Teaching and Learning in Aboriginal Education System

The report presents an alternative pedagogical approach for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who come to learn in Australian schools. It emphasizes the need for teachers to develop their knowledge on geographical, political, and cultural aspects of the Aboriginal community and develop a reflective approach to cater to their requirements. The report also highlights the importance of integrating lessons with the foundation of Aboriginal culture and acknowledging the language differences and cultural practices of the community.

Running head: TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Teaching and Learning in Aboriginal Education System
Name of the university
Name of the student
Author note

1TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Executive summery
The purpose behind writing this assignment is to present an alternative pedagogical approach
for Aboriginal and and Torres Strait Islanders who come to learn in an Australian schools.
Teaching philosophy is helpful and so is personal learning experience; yet to deal with
aboriginal cultural differences teachers need to develop their knowledge on geographical,
political and cultural aspects of them. The sensitive issues of past are needed to understand in
terms of understanding individual personality. A reflective approach has been presented in
order to undertake a different lesson plan for them in order to develop their competence.

2TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Teaching philosophy......................................................................................................3
My professional learning................................................................................................4
Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students and Communities:
experience and suggestion..........................................................................................................5
Conclusion......................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................10
Appendix......................................................................................................................12

3TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Introduction
This report aims to deliver an insight about teaching philosophy and following a
reflective way it will further illustrate experience of professional learning. The final part of
the report will clarify the practice of working with students who come from a community
termed as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Teaching philosophy
It has always been highest priority for Australian national and state Government to
emphasize on improving the educational scenario for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students. There are no less than 3000 Aboriginal Education Workers across the country who
take part in various initiatives, which support the agenda of building an educational system
for them. The entire community of these people have been disposed due to mobility or
political reasons. They tend to feel a strong connection with the region they used to live in.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, therefore, belongs to different communities,
yet due to disposition they are categorized under one group. In order to create a learning
atmosphere for those students few principles are needed to remember as a teacher. Such as,
despite of cultural and lingual diversities a respectful and valued relationship must be
maintained (Fryberg et al., 2013). Teachers need utmost support from their parents to satisfy
necessities of their children as students as well as students are needed to be active participants
of the entire learning program.
The schooling situation needs to change considering the diverse personal background,
beliefs, moral values, and lifestyle and lingual perspectives of Aboriginal indigenous
community of Australia. As per the study of Ma Rhea, Anderson and Atkinson, (2012), the
teaching philosophy must be practical enough to generate positive learning outcome. At first,
it is required to address the differences of perspective between aboriginal and non- aboriginal

4TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
community. The history of colonial oppression and dealing with that perspective is a task as a
teacher. Therefore, philosophy statement would be in spite of having a disturbed background
and diverse cultural practices, as a teacher it is under duties to provide few compulsory
components, such as, continuous consultation, arranging productive development programs
and making sure if resource is adequate and being implemented meaningfully towards
community interest too. Therefore, as a statement I can say, my teaching philosophy is
considering every classroom as unique, I would assist each child to develop potential of
learning new things irrespective of cultural and historical background. My curriculum will be
relevant to students’ lifestyle in order to engage them into both team and individual activities.
My professional learning
According to my professional learning experience and philosophy, if my wish is to
engage every aboriginal student into regular productive activities then they must suppress
their issues regarding grief and losses, dispossession, poor health and financial conditions etc.
Moreover, a study of Herring et al., (2013) suggests they have to face bullying sometimes in
a form of racism or their poor social standard. These all are sensitive issues and professional
teachers not only teach but also consider mental health to make a student understand a
particular lesson. As a part of professional teaching course, consulting the study of Gay,
(2013), I have identified three different sources, which can be a simple guide to understand
the classroom full of cultural diversity or in cases of aboriginal classroom.
With the aim of being an effective teacher, it is necessary to have a clear idea about
the classroom. Knowing students means their cultural practices, history, moral and religious
beliefs and so on. Aboriginal students have different perspective of looking around the world
so at times it turns difficult to understand them. In this course, I have consulted pedagogy
methods of teaching and learning in cases of understanding aboriginal perspectives. Besides,
as per the study conducted by Pianta, (2013), understanding these learners out of a schooling

5TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
scenario and importance of building relationship within and beyond an institution are two
more sources that are going to contribute on development of my abilities as a teacher of
aboriginal students.
Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students and
Communities: experience and suggestion
While working with aboriginal students, an understanding has been developed how
they react and communicate with the world around them. They tend to avoid direct eye
contact to anyone superior considering it rude. Teacher must not ignore or fail to address their
problems can raise question over practicing racism. At times, they are not responsive enough
during question answer session in classroom as traditionally they are used to with narrating
stories not an interactive session. Due to lingual incompetence, some students feel reluctant
to speak publicly even when they know answers. As they have been facing several sensitive
issues since childhood, they are bad at addressing ongoing problem and they tend to complain
less. It is a teacher’s duty to identify difficulties. There were no one to save or guide them. As
described in the study of Dudgeon et al. (2014), history says, they were struggling with
hunger, diseases and physical disabilities.The disturbed history of them, does not allow the
community to trust people who offer them services. The long period of colonial oppression
and suffering are misleading in terms of gaining a healthy social lifestyle.
Acknowledging their background, teachers cannot hold prior perception of them as
underperforming. No matter what the history is, even people achieve success coming from
alcoholic families or having criminal history. As a teacher, I believe, their success depends on
my expectation. Motivational speech from a teacher highly influence them to overcome both
the physical and mental difficulties.

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Lessons must be integrated with the foundation of aboriginal culture. As I have
experienced lessons which have scopes of integrating with the foundation of aboriginal
culture and spirituality, students tend to perform better while understanding that. They have
sensitiveness over family values and communities. Teachers must seek assistance from
parents while training their children. However, as per my experience I did not receive much
help from parents as they are struggling with aboriginal histories as well. Yet I tried to give
them assistance as much as possible and some of the parents were helpful though. The
community of aboriginal students learn better if it is relevant to their histories and cultural
background. As per the study of Bradley and Bradley, (2013), aboriginal children must be
included to the part of regular educational curriculum, learn English as their first language
they will overcome the social barriers and achieve success like a normal citizen of Australia.
As a teacher, my opinion says education can be the medium by which aboriginal community
can transform their social position.
After having a general idea and experience of how I have dealt with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islanders, the feasibility of given lesson plan (provided in the appendix) for an
aboriginal community classroom will be evaluated. According to the plan, I have to teach
them about inspirational Australian characters who have contributed for social and economic
betterment of various underdeveloped communities (Hunt, 2013). In a general classroom
students are expected to present queries about past, analyse historical sources and answer
questions. They will gain a value-based education, like how they can promote respect, civility
and responsibility within Australian society. It demand to construct significant questions
about people, places, past systems and issues. However, as far as feasibility of this lesson
plan is concerned, aboriginal students may not response according to the plan, as students are
not familiar with the tradition of practicing question and answer. Rather narrating stories are
more convenient to them. According to the study of AITSL., (2014), teachers’ responsibility

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must be to improve their competency in terms of posing a question overcoming the barrier of
language and tradition.
There is no uniform language of aboriginal community. Language differs from one
nation to another. Moreover, their English differs from native English speakers as they talk
with modified pronunciation and grammatical structure. Therefore, I have seen them
restricting themselves while posing questions in front of teachers. Sometimes students face
difficulty in continuing their higher studies, teachers must acknowledge these difficulties and
motivate accordingly (Hardes, 2013).
In order to increase communication competency among the children it is important to
integrate the lesson with traditional culture. A consistent encouragement will work in a same
way as it works in cases of native students. However, the intensity of motivation must be
about recovering disturbed past from aboriginal perspective. A process of mutual
understanding may help a teacher to gain knowledge about students’ perspective.
While conducting the discussion in classroom students are supposed to place their
views on the concept ‘Heroes’. However, as we know the history of suffering, aboriginal
students face hard reality where there were no one to save them from ongoing turmoil. This
session can be interesting and helpful to gain personal knowledge about them. Instead of
asking them about the concept, they can be asked whom they consider as hero of their life.
Most of the answers support the idea of presenting their mother or a father figure as role
model. At times, the scenario is just the opposite. Apart from social disturbance, according to
the study of Smith, (2018), many children come from a family, which is full of tensions like
alcoholic members or suicidal history.
In order to make them familiar with fifty inspirational characters Rule, (2013, January
27), considered as heroes, the news by Perth now has considered and according to that,
students have to understand what the characteristics of heroes are. They have characteristic

8TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
differences according to the field they have worked. As per their background, they are
distinguished in three different categories, sports champion, political leaders and war heroes.
When I face difficulty from generating responses of the student, I initiate related questions
with the lessons and try to penetrate their thinking in an interactive way.
Considering the class as highly diverse in nature culturally, teachers can opt for digital
setting and introduce multimodal texts while class reading (Cousik, 2015). It is possible to
have communication issues as language incompetency is there, to eliminate further
miscommunication multimodal texts will be helpful. According to Kong, (2014),
multimodality introduces movable images with descriptive texts. Instead of asking students to
submit individual synopses of leaders in different categories they can be asked to prepare
power point presentation according to the class reading based on some selected heroes of
Australian society. Certainly, they will be provided with technical training at the same time,
before asking for preparing that. Contemporary news must be taught to follow for their better
understanding of the world. It has been observed that compared to traditional teaching
process, a digitally advanced classroom likely to perform better in terms of learning a new
concept both in the cases of native and aboriginal students.
However, in order to evaluate their ability of expressing themselves, a written
paragraph on their concept of hero and presenting a view point of preferring a particular
heroic character can enhance students’ ability to represent their though publicly. In case of
aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, asking them to present power point slides will help to
increase confidence and communication skills among them. Writing someone biographic
profile, although, effective as student are learning the hardships of heroes’ lives too. In this
context, an extensive reading of Price, (2015) suggests, they can have opportunity of
integrating their hardships with personal experiences to be motivated. Apart from opting for a
different pedagogical approach, to cater requirements of aboriginal students teachers must

9TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
acknowledge few basic guidelines while working with them. Improvement will happen
gradually and outcomes will be positive too if teachers perceive improvised philosophy for
guiding aboriginal students.
 A clear understanding of geographical location, aboriginal language, and culture must
be obtained in order to understand the students’ perspective. Consistently making
them aware of their differences are not a good practice as they may have consider it as
practice of Racism.
 They are extremely family oriented complicated structure can be noticed.
Understanding this traditional values are necessary before dealing with the. Moreover,
posing a respectful attitude is important towards communities. Apart from, study
related sessions teachers can arrange infrastructure of showing them films and an
added after discussion. These sessions will give occasions of building relationship
with teachers.
 As described in Edmonds-Wathen, (2014), as aboriginal English is not same as the
actual English language, teachers, apart from building idea of their grammar and
approach. Active listening may help to address their pronunciation. Teachers’ role is
to make them practice native English language throughout the curriculum with the
purpose of improving abilities of public speaking confidently.
Conclusion
It can be concluded with the statement that general teaching philosophy may not work
while dealing with aboriginal students and Torres Strait Islanders. Although, there are
common procedures as well which are equally effective in both the cases. Considering the
disturbed past and sensitive issues related to this kind of culturally diverse students teachers
must have extensive knowledge of individual background and cultural orientation to deal

10TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
them efficiently. The process may take time yet without addressing these variables; a
classroom full of aboriginal students cannot be developed for future opportunities.

11TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
References
AITSL. (2014). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from
http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-forteachers/standards/list
Bradley, D., & Bradley, M. (2013). Language attitudes: The key factor in language
maintenance. In Language endangerment and language maintenance (pp. 21-30).
Routledge.
Cousik, R. (2015). Cultural and functional diversity in the elementary classroom: strategies
for teachers. Journal for Multicultural Education, 9(2), 54-67.
Dudgeon, W., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D., & Walker, I. (2014). Aboriginal social,
cultural and historical contexts. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 3-24).
Commonwealth Department of Health.
Edmonds-Wathen, C. (2014). Influences of indigenous language on spatial frames of
reference in Aboriginal English. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 26(2),
169-192.
Fryberg, S. A., Troop-Gordon, W., D'arrisso, A., Flores, H., Ponizovskiy, V., Ranney, J.
D., ... & Burack, J. A. (2013). Cultural mismatch and the education of Aboriginal
youths: The interplay of cultural identities and teacher ratings. Developmental
psychology, 49(1), 72.
Gay, G. (2013). Teaching to and through cultural diversity. Curriculum Inquiry, 43(1), 48-70.
Hardes, J. (2013). Retention of Aboriginal students in post-secondary education. Approaches
to Aboriginal education in Canada: Searching for solutions, 247-255.
Herring, S., Spangaro, J., Lauw, M., & McNamara, L. (2013). The intersection of trauma,
racism, and cultural competence in effective work with aboriginal people: Waiting for
trust. Australian Social Work, 66(1), 104-117.

12TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Hunt, J. (2013). Engaging with Indigenous Australia-exploring the conditions for effective
relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Kong, S. C. (2014). Developing information literacy and critical thinking skills through
domain knowledge learning in digital classrooms: An experience of practicing flipped
classroom strategy. Computers & Education, 78, 160-173.
Ma Rhea, Z., Anderson, P., & Atkinson, B. (2012). Improving teaching in Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander education: Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
Melbourne: Autralian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Retrieved from
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/defaultsource/default-document-library/improving-
teaching-in-aboriginal-andtorres-strait-islander-education-professional-development-
and-theaustralian-professional-standards-for-teachers-monashuniversity.pdf?
sfvrsn=55e7ec3c_0
Pianta, R. C. (2013). Classroom management and relationships between children and
teachers: Implications for research and practice. In Handbook of classroom
management (pp. 695-720). Routledge.
Price, K. (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction for the
teaching profession. Cambridge University Press.
Rule, B. (2013, January 27). The greatest of all - our top 50 Australians [News Article].
Perth Now: The Sunday Times. Retrieved 3 October, 2017 from
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/the-greatest-of-all-our-50-top-
australians/news-story/7f7a64b5cd9f4a765cb4fa5d3dbca0c9
Smith, D. E. (2018). Toward an Aboriginal household expenditure survey: conceptual,
methodological and cultural considerations. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal
Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), Research School of Social Sciences, College of
Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University.

13TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
Appendix
Heroes
Lesson objectives
Students will:
 pose questions about the past
 locate and identify historical
sources to answer these
questions
 analyse evidence and draw
conclusions about historical
sources
YEAR 7
Knowledge and Understanding
How values, including freedom, respect, inclusion, civility,
responsibility, compassion, equality and a ‘fair go’, can promote cohesion
within Australian society (ACHASSK197 )
How groups, such as religious and cultural groups, express their
particular identities; and how this influences their perceptions of others and
vice versa (ACHASSK198 )
Inquiry Skills
Construct significant questions and propositions to guide investigations
about people, events, developments, places, systems and challenges
(ACHASSI152)
Apply a methodology to locate and collect relevant information and
data from a range of primary sources and secondary sources (ACHASSI153)
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIONS

14TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
ORIENTATION:
Engaging the learner
SEQUENCE OF
EVENTS
Intended questions, points
of discussion, the scaffolding to be
developed
How will I focus learners’
attention on the task?
How will I motivate learners?
How will I access learners’
prior knowledge?
Lesson Introduction
Introduce the topic for today: Class discussion
 Have you heard of a hero?
 What does it mean to you?
 What can you tell me about heroes?
Explore different types of heroes
• Define hero.
• Read and discuss sample extracts from a range of heroes such as:
o War heroes
o Political activists
o Sporting champions
Introduce Inquiry Question and Discuss
 Why are these people considered heroes?
 What did they do?
 Do we have contemporary heroes?
ENHANCING:
Focused learning
SEQUENCE OF
EVENTS
Intended questions, points
of discussion, the scaffolding to be
developed, directed practice,
Whole class reading of text: The greatest of all – our 50 top
Australians
 Collaboratively work through individual synopses
 Categorise the individuals into one of the following categories:
1. Politics
2. Sports
3. Activist
4. Pop Culture
5. Health
Briefly revise/refresh students’ knowledge of historical and

15TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ABORIGINAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
independent practice
Effective and interesting
teaching strategies that move
students towards the outcomes
contemporary figures. Choose an individual from the text. Discuss HOW
individuals are considered to be heroes and compare and contrast to the
agreed class definition of ‘hero’.
SYNTHESISING:
Drawing together of the
pieces
SEQUENCE OF
EVENTS
Intended questions, points
of discussion, the scaffolding to be
developed, share results, review/
conclude
How are outcomes revisited
as a synthesis/summary by students
in a reflective way?
How do I let the learners
evaluate what they have learned?
Students will work individually to:
 Select an individual from the list that they consider to be a
hero.
 Conduct a web quest searching for further details to complete a
biographical profile
 Write a summarising paragraph drawing from primary and
secondary sources. Include the class definition for ‘hero’ and how
the individual you selected is a hero. Make your writing piece is
descriptive and expressive.