A good deal has been stated and hypothesised about the essence of Aboriginal learning styles and their implication for Aboriginal education generally (see Roper, 1969; Watts, 1970; Hart, 1974; Harris, 1982). Nowhere does this hypothesising become more explicit than in the Guidelines to Teachers accompanying the NSW Aboriginal Education Policy. It is perhaps time to reexamine some of these propositions and to introduce a note of caution before we develop and encapsulate a whole new range of over-generalisations which will serve to lock Aboriginal people into yet another cycle of disadvantage.

Education is essentially cultural transmission (Singleton, 1974:27). Indeed, as Singleton (1974) points out, culture itself is frequently defined in essentially educational terms as “the shared product of human learning”.

I am delighted at the opportunity to address you today and I would like to start by quoting a section from the speech made to Aboriginal people by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, when he visited Australia last year.

His Holiness made reference to the strength of Aboriginal culture and the need to preserve it. He chose to make an analogy between the culture of the Aboriginal people and the indomitable nature of a native Australian tree.

Classroom talk often consists of teachers’ questions and commands and children’s responses or answers. While this may not be the best approach to learning it is nevertheless very common. In this paper, some of the talk that occurred in some Aboriginal classrooms (Graham, 1987) has been examined to see just what children were saying (and therefore thinking) and if teacher talk was focusing on the things children need to know if they are to learn mathematics more effectively in school. To begin with let us look at what some children are saying and therefore meaning as they respond to teachers’ questions.

The purpose of this report is to investigate the need for and purposes of parental and community involvement in an Outer Torres Strait Island school, namely Saibai State School, and to explore and report on some of the approaches to community involvement that we have trialled in our school.

If a school is aiming to educate its students for an active role in the society, then it is vital that the school be a living, active part of that society. It is unrealistic for teachers to assume that the school can stay separated from the community but still educate its students in a real and meaningful way.

With the Bicentennial on our doorstep, it is crucial that teachers possess some understanding of the issue of land rights and the debate which will undoubtedly occur throughout 1988. Such debate may at best become an issue raised in classroom discussion or at worst jeopardise Aboriginal-white relations in their own schools. This paper seeks to highlight some of the critical points necessary for an understanding of the basic issues involved in land rights in the specific context of Aboriginal-white relations.