18071434 Essay Jarod Leis

Option One:

Describe the essential components that can build positive, respectful relationships with

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and improve retention. Assess how you as a

future teacher will support Aboriginal student learning, success and retention. Use key

policy documents to support your argument.

Building a positive and respectful relationship with all students but in particular those that

are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is extremely significant as it endeavours to improve

student retention and academic and social performance. Having a complete understanding

in policy implemented by the NSW Department of Education and in particular the Aboriginal

Education Policy is crucial, as its outcomes are directed specifically in improving the

educational wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Current literature

also supplements policy and the overall tone is directed towards providing teachers with the

specific knowledge and understanding of the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

learners. Using the information gathered from policies and current literature and applying

the requirements 1.4 and 2.4 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers into my

own practice, it is endeavoured that positive and respectful relationships with Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander students will improve.

Numerous policies, strategies and reports exist regarding the vision for the future of

education in Australia which encompasses focussing on the betterment of Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander students in partnership with Aboriginal communities. Policy is crucial

in all aspects of everyday life such as foreign, economic or defence matters. A policy

document incorporates a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis to make future
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decisions and is often made public so that everyone can view the vision that is being worked

towards by the appropriate organisation. The New South Wales Aboriginal Education Policy

(2008) is a core document which has been formed in collaboration with Aboriginal

communities, key partners and in response to a prior report of the review of Aboriginal

education 2004. This policy lists commitments made by the department but also the

responsibilities of the communities such as schools and educational services. Commitments

include improving educational outcomes and the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander students and also to increase the knowledge and understanding of these histories

for the benefit of every student. Price (2017) reinforces this notion by stating that Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander education is both for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander people. Price further expands on this stating that unfortunately the majority of

programs which endeavours to improve Aboriginal educational results, fails to incorporate

the principals and teachers and instead focusses on just the students and parents. The New

South Wales Aboriginal Education Policy (2008) looks further than just academic

performance and lists the importance of increasing the participation and retention of

Aboriginal students in schools. This is crucial as it ultimately comes down to Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander students attending school for them to receive the most out of what

policies are trying to provide. The Closing the Gap report (2018) produced by the Australian

government is a national focus on the improvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

life which delves into education. This report includes both statistics and also turning policy

into action by providing support through grants. Retention and attendance rates for

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are highlighted as a statistic that has remained

stable over the past five years at eighty-three percent. This however, is below the target and

is a nearly ten percentage points behind non-indigenous students. An example that the
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government has given to endeavour to increase attendance and retention is through the

Remote School Attendance Strategy (2014). This includes school support officers working

with families and offering assistance with transport and offering other incentives.

Educational outcomes are also listed by the NSW Department of Education Aboriginal

Education Policy as a significant factor into the betterment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander students. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy (2015) by the

Education Council is a significant document that has the vision of all children achieving their

full learning potential and to embrace their culture and identity. Eight principles underpin

the strategy’s vision and these include: Achieve potential, Equity, Accountability, Cultural

recognition, relationships, partnerships, local approaches and quality. Engagement in

learning and achieving potential are two key factors in which policy outline have a direct

correlation with learning and success.

Policies, strategies and reports serve the purpose of providing a vision for the future

towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia however, current

literature assists on analysing the results of what actually is occurring. Identity and cultural

competency is one area that can be seen as highly significant. Buckskin (2017) states that

cultural competency is at the forefront of not just increasing retention rates but also

improving engagement within the classroom. Embracing students on an individual level and

allowing them to form their own personal identity is crucial in furthering and fostering a

strong student-teacher relationship. Cultural competency can also allow students to build a

greater understanding and appreciation with those around them. Therefore, it has the

benefit on a multitude of levels whether it is through a student and teacher relationship or

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of a student and student one. Shay and Wickes (2017) highlight that whilst government

policies are in place that endeavour to close the educational gap, Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander cultural identities can still be overlooked. An example of what identity is for

Noongar young people and this included culture, family, language and appearance.

Language in particular is important to analyse as Buckskin (2017) argues that governments

give little recognition and often overlook how important language is to Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander culture. Teachers who are culturally competent would have the

understanding that for most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students English can be

seen as the less dominant language. Buckskin also goes on to state that the United Nations

Conventions on the rights of the child, article 30 that “Children have the right to learn and

use the language and customs of their families, whether or not these are shared by the

majority of the people in the country they live in”. Therefore, as future educators it is

important to have strategies and materials in place that can cater to all levels of students’

literacy skills and take into consideration the importance of language and not undermine it

as it is a fundamental part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Teachers can

create resource material on a wide variety of levels to help supplement this.

Perry and Holt (2018) throughout their article on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island

perspectives convey heavily that previous educational policies have impacted the

progression of Aboriginal higher education today. Throughout the process of colonisation,

many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were denied the access of the Western

education system and whilst traditional Aboriginal education was interpersonal through the

use of oral transmission, the fact that they were excluded is a disadvantage. Racist

opposition existed much throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century when Aboriginal
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and Torres Strait Islander children did enter into the education system and this is shown

through the 1902 exclusion on demand policy. This policy meant that any parent that

objected to the Aboriginal child attending the school, would ultimately become expelled

(Perry & Holt, 2018). Whilst times like this are long over, work still is needed to ensure that

a strong voice is exists for the present and the future of Aboriginal education. The New

South Wales Education Standards Authority developed a commitment that includes factors

such as recognition, respect, engagement and collaboration. These factors are being

constantly revisited and focussed and along with the cross curriculum priority of Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. This cross curriculum priority demonstrates

areas of scope in which the history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander

people can be explored.

Funded by the Australian Government, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School

Leadership (2011) produced a set of standards which acts as a public statement of what a

quality teacher must constitute. These standards are based on effective teaching and

educational outcomes that are expected in 21st century schools and a level of

professionalism is expected to raise the status of the profession. Two focus areas that are

fundamental to the betterment of aboriginal education and these are 1.4 and 2.4. Focus

area 1.4 emphases having strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

students. Findings by Milgate (2013) highlighted six broad themes that were emphasised as

important by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within different levels of

education and it included areas of cultural environment, quality teachers, community

engagement, health and wellbeing, curriculum and leadership. Taking into consideration all

six of these themes, an example of how strategies can be implemented to help support the
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learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is through differentiation.

Hertberg-Davis (2009) states that differentiation benefits of all students and it is the

responsibility of the teacher to recognise individual differences in academic levels.

Strategies that can help assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students include using

audio and video tape, being patient and a focus on listening and speaking rather than

writing and grammatical analysis. A specific example of this within a lesson plan could be

the incorporation of visual and design materials such as mind maps and learning maps to

help stimulate learning.

Focus point 2.4 “Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to

promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians parallels with

being cultural competent. Gaining a strong and deep understanding regarding Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander people and not referring to information that can be seen as false

or misjudged comes at the forefront of this focus point. As a future teacher the

responsibility of not presenting misjudged and misinformed content is highly significant

especially during a time where content can be easily manipulated as seen through

mainstream media’s coverage of fake news as of recent times. Becoming culturally

competent and well informed can occur through either consulting with other staff members

or a local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander elder. One way that focusses on providing

cultural competence within the classroom is through the Eight ways of Aboriginal learning.

These eight ways incorporate story sharing, learning maps, non-verbal, symbols and images,

land links, non-linear, deconstruct and reconstruct and community links. Each one of these

ways needs to be approached through Aboriginal processes and protocols yet if

implemented within a classroom appropriately, can be highly beneficial for both Aboriginal
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and Torres Strait Islanders and those that are not. Focussing on land and community links

can be achieved through an excursion in which a member of the local aboriginal community

links the living landscape and describes the profoundness of ancestral and personal

relationship have on the place of gathering.

Cultural competency and building positive and respectful relationships with Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander people go together and contribute collectively in improving student

retention and academic and social performance. Policy, in particular the NSW Department

of Education Aboriginal Education policy has commitments to improve not just the

educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students but also has a vested

interest in providing education to all levels of the educational system. Cultural competency

appeared frequently within current literature as it focusses on teachers being appropriately

equipped and well informed before teaching future generations. Both focus point 1.4 and

2.4 address specifically Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners and through my

methods of inclusion, differentiation and being culturally respectful and mindful it will be

my hope that I present as a professional teacher that adheres to the standards and revisits

them consistently on a daily basis.

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Reference list

Australian Government, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2018). Closing the

Gap – Prime Minister’s Report 2018. Retrieved from

https://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/ctg-report-2018.pdf

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian Professional

Standards for Teachers. AITSL. Retrieved from

https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/apst-

resources/australian_professional_standard_for_teachers_final.pdf

Buckskin, P. (2017). Engaging Indigenous students: The important relationship between

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their teachers, In K. Price (ED.2),

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education (174-192). Sydney, NSW:

Cambridge University Press.

Education Council. (2015). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy

2015. Retrieved from

http://www.scseec.edu.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/ATSI%20docu

ments/DECD__NATSI_EducationStrategy.pdf

Hertberg-Davis, H. (2009). Myth 7: Differentiation in the Regular Classroom is equivalent to

gifted programs and is sufficient. Gifted Child Quarterly, 53 (4), 251-253. Doi:

10.1177/0016986209346927.
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Milgate, G. (2013). Creating an effective School for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

students. ACER. Retrieved from

https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=indigeno

us_education

NSW Department of Education (2008). New South Wales Aboriginal Education Policy.

Retrieved from https://education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/policies/aboriginal-

education-and-training-policy

Perry, L & Holt, L. (2018). Searching for the songlines of Aboriginal education and culture

within Australian Higher education, The Australian Educational Researcher, 45 (3),

343-361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-017-0251-x

Shay, M & Wickes, J. (2017). Aboriginal identity in education settings: privileging our stories

as a way of deconstructing the past and re-imagining the future, The Australian

Educational Researcher, 44 (1), 107-122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-017-

0232-0