarter Institute has also reflected on the importance of higher expectations for Aboriginal
students, as per his interaction with students at Cherbourg State School in Queensland. He stated in
2017 at an annual conference on education, cited in the article ‘Raise the Bar and they will reach for
it’, “As an educator, you can collude with mediocrity or you can nurture greatness…Setting
expectations higher for Aboriginal students can make a real and powerful difference to their
education and to their expectations of themselves."

The emphasis on high expectations, student engagement and productive participation (i.e.
attendance and retention) and supporting communities and forming partnerships with them are
reflected in other documents. For example, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Strategy explicitly refers to high expectations for Indigenous students and young people, building
partnerships and relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through local
approaches whilst also aiming for equity and cultural recognition. (Education Council, 2015). This
document reflects the Melbourne Declaration’s emphasis on the “…local cultural knowledge and
experiences of indigenous students as a foundation for learning…” and “…that the learning
outcomes of Indigenous students improve to match those of other students.” (MCEETYA, 2008).

Student engagement and productive participation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students is the next positivist educational principle that is embodied in the Melbourne Declaration
and other related documents. As observed by Mooney, Seaton, Kaur, Marsh and Young, Aboriginal
students may show a higher level of self-concept when it came to Aboriginal perspective, cultural
diversity and cultural identity in the classroom, thus having significant implications for appropriate
teaching practice for improving Indigenous student engagement and learning outcomes (2016).

The NSW Department of Education Aboriginal Education Policy specifically refers to addressing
Aboriginal student engagement and productive participation in objectives such as 1.3.1. (“Increase

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the participation and retention of Aboriginal students in school”), 1.5.2 (“Provide supportive and
culturally inclusive learning environments for Aboriginal students.”) and 1.6.2 (“Engage and motivate
Aboriginal students for successful participation in education.”) (New South Wales Department of
Education, 2018). The New South Wales Education Standards Authority also recognise the
importance of student engagement and productive participation in Aboriginal education, supported
by the focus on the students’ cultural safety and respectful behaviours. For example:

“respect for and protection of the knowledge and cultural expressions of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples

the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to self-determination” (NESA, 2017)

The third key positivist principle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education is based on
the development of strong relationships across the whole Indigenous community (what Munns,
O’Rourke and Bodkin-Andrews identify in 2013 as a ‘social justice perspective’ on successful
Aboriginal education). The ‘Closing the Gap’ Report provides specific instances where partnerships
that engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and families (such as the Remote
School Attendance Strategy and the Communities for Children Facilitating Partners’ program) have
been actioned to improve attendance rates, enhance childhood development and wellbeing (CoA,
2017). It is important to note that this report advises that these programs have varying rates of
success, dependent upon the relative remoteness of those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students and their schools and communities. Whilst results vary, the report specifically refers to the
underlying Indigenous education rationale, that “Regular school attendance contributes to better
educational outcomes, so it is important to foster a positive school environment for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander children.”

A key platform for collaboration and cooperation in formulating a positive partnership between
NSW public schools and the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community is outlined in the
A.E.P. commitment 1.1.7, recognising the New South Wales Aboriginal Educational Consultative
Group as the peak advisory body for all levels and stages of Aboriginal education planning. In turn,
the AECG has developed strategies such as the “Connected Communities” program with its
concomitant emphasis on “Local Schools, Local Decisions”, personalised learning plans for all
students, and Aboriginal students and families are actively engaging with their schools (Aboriginal
Education Consultative Group Inc., 2017). Thus, the NSW Department of Education has developed a
collaborative approach to its development of Aboriginal education policy by working with a
representative body that is constituted by members of the Aboriginal community across the state,
based on local and regional AECG branches.

Whilst all these documents provide the policy frameworks, formulating the key tenets of
positive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education practice that is focused on high expectations,
student engagement and participation, and positive and authentic community partnerships (Munns,
O’Rourke and Bodkin-Andrews, 2013), it is the Australian Professional Teaching Standards as defined
by AITSL that coalesces these into definitive teaching guidelines. Coupled with the implementation
of the cross-curriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Australian National
Curriculum, as developed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA,
2016), the APST will form a vital schema for my classroom pedagogical strategies, both for
Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Pedagogical Strategies for Increased Retention and Successful
Learning Outcomes

Before one can look to postulating specific pedagogical strategies that may have a positive
influence on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander retention rates and learning outcomes, it is
important to recognise the following. Due to location, economic status, cultural context, health and
mental care status and domestic circumstances there may be significant variations in both the
nature of the challenges facing one when developing pedagogies for Indigenous students, and in
forming partnerships with those communities where one teaches. For example, as noted by the
2017 ‘Closing the Gap’ Report there is a 19.9% difference in attendance rates for Year 10 Indigenous
students between those in major cities (86.3%) versus 66.4% for very remotely located students. It is
also important to recognise that pedagogical strategies that have been developed in one area (such
as the 2009 ‘Eight Ways of Learning’ as shared by Tyson Kaawoppa Yunkaporta) reflect Aboriginal
cultures and research from that land and its communities. As noted by Osborne and Guenther in
‘Red Dirt Thinking and Success’ (2013):

“If remote educators and the systems they work in do not challenge themselves to take account
of the remote contexts they work in and the values that inform them, they are in danger of
perpetually applying and reapplying the simplistic (and failing) logic of schooling… Unchallenged,
remote non-Indigenous educators will continue to assume that their own values and understanding
of what aspiration is, are shared and repeat (a) linear monologue of the path to success…”

Therefore, when developing future pedagogical strategies as a teacher of Indigenous (and on-
indigenous) students I must retain awareness of the context of my practice and the cultural context
of the pedagogies. This awareness will moderate those strategies that will be designed to create high
expectations, promote Indigenous student engagement and participation, and positive partnerships
with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities.

One specific pedagogy that has been informed by the ‘Eight Ways of Learning’ that I will look to
use in my future teaching practice is story sharing. Story sharing allows for the interchange of
personal knowledge between my students and I, thus improving their engagement and participation.
This is a response to the APST standard 1.4, ‘Strategies for Teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders’ (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2017) and commitment 1.5.5
from the NSW Department of Education Aboriginal Education Policy (2018). For example, in an
English lesson for Stage Five students (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous), using story-telling as a
pedagogical strategy will provide opportunities for a personal engagement with a text, assisting in
developing the contextual knowledge and give the students agency in applying their own knowledge
of their language forms and features. In a Stage Five History depth study on Rights and Freedoms,
Aboriginal students may be given (through the agency of story-telling) their own voice in recounting,
exploring and validating their identity and understanding of the struggle for Indigenous rights (Board
of Studies, 2012). This pedagogical strategy also speaks to those principles of cultural recognition,
relationships and quality as outlined in the 2015 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Education Strategy.

A second pedagogical strategy that I will look to apply in my future teaching practice is the
development of trusting collaborative mentor/mentee relationships with (where necessary)
individualised learning plans. Briggs (2017) reflects on the success of such pedagogical structures in
the attendance, retention and engagement levels for Indigenous students in an urban environment.
This reflects APST standards 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5, as well as (potentially) 3.7 (“Engage parent/carers in
the educative process”) (AITSL, 2017). This pedagogical strategy not only speaks to student

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engagement and participation, it may also reflect upon the need to establish high expectations for
my students and encourage stronger partnership links with my local Indigenous community. It will
also assist in developing my ability to meet APST standard 6.3, as per providing collaborative
opportunities to work with Aboriginal Education Officers or other teachers or agencies. Briggs
stresses the importance of AEOs and/or Indigenous teachers in this practice.

A third pedagogical strategy I should contemplate for my future teaching, both to meet the
requirements of the NSW Aboriginal Education Policy and the Australian Professional Standards for
Teachers and positively influence Indigenous learning outcomes and retention is “…to emulate
Indigenous educators’ and Elders’ promotion of authentic dialogue as a pedagogy for creating
relational, safe, and trusting learning environments.” (McMahon, Harwood, Bodkins-Andrews,
O’Shea, McKnight, Chandler and Priestly, 2017). This reflects Yunkaporta’s observations on authentic
intercultural relationships as part of the foundation for the ‘Eight Ways of Learning’ framework. This
may take the form of using non-verbal, hands-on learning experiences (for example, adapting the
2014 lesson plan example supplied by NESA for Stage Five Aboriginal Oral and Written Presentation
to a Stage Four English lesson for Outcome EN4-2A)

Conclusion

As stated, there are myriad documents and policy guidelines that will inform my future practice
when teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The key principles that they all embody
and that I need to focus on are those that are aimed to produce positive outcomes for Indigenous
student retention rates and successful learning outcomes. As a corollary of these principles it is an
imperative that I develop my own cultural competency, as described by Buckskin (Price, 2015. P.177)
and through focusing on high expectations, student engagement and participation, and positive
partnerships with Indigenous peoples and their communities, and developing contextualised and
responsive pedagogies that meet these goals, I will hopefully address the significant challenges faced
by both myself and by my students (Indigenous or otherwise).

References

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Board of Studies NSW. (2012). History K-10 Syllabus Volume 2: History Years 7-10. Sydney, Australia:
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