Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:40:52.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bala ga lili: Meeting Indigenous Learners Halfway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2013

Susan Zela Bissett
Susan Zela Bissett*
Affiliation:
Department of Education, Training and Employment, Gympie, Queensland, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Susan Bissett, Department of Education, Training and Employment, 3 Carrington Avenue, Gympie Queensland 4570, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The author's experience of the day-to-day issues faced as an educator in an Aboriginal school are recounted, along with perspectives gained as part of a research project. The proposition is argued that an Education for Sustainability approach, where learning is structured around a negotiated environmental issue within local community, represents a cultural accommodation or halfway point between mainstream formal schooling and the needs of Indigenous learners. This article contends that such an educative approach meets Indigenous learners ‘halfway’, through compatibility with Indigenous values frameworks and employing culturally appropriate pedagogical methods. The argument is made that by demonstrating a willingness to negotiate worthwhile environmentally based projects that address community ecological concerns, EfS may be able to improve community support and mitigate impediments to the engagement of Indigenous learners with formal education. A critical pedagogy of place (Grunewald, 2003) is discussed as a theoretical framework that combines place-based pedagogy with empowering educational theory. Indigenous learners’ connection with place is recognised in this approach and ascribed a positive rather than negative value.

Keywords

Indigenous educationenvironmentEducation for Sustainabilityassimilationengagementnegotiated curriculuminquiry learningplace pedagogy
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , December 2012 , pp. 78 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cataldi, L., & Partington, G. (1988) Beyond even reasonable doubt: Student assessment. In Partington, G. (Ed.), Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education (pp. 307–332). Katoomba, Australia: Social Science Press.Google Scholar
Christie, M.J. (1991). Aboriginal science for the ecologically sustainable future. Australian Science Teachers Journal, 37, 26–33.Google Scholar
Copland, M., Richards, J., Walker, A., & Zucker, M. (2006). One hour more daylight. Toowoomba, Australia: Social Justice Commission, Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba.Google Scholar
Cronin, R., Sarra, C., & Yelland, N. (2002, December). Achieving positive outcomes in numeracy for Indigenous students. Paper presented at AARE Conference, Brisbane, Australia.Google Scholar
Edwards, K. (2008). Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous games. Canberra, Australia: Australian Sports Commission.Google Scholar
Ferreira, J., Ryan, L., & Tilbury, D. (2006). Whole-school approaches to sustainability. Sydney, Australia: ARIES, Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Folds, R. (1987). Whitefella school. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Frigo, T. (1999). Resources and teaching strategies to support Aboriginal children's numeracy learning: A review of the literature. Sydney, Australia: Office of the Board of Studies NSW.Google Scholar
Grunewald, D. (2003) Best of both worlds. Educational Researcher, 32 (4), 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, S. (1990). Two-way Aboriginal schooling: Education and cultural survival. Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Harris, S. and Malin, M. (Eds) (1994), Aboriginal kids in urban classrooms. Katoomba, Australia: Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, N. (2008). Teaching and learning in Indigenous education. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huggins, J. (2006, March). Homelessness: Symptoms of a deeper malaise. Paper presented at the 4th National Homelessness Conference, Sydney, Australia.Google Scholar
Malin, M. (1994). Make or break factors in Aboriginal students learning to read in urban classrooms: A socio-cultural perspective. In Harris, S. & Malin, M. (Eds.), Aboriginal kids in urban classrooms (pp. 65–88). Wentworth Falls, Australia: Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Marker, M. (2006). After the whale hunt: Indigenous knowledge and limits to multicultural discourse. Urban Education, 41, 482–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munns, G. (1998). ‘They just can't hack that’: Aboriginal students, their teachers and responses to school and classrooms. In Partington, G. (Ed.), Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education (pp. 171–187). Katoomba, Australia: Social Science Press.Google Scholar
Norris, R. (2006). The more things change. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Griffith University, Australia.Google Scholar
Ober, R., & Bat, M. (2007). Both ways: The philospophy. Ngoonjook: A Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues, 31, 64–86.Google Scholar
Partington, G. (1997). Practice teaching in remote communities: The need for adaptation to the social and cultural context. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 22 (1), 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Partington, G. (Ed.). (1998). Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education (pp. 171–187). Katoomba, Australia: Social Science Press.Google Scholar
Rigney, L.-I. (1997). Internationalisation of an indigenous anti-colonial cultural critique of research methodologies: A guide to indigenist research methodology and its principles. The Journal for Native American Studies, 14, 109–121.Google Scholar
Sanderson, J. (2007). Redemption in reconciliation: The connection between Indigenous health and national sustainability. Public lecture presented by the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, ANU College of Law, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Tilbury, D. (1995). Environmental education for sustainability: Defining a new focus of environmental education in the 1990s. Environmental Education Research, 1, 195–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilbury, D., Coleman, V., & Garlick, D. (2005). A national review of environmental education and its contribution to sustainability in Australia: School education — Key findings. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES).Google Scholar
White, N., & Wood, F. (2009). Setting them up for strong futures: Education as a key to social and human capacity building for Indigenous People. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Government.Google Scholar
Yunkaporta, T., & McGinty, S. (2007, November). Reclaiming Aboriginal place-based worldviews at the interface of local and non-local knowledge in education. Paper presented at the AARE 2007 International Educational Research Conference, Fremantle, Australia.Google Scholar