One day a teacher came to me declaring he was totally unable to teach oral English to his Grade 1 class. A young teacher in trouble. Of course I must give a demonstration lesson. I sat the children on chairs in a circle and started out with the patter, “I’m David, you’re Fred”, “I’m David, you’re Jane”, “I’m David, you’re Bill”. As we proceeded I noticed one lad, even by this early stage, was attempting hand-stands on his chair. “Come on. Stop that nonsense and sit down”, I growled, after my quieter pleadings had been ignored. The little five-year-old, knowing virtually no English, stopped, looked me straight in the eye, then grinning, gave himself three light pats on the bottom and sat down. I got out of that lesson as fast as I could, hoping the teacher was satisfied with the demonstration. He wasn’t.

In his book How Children Fail, John Holt talks about the strategies children have for coping with school. The strategies of most children, says Holt,

I didn’t really get to thinking much about children’s strategies until I had stopped teaching and gone into a few classes to observe as a fly on the wall. Most of what went on in the classroom went completely unnoticed by the teacher. And what the teacher did notice, she seemed often to misunderstand. The children had an amazing variety of strategies which really had the teacher fooled. Some of them had fooled me too, for the years I had been teaching. I thought that if I were to point out some of the strategies which I saw, teachers may begin to look more carefully at their own and their children’s behaviour.

I doubt that anyone would disagree with the need to establish a positive teacher/child relationship in any classroom situation. The fact is that most young children are expectant of this happening and are conditioned by their home environment and experience to relate to the school and the teacher. There is no doubt that this attitude tempers any sense of strangeness and assists in the development of a feeling of security so necessary to a successful school experience. Many of the steps taken to foster a positive relationship between teacher and pupils occur spontaneously and as a result of mutual interaction, on the basis of a common cultural background. In the case of Aboriginal children in a class situation, this common cultural background cannot be presumed to exist. Many aspects of the Aboriginal culture are vastly different from the European one, not the least of the differences being that the very concept of the school institution does not belong to the Aboriginal culture.

Some understanding of the basic cultural differences is necessary to provide for the building up of a feeling of mutual trust and ease. Suggestions, hopefully of a practical nature, are offered to facilitate this most important aspect of a class teacher’s responsibilities, for without it, I am convinced little meaningful learning will occur.

A recent study of the instructional needs of country children carried out by the author, has revealed that far too many Aboriginal country children (and, it might be added, far too many white country children too) simply do not seem to want to learn! Teachers interviewed during the course of the study viewed this situation variously:

Administration of Aboriginal education can perhaps be defined as the “management of affairs” associated with education for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Such management is placed in the hands of individuals who form part of a system, an entity that seeks to meet the needs and aspirations in education of the indigenous people of this country. The task therefore for the administrator is a massive one and involves a tremendous amount of responsibility. Administrators in education for indigenous Australians are the catalyst in an environment embracing all school-age Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander children – children of all ages, mentalities, skills, talents and aspirations.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Education Consultative Committee (T.A.E.C.C.) was established in March 1979 as a result of prior consultation between the Tasmanian Education Department, the Tasmanian representative to the National Aboriginal Education Committee (N.A.E.C), Mrs Patsy Cameron and Aboriginal organisations throughout Tasmania and the islands.

The Committee was elected by the Aboriginal community and consists of twelve Aboriginal people – three each from the northwest, southern and northern regions and one each from Flinders and Cape Barren Islands, and the Tasmanian representative to the N.A.E.C.

It was formed in response to a need for increased Aboriginal involvement in the area of Aboriginal education in Tasmania.

The committee’s function is to advise the Minister for Education and his department on the educational needs of Aboriginal people in Tasmania and to suggest appropriate ways of meeting these needs.

It meets every three months.

The following Cultural Studies program has been working at A.T.E.C., Batchelor, for two years. The initial fears (how are you going to teach Aboriginals about their own culture? etc.) have been laid to rest and the course entered its second year in a very strong position with a lot of support coming from students.

The structural components of the course come from three areas: Paulo Friere’s Education for Critical Consciousness, Beattie’s Other Cultures, and documentation from the East West Centre, Hawaii, on Cross Cultural Orientation Techniques.

The course runs for four years and is based on a spiral concept with eight subjects discussed each year: law, politics, leadership, economics, kinship, family, language, religion.

Cherbourg is situated on the Barambah Creek, about 300 km north west of Brisbane. The area of the reserve is approximately 4,000 hectares, adjoining 11,000 hectares of state forest. Cherbourg is 5 km from the township of Murgon and is the third largest Aboriginal settlement in Queensland.

Since 1973 Aboriginal teacher aides have been employed at Murgon High School in a variety of roles. Our jobs have included supervision in various classes and playground, helping small groups of students, resource work (cutting, stapling, cataloguing various materials for teachers), but our most important job is working on behalf of the Aboriginal students, with parents, council, principal and staff. This is part of our liaison work. This year there are about 100 Aboriginal students attending the high school in Murgon.

During 1979, with the help of some staff teachers, we worked on producing two booklets for teachers new to Murgon High. The first booklet, Cherbourg, looks at early history, facilities, industries and employment, as well as entertainment, places to visit and some of the local foods. We gathered information from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, as well as from interviewing people at home and at work. We also discussed a lot of ideas at our meetings, held three times a week. Bevan learned to use the S.LR camera, as well as to develop the photos, so he could look after the photographic aspect of the booklets. Students contributed written ideas and sketches.

It is a significant fact that in 150 years of European settlement there is still only a handful of Aborigines working in the field of education in this state. This means that Aboriginal parents have very little say in the educational policies and programs affecting their children and they are concerned about this. Because of the fact that many Aboriginal people have had little contact with the school situation, (in fact up till comparatively recently, many, as children, were actually excluded from attendance at school) they regard it as an alien institution, representing an academic world to which they do not belong. Consequently many Aboriginal people are hesitant to approach the school under any pretext, even for the purpose of enrolling their children. They need a corporate voice, an avenue of approach by which they can make contact with educational authorities, to make known their needs and aspirations, at whatever level necessary, and to feel assured that action will be taken in response to these needs.

With the object of providing a corporate voice for Aborigines in the educational scene in 1977 State Consultative Groups were set up in all states except Western Australia. Here in Western Australia, the need was seen by the Education Department to provide for organization at the grass roots level, and to plan for regional committees throughout the State. In September 1978, I was transferred from a classroom to the Aboriginal Education Branch as a community liaison officer, to instigate and facilitate the setting up of these committees, and to this date initial meetings have been held for this purpose in the following towns each serving a particular region: Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Kellerberrin, Narrogin and Moora. At each meeting the keen response from the local Aboriginal community has indicated that this move to establish regional committees has their full approval and support. It is expected that by the end of 1980 a committee will have been established in each of the Education Department’s regions.