In 1954 the Australian Council for Educational Research convened a conference of curriculum officers from the various State Education Departments to consider, among other things, a desirable course of study in mathematics for Australian primary schools. The report of the conference lists the following as the expected outcomes of a desirable mathematics course:

A number of issues critical to Aboriginal Studies Courses are extrapolated from the literature. These issues are expressed as questions important for evaluators of Aboriginal Studies Courses to ask. They may also be seen as guidelines for the construction of Aboriginal Studies Courses. In conclusion, a summary of the developed guidelines is presented.

It is a western New South Wales High School with strong winter sunshine filling the classroom. The teacher moves nervously in from the brick corridor with its interchangable Education Department prints, and stands just inside the door.

It has become fashionable in educational circles to pay homage to what is described as ‘cultural activities’ in schools, particularly those schools in which the clientele is drawn from a culturally different community. Such an addition to the curriculum content of schools is a response to the concern that schools are somehow irrelevant to the needs of the client group. While the latter point may indeed be true, this paper argues that curriculum decisions in the area of ‘culture’ are deceptively simple.

This is the second article in the series by Mr. Spalding. After reading it, most teachers will feel the need to scrutinize carefully the books currently in use in their classrooms. In the next issue, Mr. Spalding will write about the transmission and reinforcement of prejudice.

When we talk about Aboriginalizing education, we have to find ways of describing or analyzing what happens in education, which will help us to understand what needs to be done. For me, one of the most useful ways of thinking about education is to make a clear distinction between what is taught (the content, or message of education), and how it is taught (the methods, or processes or the medium of education). In traditional white education, both the content and the process of education reflect the white ways of looking at the world. In traditional Aboriginal education, the process and content of education are both Aboriginal.

I'd like to share with you today some of the experiences I've had over the years I've been involved in pre-school education. But before I get down to some of my personal experiences, I'd like to talk aboutpre-school education in general.

Kevin Rogers is of the Wandarung tribe. He is in his third year of teacher education at the Aboriginal Teacher Education Centre at Batchelor. He is also a member of the National Aboriginal Education Committee. This talk was delivered to teachers at the National Workshop for Teachers of Aboriginal Children, Perth, 29th August - 2 September, 1977.

As teachers, most of us would agree that our attitudes and expectations do somehow influence the academic goals of our pupils and of ourselves. Research findings indicate that the self-fulfiling prophecy operates in all realms of education and that it results in the kind of behaviour that is expected. The significance of this, especially for teachers in cross-cultural classes, is now well established and generally accepted. However, the ways in which we actually transmit our attitudes and expectations to our pupils are still not clear.

Education systems are devised by the members of a society to perpetuate the values, customs and beliefs of that culture. Therefore, in a multicultural society, any child from a minority cultural group who is educated in the educational system of the majority cultural group as, for example, most Aboriginal students, must be at a disadvantage.

Those involved in educational programs with Aboriginal children have noted that the parents have little contact with the schools, and feel that they are unable to help their children with their schoolwork, even where they express interest in their children's school progress.

The Aboriginal consultative group to the Schools Commission in their report. Education for Aborigines, made the following statement about the involvement of parents in the education of their children.

This paper treats two analytically separable but interwoven themes: Firstly, the role of the community in the educational process, and secondly, the effects of the community situation on the classroom situation, and vice versa. A major point of departure in the argument is the view that Aboriginal communities, defined here as Aboriginal settlements under special government administration, can be seen as educational agencies or institutions in a process of Westernization. At least this is how statements relating to policy and community planning can usefully be interpreted.