ATSI Students

and
Attendance

Diana & Simone

Presentation Outline

– Main issues

– Government Initiatives

– Pedagogical and Teaching strategies

 What causes low attendance?

– Parents and Caregivers (Buckley & Purdie, 2010) (Foley, 2013)

– Financial Status (Australian Government: Department of Social Services, 2015)

(American Psychological Association, 2017)

– Drugs, Alcohol & Family Violence (Australian Government: Australian Institute of

Family Studies, 2002)

– Numeracy & Literacy and Language Skills (Australian Government: Australian

Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017) (Clancy, Munns, & Simpson, 1999)

– Not treated fairly (Beresford & Gray, 2001)

– Unaware of event of cultural significance (Beresford & Gray, 2001)

ATIS culture in the Australian curriculum

Throughout history in Australia, the teaching of aboriginal culture in

secondary schools has been minimal and has only covered captivating
but extrinsic characteristics of indigenous culture (Beresford, Partington,
& Gower, 2012; Clark, 2008; Healy, 2008).
The shape of the Australian curriculum (2010). Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.
 ACARA 2009

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)

attempted to develop a more “inclusive curriculum”.

Indigenous perspectives were written into the curriculum in order to:

– Create opportunities for all young Australians to learn about indigenous

culture

– Recognize their importance

– Respect their past and present.

 Cross-curriculum priorities

According to the Shape of the Australian curriculum (2010),

the Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address
the contemporary issues they face. With this and the education goals of the
Melbourne Declaration in mind, the curriculum gives special attention to three
priorities:
– Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

– Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia interconnections that Australia has with
the region
– Sustainability. (p. 20)
 Melbourne Declaration

Despite stating educational goals for young Australians to value their country’s
culture and history, the curriculum implies it is only enough for them to:

“understand and acknowledge the value of Indigenous cultures and possess the
knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from,
reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians” (Ministerial
Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, Melbourne
Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, 2008, p.13).
 ACARA 2013

Created due to:

– Inconsistencies in Aboriginal content

– Inconsistencies across ALL schools

There is still the issue of avoidance (Beresford, Partington, & Gower,

2012; Healy, 2008; Partington, 1998).
 ACARA 2019

– The priorities provide national, regional and global dimensions which will enrich
the curriculum through development of considered and focused content that fits
naturally within learning areas.

– Cross-curriculum priorities are addressed through learning areas and do not

constitute curriculum on their own, as they do not exist outside of learning areas

– Content descriptions and elaborations of each learning area as appropriate.

embedded in a learning area according to the relevance.

https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/foundation-year-10/cross-curriculum-priorities
 Indigenous-specific reasons for non-
attendance

Little to no acknowledgement of indigenous culture has been suggested

(Biddle, Hunter, & Schwab, 2004; Herbert, Anderson, Price, & Stehbens,
1999; Schwab 2001).

Unsuitable curriculum for indigenous students.

Strength and resilience for Indigenous
cultures

– Identity
– Belonging
– Culture
– History (Aboriginal Education Strategy 2019 – 2029, Government of
South Australia).
Schools are not providing them with culturally specific activities for:

– Music

– Sports

– Art

– Skills
 Programs introduced to increase
attendance

– Boarding School Scholarship Program

– 85% of students enrolled in the program have either completed their schooling or are
still enrolled. (Buckley & Purdie, 2010)
These are the QLD schools involved with the Boarding School Scholarship Program

Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. (2019). Scholarships. Retrieved 9 16, 2019, from
Australian Indigenous Education Foundation: http://www.aief.com.au/scholarships/
 Programs introduced to increase
attendance

– Remote School Attendance Strategy or RSAS

– Established in 2014 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– Works with communities (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– “Working with families, to offer support, strategies to support enrollment, assistance to travelling and
mobile families, nutrition programs, rewards and incentives programs for students with improved
attendance or behavior, a daily bus run, having additional workers in the school to help teachers in the
classroom, or a combination of some or all of these activities.” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– 93% of staff members are ATSI (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– 14,500 students currently benefit from this program (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)
 Programs introduced to increase
attendance
– 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum Education Package

– May 2017

– “$25 Million” was to help prepare ATSI students for careers in “Science, Technology,

Engineering and Math’s.” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– “$60 Million for” support and mentoring services, which included “scholarships to support

students in secondary and tertiary studies” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– “$41 Million” for activities for girls and women (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

– “$40 Million” for “the Clontarf Foundation” that supports the “secondary school academics” of

“young men” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018)

 Programs introduced to increase
attendance

– Fine parents (Puddy, 2018)

– Parents in South Australia can be fined as much as $5000 (Puddy, 2018)

 So far…

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Students access to equal opportunities

still depends heavily upon school staff’s ability to commit with
enthusiasm and energy.
 Funding for programs

– $310.3 billion on recurrent funding from 2018 to 2029

– $5.2 billion will be for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander schools

– It was expected that 223,279 students would benefit in 2019

(Australian Government, Department of Education).

– $224 million from Non-profit organisations

– NGO outsourcing (Hudson, 2016).

 Budget measures for attendance rates

– None currently for attendance and retention rates (Department of the Prime Minister &
Cabinet, 2018).

– The controversial SEAM (Improving School Enrolment and Attendance through Welfare
Reform Measure) of 2008.

Status: Ceased.

Reasons:

1. $29.6 million savings (Morrison & Cormann, 2017-2018).

2. Pressure without incentives (Campbell & Wright, 2005; Cortis, Cowling, & Meagher, 2008).
 Some popular initiatives
The Australian Indigenous Education Use of funds determined by the schools’
Foundation (AIEF) 2008 - $20 million commitment or engagement.

Cape York Institute Higher Expectations

Program 2000 Evaluation unavailable.

The Yalari Foundation 2005 Funds the financial difference between the
ABSTUDY designated allowance

The Catherine Freeman Foundation 2007 20% increase reported in 2010.

The Clontarf Foundation Sporting Programs School attendance compulsory for continuing
2000 enrolment. 77% attendance reported in 2009.

The Community Festivals program Insufficient data to determine or evaluate

(Government initiative) 2008 attendance levels after events, if any.

Australian Government, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2010.
 The Prime Minister’s report 2011-
Closing the Gap

– Higher attendance deemed urgent

– Agenda delays for both consideration and endorsement of action

plans causes further damage (Parliament of Australia, 2011).
 Impact of English on attendance

Aboriginal English (AE) - Aboriginal languages with an English

influence.

– Valued as a language of unity.

– Systematically different from Australian Standard English (SAE) in

pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and pragmatics

– Spoken in most homes (Eades, 1993).

– How do these differences impact attendance?

SAE only used in classrooms:

– Prevents rapport building

– Becomes a barrier for teaching and learning with culturally accessible

materials (Sharifian, 2007).

– Leads to feelings of racial discrimination (Australian Council of

Educational Research, 2008).
 Rapport building

– ATIS value relationships and community

– Trust

– Respect

– Belonging (Price, 2012).

 Learning and teaching

– Spiritual elements and meanings in AE:

Professor Sharifian, Director of the Language and Society Centre at Monash

University, found the following on a research project in 2008:

I remember clearly one case where there was this story about a tornado and the
wind, and apparently this mention of the wind and the tornado evoked a spiritual
concept in the mind of the Aboriginal child. So the Aboriginal English-speaking
child added a lot of spiritual elements to this story, so it became like a different
story. (New South Wales Government, Education Standards Authority, n.d.)
 Feelings of racial discrimination

– Marginalization – AE and SAE for social comparison (Andersen &

Walter, 2010; McMaster & Austin, 2005).

– Low status perception

– Powerlessness

– Low self-esteem
 Teacher competency

– Limited to no knowledge of Indigenous culture

– Insufficient evidence-based teaching strategies

– Limited learning and training in pre-service teaching programs

 Limited knowledge of Indigenous
culture

- Superficial knowledge (Clark, 2008; MacNaughton, 2001).

- Cultural incompetency (Gower & Byrne, 2012).

– No cultural change (Price, 2012).

 Evidence-based teaching strategies

– Continuous teacher training is still just a proposed solution (Dinham, 2013).

– Teacher background influences decision making
– Underdeveloped research (Rowe, 2006).
– Little evidence in the Australian Literature (Brogden & Kelly, 2002 )
 Pre-service teaching programs

– Lack of explicit teaching

– We can explicitly teach how to recognise, investigate, draw on and draw out the
cultural resources in classroom contexts (Chigeza, & Whitehouse, 2014).
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