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Early Childhood Education at the Cultural Interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2015

Marguerite Maher  and
Lisa Buxton
Marguerite Maher*
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Notre Dame, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Lisa Buxton
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Notre Dame, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Marguerite Maher, School of Education, University of Notre Dame, Sydney NSW 2007, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia emphasises that children's own identity is constructed within their given context of family and community. This article presents the findings of a multiple case study project undertaken within five remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Australia. Community Elders were concerned that while their children had a positive sense of self during their prior-to-school years, on entry into formal schooling they experienced a disjuncture between those experiences and the expectations of a Western curriculum. The project involved partnering one university academic to work with each community, exploring ways of improving 4-year-old children's pre-reading and numeracy skills to enhance their capacity to engage with expectations on entry into formal schooling. Elders were determined to have the children be successful at school and saw success there as inextricably interwoven with their sense of efficacy to explore and to learn. Outcomes included positives such as children demonstrating increased pre-reading and numeracy skills and, importantly, the engagement of the whole community in the project. Foundational to the success was making Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing key components of learning opportunities provided to the children, supporting awareness of their social and cultural heritage.

Keywords

cultural interfaceearly childhood educationremote Aboriginal communities
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , August 2015 , pp. 1 - 10
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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