Rationale for learning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in Australian schools

The rationale for learning the culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australian schools is important for tit is the original culture of Australia. By knowing them, the students gain knowledge and proper understanding of the country that can be only provided by comprehending the perspectives of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

The rationale is about examining the method of incorporating the aboriginal perspective into the classroom of Australian schools. It can be done though different scales like inclusion of topic, perspective of the aborigines and practice (Hart, 2012). To incorporate the aboriginal topics into the educational curriculum includes incorporation of indigenous perspectives. The policy documents describes this perspective as shared view of world, which discusses that the universe is created for the humans and they need to harmonize themselves with nature as well as with rest of all. The researchers found that the teachers explain the indigenous perspectives as the representation of cultures, issues and the spirituality of aboriginal people by aboriginal people. Here they share own experiences of assimilation, racism, marginalization and oppression. Including the indigenous perspectives in curriculum means incorporating these stories told from an aboriginal point of view that directly, oppose the western viewpoint. Integration of aboriginal perspective in the curriculum means incorporation of Indigenous original knowledge into classroom as well as acknowledging the strengths of the approaches.

The researchers have found that the teacher must be aware of his own biases and misconceptions and learn about the stereotypical conception about the indigenous people. The teacher should be think carefully about his body language, choice of words; lesson plans also the resources because these are the vehicles that may increase deep-rooted disregard, stereotypical concepts, or misunderstandings about the indigenous peoples.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is unique. It lends voice to the country, thoughts and point of view and interpretation of the whole world. Current statistics have revealed that most of the aboriginal people have dispersed in urban or semi-urban region(Nakata, Keech & Bolt, 2012). Among them, the trend of using English is increasing. In this context, the teachers must not shy away the inclusion of including aboriginal perspective thinking that there is no aborigine present in the class.

The study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders culture provides intellectual provocation and development by giving the insight into and deeper comprehension of Indigenous knowledge and cultures (Arens, 2014).It enables the students to communicate with aboriginal Australians. The Aboriginal students can understand their lesson better from videos, pictures or cartoons (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016). Therefore, the curriculum has incorporated showing of presentations and images so that they can feel more attached with the subjects and analyze the aspects related to it. Short videos and documentaries also help in better understanding and critically discussion the topic discussed in the class.

The teachers can take assistance of sculptures, fictions, dialogue tags to discuss the topics and form a questionnaire to solve with collective effort. The 8way framework of learning includes story sharing, map learning, constructing-deconstructing, land linkage, non- linear and non-verbal methods and usage of images. Thus, these methods have proved to be beneficial for the cultural, intellectual and social development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people (Yeung, Craven & Ali, 2013)

Method of incorporating Aboriginal perspective into the classroom

To me, teaching the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders means sinking my feet into the sacred soil as well as embracing my own identity. It means being proud of sharing the culture with my students, who likes to listen, learn and become a part of the journey.

To be an effective teacher, I prepare myself to know my pupil. It is necessary to know the background of the students and their knowledge that they bring in my classroom. Their identity discloses their values, cultural practices and beliefs, which assist to shape these students as learners. Most of the aborigines of Australia are inseparable from the non-indigenous, as they have absorbed the western culture and perspectives. Therefore, as a teacher, I find that it is difficult to understand the unique perspective of the indigenous students.

For Aboriginal students it is important to receive and education that will promote their aboriginal identity. As a teacher, I encourage them to have a productive life and feel proud for their aborigine culture. I inspire them to bring their tradition of  cumulative work and collective good instead of individualism. The teacher as well as the students will be gainer if  both the cultures blend and involvement increases.

The majority of Australian history of aboriginal people was researched as well as recorded by the non-indigenous people. The education resources and existing programs about indigenous people have been created and delivered by the non-indigenous. The historical as well as social circumstances affect the identity of the indigenous. Therefore, the identity politics in the classroom is a risk factor to handle by the teacher. Deep understanding of the student’s viewpoint, needs and engagement assist me to present varied cultural knowledge and attitudes in positive way.

The study of aboriginal perspective helps me to understand the indigenous students more clearly. Despite the fact that very few Indigenous people now live in their exclusively traditional lifestyle, it is vital for teacher to know the indigenous identity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This identity is constructed, designed and survive in the politicized context of colonialism. These people are called indigenous because they are indigenous to the land they live in contrast to the colonizer states that spread out from centers of power. The traditions of the indigenous people, their law and cultural habits contribute their identity in such way.

As mentioned before, I have found a special trait in the Aboriginal students. They like to work for their collective good and do not focus on their individual achievement. Individualism is foreign to them and I encourage everyone to follow this trait.

To achieve more depth and accurate understanding of Australian history and its culture, the study of Aboriginal history is indispensible. This is the reason I feel the importance of discussing its significance in classroom. I understand the indigenous culture has closely linked with the environment, which has a great impact on their language, Land and culture. They view their land and nature as the extension of their own culture, which directly opposes the views of land by the colonialists, as they looked the land as the commodity and asset. The indigenous struggle for acquiring land rights and conflicts of language boundaries with the colonizers are important issue for both the indigenous and non- indigenous students. The Australian history and indigenous history are positioned as separated and mostly recorded from western perspective. The construction and the manipulation of aboriginal knowledge have influenced the way these people have interpreted their identity and what they should be. Therefore, to know the history properly I encourage the students to support and acknowledge the background and view of each other. Discrimination among the students and giving special treatment to some, have negative effect that will prevent me to reach my students.

Role of the teacher in teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture

I have built my professional capabilities simultaneously gathering knowledge about the culture of the indigenous and maintaining a relationship with the indigenous people. This helped me to converse with my aboriginal students easily. I know that it is vital to move within the cultural surroundings and to listen to the local community’s perspectives.

Today’s indigenous people of Australia demonstrate diverse culture, social, economic and religious beliefs. They refer their lands as country, which is the central of their identity. They also refer their family as country. Therefore, the invasion in their country was not only their physical loss of sovereignty but it as a threat to their identity and existence. This also affected their language and heritage. This may be the reason why most of the aboriginal students feel victimized, as they already know the pain of stolen generations from their family.

The indigenous children are usually brought up to become autonomous individuals and express their opinions but an autonomous behavior can put them into trouble in the classrooms. This is the reason why we teachers should know the behavioral traits of the indigenous students. The teachers must know that indigenous students usually avoid eye contacts with their teachers as it is considered to be rude. The teacher in that case misdiagnoses the student and this results to soft racism.

As a teacher, my point of view says that we must be concerned with the fact that experience of bullying and racial discrimination has become a significant reason for the absence of the students from school. It is an example of increasing empirical evidence of various ways in which racism is taking place. It is harmful to well-being and health. It leaves a deeper impact on educational outcomes of the children throughout the lives.

To build an effective way of learning and to reach the students easily, acknowledgement of their traditions and the country is very much important. It is the ways of paying respect to the indigenous culture. We must embed their perspectives into their curriculum, by collaborating with the communities. It will help creating informed citizens in the future.

I have learnt to see the world from an aboriginal perspective, wanted to know their culture and their acquired knowledge.  In order to do that I had to embrace community partnership and value their aboriginal knowledge as well as their intellectual property. It is my duty to provide all perspective to all my students without discriminating their origin. In doing so I have come across many challenges where I have seen my colleagues to discourage the aboriginal students. I came across with situations where I know that the student can answer the question but he is feeling shame or feeling uncomfortable to answer. This is because he has experienced bullying for being an aborigine in the past.

These students keep quite when they find the subject difficult or struggling to understand but do not let me know due to their inferiority complex. In these cases, we must check and mix with them so that the relationship grows and the subjects are conveyed as well as understood completely.

Benefits of studying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture

 For a language teacher, the responsibility is doubled. It is important to understand that most of the aboriginal students study English as their second or third language. Therefore, we must explain the subjects more than one-way. In order to do so, the language teacher must know the indigenous language as well as well accustomed with their culture.

We must learn the various aspects of communication in order to establish a good relationship with the indigenous pupils. It is a vital step not to indulge in discrimination. We listen carefully from the parents about their aspirations regarding their children. In that case, I find no difference in an aboriginal and a non-aboriginal mother’s dreams. We therefore encourage all of them to participate in school activities.

I have often found in my class that the indigenous students understand a lesson when demonstrated physically. Therefore, western traits of learning may be replaced with the practical and storytelling methods. They connect easily when I refer to the living objects around them and their daily activities. This may have originated from the relatedness that they feel with every living thing, which is the key feature of the indigenous perspective of world, spirituality and tradition. Aboriginal stories and history make these students confident and remove the inferiority complex about their origin.

To build a responsive classroom we must build trust with them by acknowledging and respecting their originality and diversity.  By using local resources and contacting community members, we can remove the huge hesitation in their mind. The school’s staffs like us can allow the leaning of new skills from indigenous culture; in this case, the local indigenous staffs of school may help, as they are part of the community. It is our duty to teach them to walk in two worlds. The peaceful coexistence of these indigenous and non- indigenous cultures will bring cultural prosperity.

References:

Arens, A. K., Bodkin-Andrews, G., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2014). Self-concept of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students: Competence and affect components and relations to achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 32, 93-103.

Behrendt, L. Y., Larkin, S., Griew, R., & Kelly, P. (2012). Review of higher education access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2016). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784-807.

Ens, E. J., Finlayson, M., Preuss, K., Jackson, S., & Holcombe, S. (2012). Australian approaches for managing ‘country’using Indigenous and non?Indigenous knowledge. Ecological Management & Restoration, 13(1), 100-107.

Evans, C. (2012). Your professional experience and becoming professional about working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction to the teaching profession, 52-62.

Fogarty, W., & Schwab, R. G. (2012). Indigenous education: Experiential learning and learning through country. ANU, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR).

Hart, V., Whatman, S., McLaughlin, J., & Sharma-Brymer, V. (2012). Pre-service teachers’ pedagogical relationships and experiences of embedding Indigenous Australian knowledge in teaching practicum. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42(5), 703-723.

Kinnane, S., Wilks, J., Wilson, K., Hughes, T., & Thomas, S. (2014). Can’t be what you can’t see’: The transition of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into higher education: Final report 2014.

Lowe, K., & Yunkaporta, T. (2013). The inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the Australian National Curriculum: A cultural, cognitive and socio-political evaluation. Curriculum Perspectives, 33(1), 1-14.

Nakata, M., Keech, S., & Bolt, R. (2012). Decolonial goals and pedagogies for Indigenous studies. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1).

Price, K. (2012). A brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction for the teaching profession, 1-20.

Rhea, Z. M., & Russell, L. (2012). The invisible hand of pedagogy in Australian Indigenous studies and Indigenous education. The Australian journal of Indigenous education, 41(1), 18-25.

Woods-McConney, A., Oliver, M. C., McConney, A., Maor, D., & Schibeci, R. (2013). Science engagement and literacy: A retrospective analysis for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Research in Science Education, 43(1), 233-252.

Woodward, E., Jackson, S., Finn, M., & McTaggart, P. M. (2012). Utilising Indigenous seasonal knowledge to understand aquatic resource use and inform water resource management in northern Australia. Ecological Management & Restoration, 13(1), 58-64.

Yeung, A. S., Craven, R. G., & Ali, J. (2013). Self-concepts and educational outcomes of Indigenous Australian students in urban and rural school settings. School Psychology International, 34(4), 405-427.

Yeung, A. S., Craven, R. G., & Ali, J. (2013). Self-concepts and educational outcomes of Indigenous Australian students in urban and rural school settings. School Psychology International, 34(4), 405-427.