Students' social backgrounds, their cognitive development at school and its assessment are three inter-related educational issues. They apply as much to mathematics as any other subject. The history of mathematics education has been largely one of formal pedagogies justified by decontextualised knowledge and skills. This presents a significant challenge for educators who advocate learner-directed pedagogies which contextualise knowledge and skill. This is also a major issue for Aboriginal education, where students' social backgrounds engender unique educational needs. The following article reflects on some recent research and identifies some specific implications for an Aboriginal homework centre.

In a climate of self-determination it is essential to clarify what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves feel about their cultural identity and future. These voices exist in a context of the great potential in Aboriginal culture and by contrast the severe problems which Aboriginal people face.

Lippman (1994) argues that, although there is some evidence of Aboriginal status becoming more equitable, education being one instance to avail self-determination, data continue to reveal that Aboriginal mortality and morbidity rates lie in stark contrast to those of the general population of Australia. The death rate for Aboriginal men and women of 35 to 44 years is eight times higher than for the average non-Aboriginal (Ferrari, 1997). Queensland Health (1996) recently reported that Cape York has yet to experience the mortality gains seen by Indigenous populations in New Zealand and North America.

In general, education in Australia is dominated by an out-of-date worldview that encourages fragmentation and actively excludes the philosophical views of its Aboriginal Australian students. Despite growing support for the principles and practice of equal opportunity and multi-culturalism, for Aboriginal Australians to benefit from education they are left with little choice but to participate in teaching programs that devalue or ignore their cultural identity. To meet the needs of students, education must undergo a philosophical transformation that makes the structure and content of academic programs more culturally sensitive and flexible. All students need to develop cross-cultural skills, including ways of thinking in terms of interconnectedness and cultural relativity within the dominant culture. Students need to be prepared to work within differing cultural paradigms and to have an understanding of the philosophical diversity of Australia's cultural context.

Indigenous students in urban secondary schools in the Northern Territory are faced with barriers to their success in learning, in the education race. Amongst these is the question of language studies. Like all students, they must study English as a separate subject, they must study all other subjects using English as the language of instruction, and they must study a second language, a language other than English (LOTE), as a component of their Junior Secondary Studies Certificate. Most schools offer Indonesian and some are able to offer a broader choice. For the Indigenous student, social justice demands an addition to this range. It is illogical and unfair that schools, in some cases with up to 30 per cent Indigenous students, do not include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in their programs. It is also shortsighted of schools to ignore the opportunity to provide these students with a subject area in which their culture is dominant.

This paper discusses the importance of examining the behaviours of non-Aboriginal educators, rather than Aboriginal students, when attempting to evaluate the performance of Aboriginal students in urban secondary schools. It acknowledges that endemic problems exist and that the perceptions and actions of non-Aboriginal educators may be contributing factors. The paper considers some established discourse in this area and refers to two specific programs which commenced operation in a Darwin secondary school in 1994, and in which the author was directly involved.

It would be reasonable to assume that today's business managers are aware of the ethical and legal obligations they have with regard to discrimination and harassment. Anyone acting in a management position should realise that organisation are ‘subject to increasingly frequent lawsuits by a growing variety of groups, ranging from employees to clients’ (Robbins, 1991:85). The wise manager will, therefore, utilise the competencies of qualified human resource and legal practitioners to constantly review procedures in areas vulnerable to litigation.

This paper addresses issues related to the conflicting paradigms of Western systems of knowledge and Indigenous systems of knowledge within the context of teaching about gender and music in Indigenous Australian women's performance practice. I will first describe the subject which I am currently teaching at the University of Queensland. I will then discuss the theoretical concerns related to teaching about gender and music in terms of the differences between Western and Indigenous ways of knowing about these concepts. I will then examine the conflicts which arise in the context of teaching Indigenous studies within a non-Indigenous framework. Finally, conclusions will be drawn in regard to the reconciling the differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing and the implications for teaching this type of curriculum on an international scale.

This article addresses Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health problems and critically investigates current government policies which are attempting to raise the health standards of these Indigenous people. Particular emphasis will be placed on the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, which, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics census in 1986, stood at just over 61,000 or 2.4 per cent of the State's population.

During some stage in their lives many Torres Strait Islanders, especially women will migrate to Australia in order to further their education, employment and training (Warrior, 1997). This paper focuses on a recent that I carried out among Torres Strait Islander women living on the mainland. The purpose of the survey is to indicate how Torres Strait Islander women are maintaining their identity whilst living on the mainland. To show these results, first the Torres Strait Islanders will be discussed generally to give an overview of their identity, then briefly Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland will be discussed. The paper will then conclude which the results from the survey conducted.

Since the 1970s considerable human effort and fiscal resources have been expended on improving the provision of education for Australian Indigenous peoples. The success or failure of such efforts and resources allocations is not clear and requires research. What is clear is that there has been an impact on the educational outcomes of Australian Indigenous peoples duringthis time. Indeed, there have been enormous advances in some areas and minor in other.